The idea of totally ending the government’s role in regulating the national economy is a wrong notion, government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said Saturday.
The idea of ‘the invisible hand’, a metaphor conceived by Scottish thinker Adam Smith to describe the self-regulating behavior of the marketplace, started to vanish since 1980s and a combination of market economy and state economy prevails, Nobakht said.
“Private sector has the right to gain moderate profit and we must steer clear of radical ideologies that could hurt the economy.”
Nobakht, who is also the vice president for strategic planning and supervision, was addressing the sixth meeting of the Chamber of Guilds in Tehran.
“The Chamber of Guilds, along with the Chambers of Commerce, can accelerate the process of economic recovery,” he said.
These chambers can also play a key role in economic decision-making.
“The government is truly willing to consult the private sector in making decisions,” he said, announcing the end of drafting of the Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2015-2019).
Nobakht said that the government does not at all intend to leave the economy alone.
“We can facilitate the participation of private sector in the economy by regulating the pricing mechanism. As a matter of fact, governments and private sectors play different roles in different economies, so we cannot prescribe a single formula for all.”
The Rouhani administration aims to maintain a balance between the government and the private sector, he said.
