The need for a professional and privately-owned English language newspaper in Iran was conspicuous by its absence. It became all the more apparent over the past year when the economic world and Iran decided to put the past behind and open a new page in mutually-beneficial relations.
Financial Tribune is the product of months of hard work and sharing of views with prominent economists and thinkers irrespective of their political schools. The focal point of our deliberations and meeting of minds was, is, and will be national interest and how to fix the economy that has seen more than its share of inflation and recession over the past decade.
In launching the Tribune we have made an informed and responsible choice with the help of a small but dedicated team. Aides, advisors and experts in the economic domain are regularly briefing our staff of young news writers, editors, translators…of what Iran needs and how to achieve the lofty goals set out by our statesmen.
By the same token, and with an elevated sense of duty, imagination and vision, this newspaper will focus on the legitimate needs and instruments needed by our private enterprise.
Creating, facilitating and promoting a business-friendly environment for Iranians and potential foreign companies are an integral part of our mandate. Likewise, we will seek to tell the outside world in simple terms that Iran too is a normal place to invest and do business premised on reciprocal respect.
Truth be said, since after the 1980-88 Imposed war that devastated our country we have not faced an economic dilemma as serious as the one we face now. Joblessness, stagflation, and a bloated bureaucracy have undermined the economy.
As if all this was not enough, the government that took office in the summer of last year wasted little time to publicly declare that it had inherited a litany of economic and international problems.
President Hassan Rouhani had no need to mix words when he told the nation that "development cannot and will not succeed in isolation." And it is on this basic universal principle that the president and his men have set out to get the job done and create the conditions for a normal working relationship with the comity of nations.
Financial Tribune subscribes to the value of objective reporting and strongly believes that it should do its fair, however small, in contributing to the economic future of our country by creating more friends and pushing adversaries and ill-wishers on the periphery.
