THERAN – First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri has said economy is the first priority of the country, stressing the importance of resistance economy to achieve goals. 

Jahangiri made the remarks on Saturday in a gathering of Iranian ambassadors and representatives to foreign countries, Tasnim reported.  

“For all state-run bodies, a short-term, prioritized plan has been worked out in line with principles of resistance economy,” Jahangiri said. 

However, Jahangiri stated, the government has not enough resources to achieve depicted goals, making it quite necessary to attract foreign investment. 

“The budget crunch means the government will not be able to play a big role in greasing the wheels of economy,” the vice president remarked, referring to this year’s budget.

 
Accordingly, a priority of the government is to attract as much as $17 billion in the current Iranian calendar year (which started on March 21), $7 billion in the form of direct investment and $10 billion financing, Jahangiri added. 

“Without foreign resources, we will not be able to achieve economic growth at the pace we wish.” 

Iranian officials hope to rebuild the economy through attracting foreign investment to the country now that it is emerging from years of international sanctions. 

It is likely that Tehran succeeds in actualizing its economic agenda considering that the country’s oil output reached 3.56 million barrels a day in April, the highest since November 2011, and exports soared to 2 million barrels a day, just shy of the level before the trade restrictions.

Besides, there has been a surge of foreign investors to the country in pursuit of winning trade opportunities over the past few months. 

In one recent case, the country agreed to triple its trade with South Korea from the current $6 billion.

AK/PA