World Business and Economic Analysis
World Business and Economic Analysis
Iranian car makers manufactured 691,581 vehicles in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-October 21), showing 26.2 percent rise compared to the same period of time in the preceding year, ILNA reported quoting Sasan Qorbani, the spokesman of Iran’s Auto Policy-Making Council, as saying.
Iran is scheduled to manufacture 1.35 million of cars by the end of the current calendar year (March 20, 2017), Deputy Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade Mohsen Salehinia announced in early April.
As Salehinia underlined, the government seeks to improve the quality as well as the quantity of the domestically produced cars on the way to boost their exports.
Iran accounts for $2.1 billion of the Middle East’s $7.2 billion beauty products market–second in the region after Saudi Arabia, according to the Iranian Association of Cosmetics, Toiletries and Perfumery Importers.
Around 70% of cosmetics imports to Iran are smuggled and nearly 15 million people are consumers of beauty products in the country,
The Central Bank of Iran put Iranian households’ annual average income at 270 million rials ($7,460 at market exchange rates) for the last fiscal year (March 2015-16). The CBI report also shows only 2% of the households’ annual expenditure went to recreation and culture, that is, 1.35 million rials ($37.3) for each person, compared to 4.2 million rials ($116) they spend on cosmetics.
In other words, Iranians spend three times more on cosmetics than they do for recreational and cultural activities.
According to the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, about 2,000 tons of cosmetic products worth more than $21.6 million were imported to Iran in the first three months of the current Iranian year (started March 20). The figures show the amount of legally imported products only.
The imports were mostly from the UAE, France, India, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, South Korea, China, the UK and Indonesia.
Iran Ship Building and Offshore Industries Complex Co. (ISOICO) and Dutch shipbuilders have signed agreement to cooperate in sharing engineering and technology services.
Mrs. Melanie Schultz van Haegen-Maas Geesteranus, Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment visited Bandar Abbas and her entourage of directors of shipbuilding companies, indeed a prominent industry in The Netherlands, discussed possibilities of cooperation with Iranian related industries, mainly ISOICO, on Wednesday evening.
ISOICO Director Hamid Rezaian, who was in the meeting, told reporters that his fellow company and Dutch IHC would work jointly in exchange and sharing of engineering and technology services and manufacture and procurement of spare parts; “DAMEN and IHC directors also visiting Bandar Abbas along the minister; they are among the largest shipbuilding and repair and maintenance of ships worldwide; a total of 2,000 vessels are their products,” he told the press.
Rezaian added that after implementation of nuclear deal with world powers, JCPOA, there had been a surge in the number of European and Asian companies seeking cooperation and participation in Iran’s projects, especially shipbuilding.
“We welcome Dutch companies’ capabilities in shipbuilding, building dredgers and tugs, and the technical know-how of the industry; Iran’s industry has ample opportunities for Dutch companies to work, especially in technology transfer and investments in the industry,” he added.
Dutch entourage arrived in Bandar Abbas on Tuesday and had notable personalities including representatives of BAM, an international contractor company, IHC Offshore Technology Institute, Royal Boskalis Westminster NV, STC Group (Shipping and Transport College Group), Van Oord, a dredging and land reclamation company, and Witteveen+Bos engineering and consultancy group.
