Investing in Iran? You'd Better Like Tea, Cake and Bureaucracy
- The state controls as much as 70 percent of the economy
- Western investment needed as falling oil prices sap growth
Isolated from the global economy for the past decade and with a population of 80 million, Iran is a fertile ground for business. But international investors will have to cope with obstacles including government control of as much as 70 percent of the economy.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/BloombergWhen Mahdi Yazdizadeh’s company tries to import new products, employees sometimes find themselves running from one Tehran office to the next, having to answer a stream of questions to get the needed approvals.
“The customs department doesn’t have advance guidelines so they just pass you from person X to person Y because they haven’t dealt with such things before,” said Yazdizadeh, director of corporate business development at Shekofa Manesh Co., a leading group in retail, such as garments, and franchisee in Iran. “You have to almost educate them.”