Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi, who is in Kabul for top-level consultations, said the Iran-Afghanistan strategic plan will be finalized soon.
Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi, who is in Kabul for top-level consultations, said the Iran-Afghanistan strategic plan will be finalized soon.
Health Minister Saeed Namaki announced late Saturday that the third wave of Covid-19 infections in Iran has been brought under control with only 23 cities remaining on red alert.
The Rouhani administration’s decision to exempt households that use electricity within a certain limit from paying their bills is a politically-motivated gesture. It cannot help solve the power sector’s problems nor improve the quality of life of underprivileged, head of the Majlis Energy Commission said.
“It is no surprise that most households eligible for free electricity and who have already been identified by the Energy Ministry live in poor neighborhoods [apparently] supported by charity organizations,” Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani was quoted by Barq News website as saying.
Electricity bills of poor families usually do not exceed 30 cents a month and not charging them this amount will make no difference in their welfare, Abbasi-Davani said.
“Trumpeting a plan that 30 million subscribers will get free electricity will not address economic problems challenges as it is more a political gesture than a well-thought-out action plan.”
Launch of six petrochemical projects since the beginning of the current Persian fiscal year (March) has increased annual production capacity by 10 million tons -- from 66 million tons last year to 76 million tons -- and other programs will add another 35%.
According to a report by the Oil Ministry news agency Shana, 17 petrochemical projects worth $ 11.5 billion were planned for the current year (March 2020-21), to increase production by 25 million tons. Of the total 17 projects, 11 are in different stages of construction and are expected to become operational by the end of the year (March 2021); however, it is likely that some of them go on stream early next year.
The projects are in line with government policy to stop exporting raw material, complete the value chain in the downstream industries, manufacture value-added goods, create jobs, boost non-oil exports and forex earnings and develop the economy.
Over $4 billion has been invested in six projects that came online this year and should annually generate at least $1.4 billion.
Global demand for road fuels hit a two-month high last week, recovering from the slowdown in October and November when many countries in Europe imposed lockdowns for a second time this year, according to various data about road use, traffic jams, and road freight services tracked by Bloomberg.
The economically active population, including employed and unemployed people, reduced by 1.62 million in the second quarter of the current fiscal year (June 21-Sept. 21), indicating a 3.1% decline in labor force participation rate compared with the corresponding period of last year.
According to a report by Majlis Research Center, the research arm of the Iranian Parliament, 22.3% of the unemployed and 8.9% of employed persons were added to the population of economically inactive in Q2. Had they joined the population of people looking for job, the unemployment rate of the period under review would have been 18.5% rather than the official 9.5% announced by the Statistical Center of Iran.
The MRC report noted that of the more than 1.62 million people in the active population that dropped out of the labor market in Q2, 1.01 million were women and 615,651 were men. The second quarter’s economic participation rate fell by 3.1% year-on-year to reach 41.8%.
The Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade's review of the first seven months of the current Iranian year (March 20-Oct. 21) shows that 17 products (out of 29 under review) saw growth during the period compared with the similar period of the year before.
A total of 2,600 tons of acrylic fiber were produced during the period, indicating a 243.7% rise compared with last year’s corresponding period.
Television production stood at 732,800 sets to register a year-on-year increase of 70.8%.
Production of washing machines rose by 55.8% to reach 559,900 machines.
A total of 347,000 combine harvesters were produced during the period under review, indicating a 42.8% YOY increase.
The Ministry of Roads and Urban Development dismisses the advertisement of package tours to Turkey offering Covid-19 vaccination as false and deceptive, the deputy minister of roads and urban development said.
The nationals of 103 countries will be exempt from requiring entry visas into Oman for a period of 10 days, according to an announcement reported by the sultanate’s state-run news agency.
Iran Insurers’ Syndicate has called on the government to release details about how third-party auto insurance tax revenue is spent. The syndicate has strongly opposed imposing higher taxes on insurance companies.
“We want to know in detail how insurance companies’ payments are being used. Moreover, the industry cannot live with higher taxes as proposed in the Integrated Fire Management and Control Bill,” Mohammad Karimi, the general director of the syndicate, told the National Conference on Insurance and Development on Sunday.
The bill proposes levying 10% tax on insurers’ income from third-party auto insurance policies to be used for setting up an integrated fire management system.
After a relatively good session earlier, Tehran stocks stumbled on Sunday and jumped back into negative territory. The main index of Tehran Stock Exchange, TEDPIX, lost 11,694.17 points, or 0.77%, to end trading at 1,515,757.
Sell side pressure in shares of giant metal, auto and mineral companies pulled down the TSE benchmark. Refinery stocks were the top gainers.
The equal-weighted index also dropped by 0.20% amid sell-off in a broad range of small cap stocks. The index gives the same weight to all stocks irrespective of their market cap.
Plans are underway to launch standard salaf contracts for low-cost housing projects, head of the Ministry of Road's Housing Economy Department said.
"Salaf contracts have been prepared by the Iran Mercantile Exchange and will be offered soon," Parvaneh Aslani told state TV on Saturday.
Standard parallel salaf is an Islamic contract similar to futures, with the difference being that the contract’s total price is paid in advance.
The Securities and Exchange Organization, the stock market regulator, announced new caps for investment funds operating in the stock market.
The average price of each square meter of a residential property in Iran stood at 152 million rials ($584) in the month ending Nov. 20, says Mahmoud Mahmoudzadeh, the head of Housing Department of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.
“In summer, the department decided to stop publishing statistics regarding Tehran’s real-estate market because it believes having the average home price in Tehran as a reference would affect prices in other provinces whereas prices in the cities of a province should be compared to the capital city of that province [and not Tehran],” he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
“At present, statistics on home deals of all provincial capital cities have been prepared and the average price of each square meter of a residential property in 25 provincial capital cities is below 100 million rials [$384]. The median home price of nine provincial capital cities is less than 50 million rials [$192]) and only in Tehran and Ahvaz, the average price of each square meter of home exceeds 200 million rials [$769]. Tehran home prices stood at 278 million rials [$1,069] and Ahvaz at 235 million rials [$903] per square meter during the month ending Nov. 20.”
Richard Branson’s space tourism company Virgin Galactic had to abort its first powered test flight of its spaceplane from the company’s home in New Mexico, bringing the vehicle home before it could reach space.
The Education Ministry is set to connect all Iranian urban and rural schools to the National Information Network within a year with 150 billion rials ($577,000) earmarked for the project in the 2021-22 budget bill.
According to the ministry, the government has set a deadline of March 2022 to fully implement the project, but if the deadline falls short of funds, it should be financed through other resources, Peivast.com reported.
The National Information Network is a local network described by Iranian authorities as an alternative, independent network with content compatible with Islamic values to facilitate Iranian users’ access to indigenous content and curb educational disparity.
The project for connecting all schools to the internet through NIN was launched in 2012 and so far, more than 1 trillion rials ($3.84 million) have been invested in it.
The current year’s budget for the project amounted to 100 billion rials ($384,600), although the next year’s defined resources have increased by 50%. This might be the last time the government allocates a part of the budget resources to the project.
A couple of months ago, Information and Communications Technologies Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi told reporters that with the connection of 44,000 schools in less-developed rural areas to the educational network, the number of schools with internet access surpassed 86,000.
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