Export of Technical & Engineering Services OurHope & Aspirations   The third five-year development plan has forecasted an average annual growth of 6% for export of services. The amount of such exports, over the period of the plan, is expected to increase from $ 1,186 million (in the year 2000) to $ 1,508 million (by the end of the year 2004). In general, the foreign exchange earnings of the country from export of services is forecasted to be $ 6.7 billion and from export of goods about $ 34.8 billion. The proportion of these two figures is an indication of the importance attached to the export of technical & engineering services from the viewpoint of diversification of the sources of foreign exchange earnings of the country.     Presently, developing countries are utilizing all their resources to increase the exports of services, especially by developing their tourist industry. Countries such as China, India, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Malta, Philippines, Morocco, Madagascar, Tunisia, Egypt, Mexico and have succeeded in achieving exemplary success in this field. In addition to tourism, they have also made rapid strides in the exports of other services such as transport, communication, consultant services, insurance, banking, advertising, contracting and technical-engineering services. It should be noted that contrary to exports of goods, the growth of which is restricted by tariff regulations, on many occasions, the export of services is faced with difficulties that have been created by bureaucratic and cumbersome rules and regulations for domestic and foreign contracting activities.   Additionally, absence of global communication and lack of understanding of global scientific and technological changes have jeopardized the progress of developing countries towards reaching puberty in export of technical and engineering services. In Iran, in the year 1994, serious attention was paid to the export of engineering and technical services and the government was obligated to “create necessary facilities for presence of Iranian companies and institutions in the world markets and export of their technical and engineering service, supervise the export of these services and prepare the executive regulations in this respect within a period of 4 months.” For achieving this end, a council called “ High Council for the Coordination of Technical/Engineering Services Export” was set up under the supervision of the President. This council has three obligations-coordination, policy making and removal of barriers in export procedures.   With the initiation of the committee referred to in Article 18 of the regulations and the presence of representatives from the Ministries, executive and economic organizations, industrial and specialized establishments, the following issues regarding problems faced by companies and institutions exporting services were ascertained and approved: -Grading and assessing the competency of service exporting companies and institutions; -Ascertaining the type and quantity of materials and equipment required for their activity; -Fixing the returnable foreign exchange in each contract; -Determination of the type and quantity of materials and equipment required at their bases and representative branches abroad; -Fixing the maximum amount of bank guarantee that can be issued for each institution and company.