Iran’s delayed gold rush disillusions voters

TEHRAN: The investment gold rush that was supposed to follow Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and revitalise the economy has not materialised, leaving many voters disillusioned ahead of Friday’s election.

The figures say it all - President Hassan Rouhani wanted US$ 50 billion a year in foreign investment to reach his target of eightper cent growth.

But since the nuclear deal came into force in January 2016, lifting some sanctions in exchange for curbs to Iran’s atomic programme, only US$ 1 billion to US$ 2 billion worth of deals have actually been finalised, his deputy Eshaq Jahangiri admitted to AFP this week.

Unofficial polls still show Rouhani in the lead for Friday’s election, but faced with a 12.5-per cent unemployment rate it is no wonder that many have lost faith in his administration.

The problem is even worse for young people, with more than a quarter of 18- to 25-year- olds out of work, and many of the rest taking jobs far below their education level.

“I studied five years at one of Iran’s top architecture universities but what I’m doing now could be done by someone who learnt the software on a two-month course,” said 24-year- old designer Parnian Dalili, who nonetheless felt lucky to have landed a job at all.

All this has been a boon for Rouhani’s conservative opponents, who say the government has failed to cash in on the nuclear deal and ignored the plight of the poor.

“A tree that has not born any fruit in four years will not yield anything positive in the future,” said Tehran mayor and presidential candidate Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in the final debate on Friday.

For all its troubles, Iran with its diverse economy and large, cosmopolitan middle class is still a great untapped opportunity among emerging markets, and hardly a week goes by without another huge business delegation coming from Europe or Asia.

Big names such as Siemens, Renault and Nestle are on the ground and hungry to expand.

But everyone is wary of US President Donald Trump, who has threatened to tear up the nuclear accord. The US has also maintained a raft of sanctions that continue to scare off global banks which companies need to finance their deals.

“In the absence of large banking firms, the deals can’t happen,” said Farid Dehdilani, of the Iranian Privatisation Organisation.

He recently returned from a roadshow in London, where he found a lot of interest from investors in coming to Iran.

“But everyone is waiting for someone just a little bit bigger to make the first move,” he said. – AFP