Prioritization of Iran's Target Markets for Engineering and Technical Services Exports

The growth in global trade especially in servicing sector has caused increasing attention to service exports in countries. In 2008، the volume of engineering and technical exports was over 391 billion dollars over the world while Iran has exported over 2. 1 billion. This fact calls for a national exporting strategy to identify، create، and preserve exporting target markets. Therefore، it is important to recognize the exporting target markets for engineering and technical services and the necessity to reinforce the capabilities of domestic companies in order to join international markets. The purpose of this paper is to study the target markets of engineering and technical services over the period 2008-2010. The findings through screening revealed that Ireland، USA، India، China and Germany were top five importing countries for Iran’s engineering and technical services. Using numerical taxonomy and market attraction index، Singapore، Kirgizstan، India، Australia and Sweden were best markets for the export of engineering and technical services. Among countries to which Iran exports engineering and technical services، Kazakhstan، Syria، India، Lebanon and Afghanistan are respectively the five best countries as target markets.