Plans are underway to triple non-oil exports in as many years, says Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade Mohammadreza Nematzadeh adding that Iran’s potential in exports is way more than the current $50 billion a year.
“The breakthrough achieved by Iran’s diplomacy in the nuclear negotiations with the permanent members of the United Nation Security Council—the US, Britain, France, Russia, China—plus Germany is no mean feat,” ISNA quoted him as saying.
“Nuclear deal is not a panacea for all our problems, but it must definitely lead to economic, industrial and investment expansion. It may even be harmful if we increase the volume of our excessive imports, in which case we will lose our own domestic market,” he continued.
One of the conditions upon which Iran initiated talks with world powers was joint investment in the production sector, Nematzadeh noted, adding that contracts with foreign investors should stipulate that a part of Iranian products must be exported to other countries and international markets.
“The nuclear deal is an opportunity for us to make up for the years we missed. We need to import knowledge and technology, if not we won’t be able to make major strides toward economic advancement,” he said.
He also underlined the importance of competitiveness, quality goods and said besides joint investments with foreign partners, the government will fully support the private sector in order to meet the needs of the domestic market with domestic products.
The veteran minister went on to say that production of quality goods and increasing exports will put the country back on the road to recovery in the shortest possible time.
He also blamed lack of capital and 30% rate of banking loans as the main problems of the country in production and industry sectors and called for an overhaul in favor of production in the banking structure.
