10 May 2007 - 22:25
  • News ID: 104286
Ahmadinejad: $34bn Invested in Oil Industry in 18 Months

TEHRAN – Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that oil and petrochemical contracts signed in the past 1.5 years were valued at 34 billion dollars – an unprecedented figure.

 

The president, who made the statement in a meeting with Basij commanders, added, “During the 10 years before the ninth government took office, totally 200 thousand residential units had been built in villages while 200 thousand residential units were built in rural areas just within the past year.

 

“The government faced 3.5 million jobless people from the very beginning, but it managed to create 1.95 million job opportunities in 2005 and 2006.”

Ahmadinejad also referred to the construction of 10 thousand kilometers of rural routes during the previous year, saying the figure equaled to that in all years before.

“The inflation rate before the ninth government stood at 15.4 percent,” said the president, adding the figure slumped to 12.1 percent in 2005 and rose to 13.6 percent in 2006 as the budget’s dependency on oil was reduced and the development budget increased.

He said the economic growth was 4.6 percent in 2004, adding the figure increased to 5.6 percent in the second half of the Iranian calendar year 1384 (Sept. 23, 2005 to March 20, 2006).

“When the government came to power, imports amounted to 35.6 billion dollars and non-oil exports were valued at 7.3 billion dollars while the imports reached 39 billion dollars and non-oil exports touched 10.5 billion dollars in 2005 and the two figures soared to 40.1 and 16.3 billion dollars in 2006 respectively.

He dismissed some released statistical figures for economic and oil-related sectors as unreal.

NPC, NIDC INVESTMENTS

The managing director of National Petrochemical Company (NPC) said Iran would make a 12.3 billion dollar investment in the sector in the Fifth Five-Year Socioeconomic Development Plan (2010-2015).

Gholam-Hossein Nejabat said his company would invest the huge sum in 27 petrochemical projects during the Fifth Plan, out of which 9.2 billion dollars would be funded by hard currencies.

“The investment helps the sector increase the petrochemical out by 33.7 million tons during the plan,” predicted the official.

The managing director of National Iranian Drilling Co. (NIDC) said his company’s contracts on offshore and onshore operations in the past Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2006 to March 20, 2007) were valued at 1.11 billion euros.

Heidar Bahmani made the statement in a news session and added the NIDC had managed to enter into contracts in intense international competitions.

“Foreign giants including Spain’s Repsol and domestic companies are also the signatories of the contracts,” said the NIDC chief.

 

News ID 104286

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