The inauguration of First Construction Industry Development Exhibition (CIDEX 2018) on May 1 coincided with the launch of the first phase of Iran Mall, an all-Iranian monumental project slated to be the biggest commercial and cultural complex in the Middle East.
The four-day exhibition, which ended on Friday, was organized on the sidelines of the Iran Mall event by the Iran Chamber of Cooperatives. Organizers announced the participation of 130 local companies.
The event was held to support producers and consumers, in addition to boosting jobs. The best performers of the housing and buildings industry were honored at the end of the expo.
Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi attended the inauguration and referred to Iran Mall, which boasts a variety of commercial, cultural, sports, religious and entertainment facilities, as a national project.
He also pointed to the exhibition as a suitable opportunity to forge a constructive dialogue between local manufacturers and showcase their achievements.
"The Health Ministry will do its best to prepare the ground in this industry through meticulous planning," Hashemi promised.
Akbar Torkan, an advisor to President Hassan Rouhani on renovating distressed and unsustainable urban areas, was the other high-profile attendee of the event, and referred to Iran Mall as a project that goes beyond a place designed to only sell goods.
“Perhaps over 70% of the places designed here are cultural spaces that are symbols of Iranian and Islamic architecture and art,” he said. “Cultural thinking dominates commercial thinking here.”
Torkan pointed to the immense impact of the monumental project at the beginning of the Iranian year (started March 21) dubbed “Support for Iranian Products”.
“Iran Mall is a center for developing exports, which means that it will act as a platform to offer and promote the capabilities of Iranian companies and give us the opportunity of competing on the international scale,” Torkan said.
Ramin Samizade, the director of the buildings exhibition, said the event was held with the aim of becoming an example to hold similar events that would help Iranian products compete with foreign counterparts in terms of quality and affordability.
Located in Tehran’s District 22, Iran Mall is envisioned to encompass an area of 2 million square meters and have 200 restaurants, several hypermarkets, five star-plus hotels, 40 cinemas, a book garden and bookstores, a grand old-school Iranian market, facilities for 15 sports, a grand mosque and praying spaces, and many other amenities.
