Iran's parliament passed a five-year economic development plan on Sunday (Sixth 5-Year Development Plan, 2017-2022) that includes a sharp rise in foreign investment, though Tehran may not achieve that while U.S. president-elect Donald Trump is in office.
The plan lets the government arrange up to an average of $30 billion of foreign financing each year, in addition to $15 billion of annual direct foreign investment in Iran, and up to $20 billion of foreign investment conducted with local partners.
Such volumes of foreign investment would mark a big increase from levels seen in the past few decades. Since 2000, net inflows of foreign direct investment rarely exceeded $4 billion, according to the World Bank - a small amount by the standards of major emerging markets.
Investment has been deterred by red tape and restrictive regulation, and more recently by international sanctions. Many though not all of those sanctions were lifted last January after Tehran signed a deal with world powers limiting its nuclear program.