With the completion of several major industrial projects, which are to be implemented till the end of this year (March 2015), around 97,000 job opportunities will be created that is a sizeable number, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday night.
Rouhani said that efforts have to be made to support and encourage production at private industrial enterprises, adding, “The private sector needs to be able to move the country forward, and, to this end, it must be able to invest in industrial projects.”
Pointing to the new data regarding the share of private sector in Iran’s exports, he said, “The industry sector’s share in exports in the first half of the current year was considerable, and we hope the same trend will continue during the second half.”
Rouhani also said that the business environment is now in a better condition than before, adding, “The statistics released by international bodies and organizations show that the business environment is improving, which will ultimately benefit other sectors such as industry and agriculture.”
Upon his election last year, Rouhani promised to open Iran’s businesses and economy to foreign investment in a bid to drive economic growth and counter the runaway inflation.
In the past four years, the national economy has been hit by several rounds of Western sanctions, especially those affecting the banking system and the oil industry.
Pointing to Iran’s strategic and geopolitical capabilities, Rouhani said, “It is only through scientific-based industries that we can compete with our international counterparts.” He said that Iran is on the way of becoming an industrialized country.
Rouhani then called on the banks and the private sector to play a more active role in making best use of what he called Iran’s “untapped resources.”
Article 44 of the Constitution stipulates that the national economy falls into three categories of public, cooperative and private sectors. According to the article, the private sector is complementary to the two other sectors. However, compared to the state-owned firms, the private sector, which shares only 20 percent of the national economy, is considered by many experts as not strong enough to take its real part in the economy.
In general, some 80 percent of Iran’s economy is under the control of state-owned and semi-state-owned companies. Some state-owned companies have been transferred to semi-state-owned enterprises in the past few years, in contradiction to the Article 44 of the Constitution, which explains the legal process of privatization.
