The business atmosphere in Iran has depreciated over the years mainly due to policy instability and inflation, but the new government sets to change that for now it seems only hope is helping the economy.
The government of President Hassan Rouhani came to power on the platform of prudence and hope and till now only hope has helped in making the business atmosphere more stable. But what makes doing business in Iran difficult. According to a report by the world economic forum, the most problematic factors for doing business till 2013 were Policy instability, Foreign currency regulations, Access to financing, Inflation and Inefficient government bureaucracy. Another world bank report ranked doing business in Iran around the bottom 25% since 2005. The new government has set priorities to improve this.

Iran’s First VP, Eshaq Jahangiri said “Considering the current economic situation, the government has set several priorities for its first several months in power. The First being --- brining back stability to economy, because no business activity will happen when there is no confidence in the economy and it’s unpredictable. The value of the currency and inflation should be known by businesses.”

Iran’s chamber of commerce is also working to improve this structure in Iran together with the parliament.

“A workgroup has been created by parliamentarians to observe the economic trend in the country and to help the government in improving the business atmosphere, removing obstacles and a closer cooperation between the economic team of the government and parliament so decisions are made at a faster pace,” Gholam Hossein Shafeie, head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce said.

While the government and parliament is preparing to create a more profitable business structure, hope itself for now has made doing business profitable and more investments in Iran’s different sector are being made. Talking to the editor of the Asia economic paper he said just the turn of events has already made markets improve.

“I can feel foreign investments already flowing towards Iran, as if I can touch the money already, there’s a huge amount of interest in Iran’s market now, countries like South Korea in Japan want to increase their share and major countries like France, Germany and Britain want to return and soon we will see the US in Iran too if both sides cooperate,” Iraj Jamshidi, the editor in chief of the business daily Asia told me.

For now it seems Iran’s economy is improving from the new hope the Rouhani administration has brought to Iran, for how long the economy will last on hope and whether tangible actions by the government maintain the positive mood in the economy remains to be seen.

By Press TV

 

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