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The report has also put the MVA per capita of the country in 2022 at $825, while the figure was $712 in 2021.

According to the estimates of this international organization, the share of MVA in Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022 was 14.7 percent, while the share of industrial products in the country’s total exports this year was 47.7 percent and the share of industrial sector in the country’s employment was estimated at 17.4 percent.

Based on the UNIDO report, among the countries whose MVA growth is lower than Iran in 2022, Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, Qatar, Russia, and the U.S. can be mentioned.

According to this report, industrial activities that were greatly reduced in 2020 under the influence of the coronavirus outbreak had an admirable revival in 2021, and in 2022 we have witnessed the return of the growth trend of the industrial sector to the period before the pandemic.

In 2022, the added value of the world’s industrial sector grew by 2.3 percent, but could not reach the 3.1 percent growth rate of the world’s GDP this year. Industrialized economies saw relatively good industrial growth in 2022. The added value of industrial production in high-income economies grew by 2.9 percent this year, while the figure was six percent for industrializing economies.

Iran’s industry sector also registered a growth of 5.1 percent in the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21- June 21, 2023) while the country’s total economic growth in the said quarter was 3.4 percent.

The data released by the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) show that the growth rate of the industry sector in the second quarter of the year was also significantly positive.

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As reported, attended by the Industry Minister Reza Fatemi Amin and some of his deputies, the mentioned meeting was held to present and review reform programs for improving the goods distribution system and the domestic market in order to amend the policies related to this area.

The measures related to the reform of networks, channels, as well as policies and regulations in the field of domestic goods distribution, have been set in the form of 19 programs whose general purpose is to reduce transaction, production, and distribution costs, transparency in the pricing system and informing consumers about their rights, ranking and validation of distribution networks, specialized monitoring of the markets, branding development and expansion of contracting institutions (including consumer NGOs).

The mentioned programs have been prepared over a period of 18 months based on the studies conducted by the Institute for Trade Studies and Research, of which seven programs were approved in the Thursday meeting.

This meeting was held in line with the new strategies of the Industry Ministry and the reform programs defined by Fatemi Amin, in order to appropriately supply goods in the domestic market; in this regard, during the meeting project managers presented project charter including goals, execution schedule, problems, and possible solutions.

Fatemi Amin had previously emphasized the attention to market regulation, exports, and the removal of barriers to domestic production as some of the short-term plans of his ministry and among his main priorities.

The minister noted that 36 new improvement programs were defined to be implemented along with the mentioned priorities.

He also announced the holding of numerous meetings with officials and managers of the bodies related to the industry, mining, and trade fields and stated: “Considering the importance of the interaction between the two ministries of industry and agriculture in resolving issues related to market regulation, a meeting with the Agriculture Minister is on the agenda and I hope that with the strong cooperation of these two ministries, many issues in the field of market regulation will be resolved.”

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Emphasizing that one of the most important programs of the Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade is to activate the semi-active and stagnant units, Ali Rasoulian said that reviving 1,600 idle and semi-active industrial units in the industrial parks and zones is targeted for this year.

With the revival of each idle industrial unit, 26 job opportunities will be created, which is expected that more than 100,000 jobs will be created in the country this year through the return of industrial units to the production cycle, the official stated.

Last year, 1,557 stagnant and semi-active units returned to the production cycle in the industrial parks with a financing of 35 trillion rials (over $833 million), providing employment for 27,000 people, the ISIPO head further said.

With the aim of reactivating stagnant units or units that are operating below capacity, 900 consultants from the private sector and knowledge-based companies were selected in the form of industry clinics across the country to recognize the weaknesses of these units, Rasoulian has previously stated.

“Despite the two major challenges of sanctions and coronavirus pandemic, which imposed severe restrictions on the country, we tried to activate domestic capacities by turning to localizing the technology of manufacturing parts and equipment”, he added.

Sanctions have caused problems for financial exchanges and the export of goods to other countries, he said, adding, “The negative effects of coronavirus pandemic on various parts of the country, including industry, are not hidden from anyone, and the economic growth of some countries has reached below zero during this period.”

Iran is proud that despite these restrictions and pressure from these two important challenges, its industry has grown by more than seven percent, according to the statistics and reports from various sectors, the official further highlighted.

Also, as announced by Deputy Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Mehdi Sadeqi Niaraki, over 6,500 new industrial units were established across the country during the past year which created jobs for over 121,000 people.

Touching upon the Industry Ministry’s plans for the realization of the motto of the current year which is named the year of “Production: support and the elimination of obstacles” by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, the official has said: “In the year that has been dedicated to the production sector by the Leader of the revolution, the orientation of all government organizations and executive bodies should be towards supporting the country’s industrial and mining units.”

Niaraki pointed to a 40-percent increase in the issuance of establishment licenses for industrial units in the previous year, saying: “The number of establishment licenses increased to more than 36,000 last year, which shows that people are encouraged to invest in the productive sectors.”

He also mentioned an 85-percent rise in the allocation of land for establishing industrial units across the country and noted that over 4,500 hectares of land were handed over to applicants in the previous calendar year.

According to the official, there are over 46,000 small and medium-sized industrial units in Iran’s industrial parks and zones, of them about 9,200 units are inactive.

Iran’s industrial parks play a significant role in making the country independent through boosting production, which is a major strategy of Iran to combat the U.S. sanctions.

In fact, strengthening domestic production to achieve self-reliance is the most important program that Iran is following up in its industry sector in a bid to nullify the effects of the U.S. sanctions on its economy.

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Director-General of Iran’s Customs Administration, Mehdi Mirashrafi, said on Wednesday: “Last month, 22 million and 200,000 tons of export and import goods worth of 12 billion and 800 million dollars were exchanged between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other countries, which compared to that of the same period last year, in terms of weight and value, they grew by 6.6% and 38%, respectively.”

The director-general of Iran’s Customs Administration added: “Iran’s exports mainly included gasoline, polyethylene, methanol, iron and steel ingots as well as steel industries.”

Mirashrafi said: “This volume of exported goods shows a 17% increase in weight and 48% in value compared to that of the same period last year.”

Regarding the volume of goods transit, the director-general of Iran’s Customs Administration also said: “During this period, 1,841,000 tons of goods have been transited through the territory of Iran, which shows a 142% growth compared to that of the same period last Iranian year (starting on March 21, 2020).”

Meanwhile yesterday a member of board of directors of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce said that Iran’s exports to Iraq in the first two months of the current year have declined by 25% and he blamed the month of Ramadhan and Eid-ul Fitr holidays as well as devaluation of Iraqi currency for this decline.

Seyed Hamid Hosseini said most of Iranian exporters are worried about Iran’s national currency gains value against dollar and for this reason they slowed down the exports.

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Last year the indigenization of the knowledge for the production of $3.2 billion worth of such equipment in various provinces was on the agenda, however, more than $3.565 billion worth of such products were indigenized, Mohammad-Mehdi Hadavi told IRNA on Saturday.

The Industry Ministry had notified all provinces about their obligations for replacing imported goods with domestically made goods in the mentioned year, and the share of each province was specified, Hadavi explained.

The provinces of Tehran and Isfahan had the best performance in this regard, so that Tehran, with the indigenization of about $1.1 billion worth of equipment and goods, recorded a brilliant performance.

According to the official, the goal of the mentioned program was to indigenize the knowledge for the production of $10 billion worth of commodities by the end of the current Iranian calendar year 1400 (March 2022).

The official noted that the Industry, Mining, and Trade ministry has it on the agenda to indigenize $3.4 billion worth of equipment in the current Iranian calendar year and the shares of various provinces in this regard will be determined in near future.

Earlier this week, Iran’s Deputy Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Mehdi Sadeqi Niaraki announced that relying on domestic production has saved Iran $3.5 billion during the previous Iranian calendar year.

Since the re-imposition of the U.S. sanctions, the Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry was tasked to pursue a program for indigenizing the knowledge for the production of major industrial equipment.

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said in October 2019 that government officials should ban the import of goods that are also produced domestically.

Back in 2019, when the mentioned program was started, the Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister at the time Reza Rahmani had said that relying on domestic production was going to save $10 billion for the country in two years.

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The TCCIMA report claims that 2.4m tons of goods, excluding crude oil, worth $933m have been exported to the EAEU member states in 11 months this year which indicates a 17 percent and 4 percent decline compared to the same period in terms of weight and value.

As per the report, Iran’s imports from those countries in the mentioned period have been around 2.9m tons and valued at $1b (3 percent of the total value of the imported goods) and the figure shows one percent rise in terms of weight and 14 percent decline in terms of value.

By the way, Iran’s exports to Armenia and Russia have been more than other EAEU members in this period comparing t the preceding year and it has experienced a 15 and 21 percent rise, respectively.

Iran’s exports in terms of weight have increased to Belarus and Russia 21 and 15 percent while the country’s exports to other destinations like Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan have declined in terms of weight. By the way, except for Russia and Belarus, Iran’s exports to other EAEU member states have slumped in terms of value.

Russia has been the top exporter to Iran with exporting goods worth $956m and the figure also shows an 11 percent drop compared to the same period last year and it shows a 7 percent decline.

The TCCIMA report also claims that Iran’s trade balance with EAEU states in 11 months this year has been minus $84m and the figure shows $122m improvement.

EAEU’s trade volume with the world is around $850b annually and their exports are valued at $518b and in exchange, their imports are around $231b while Iran’s share of this market is $2.5b and its exports to those countries are around $1.6b.

Agro products especially grain are the major imports of Iran from EAEU states while agro-products especially fruits and dried fruits are its exports to those states.

Iran and EAEU signed an agreement in November 2020 while Iran’s free trade with those states is to start after 2022.

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In the meeting, Sadiqov and Shafei discussed different topics for improving economic relations between Iran and Uzbekistan. They also exchanged views on identification and resolving hurdles in way of trade and bilateral cooperation.

Sadiqov said Uzbekistan is interested in increasing trade with Iran in the next five years and expressed hope that the bilateral trade volume would touch $1b in the same period.

He also pointed to the considerable rise in investment of companies in Uzbekistan and explained the capacities for cooperation ahead of Iran and Uzbekistan. He then pointed to tourism, agriculture, mining, pharmaceutical, and technology as the important fields for bilateral cooperation and joint investment.

Sadiqov also said holding an international exhibition is one of the important tools for materializing the joint cooperation between Tehran and Tashkent, and also said establishing joint economic cooperation can be another option for strengthening bilateral cooperation.

He also pointed to the indexes for ease of doing business, emphasizing that these indexes have been improved in his country and Uzbekistan’s presence in the international communities is considered as an advantage that plays important role in developing its economic ties with countries like Iran.

Then Shafei, for his part, said that in the current condition Iranian economic activists are eager to develop their ties with their Uzbek counterparts, adding that agriculture, medicines, medical equipment, housing, vehicle, and transportation are the major fields for joint cooperation which should be noticed by economic activists of both countries.

He reiterated that establishing joint companies is the prerequisite to the development of joint cooperation between Iran and Uzbekistan in Eurasia. He also pointed to the establishment of the Joint Iran-Uzbekistan Economic Committee at the ICCIMA and highlighted the major performance of the committee since its launch and expressed hope the Joint Iran-Uzbekistan Joint Chamber of Commerce would be formed very soon.

Removing transportation problems, customs tariffs, issuing the technical and engineering services guarantee letters, and launching the arbitration panel were the other topics that were discussed between Shafei and Sadiqov, and Shafei called for operationalization of all of them through cooperation between Iran and Uzbekistan.

Sadiqov, leading an Uzbek delegation, arrived in Tehran on March 7, for talks with Iranian officials.

Presently, 272 companies are busy active in Uzbekistan with the investment of Iranians.

The value of trade exchanged between the two countries of Iran and Uzbekistan in the last eight months of 2020 hit $158 million.

It should be noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran recognized the independence of Uzbekistan on December 25, 1991, and political relations have been established between the two countries since May 10, 1992.

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In this webinar, the most important capacities ahead of both countries especially in the fields of mining, industry, agriculture, and technical and engineering services were reviewed.

Addressing the webinar, the head of international affairs of ICCIMA Mr. Mohammad Reza Karbasi explained the most important economic capacities of Iran and Indonesia, saying that Indonesia is one of the biggest and most populous Islamic countries which has one of the biggest economies in East Asia and most of the active population of this country is busy in the agriculture sector and in the small and medium-sized enterprises.

He emphasized the significance of Indonesia in the ASEAN region and called the country a gateway for the arrival of Iranian goods to the countries of the ASEAN region, and emphasized multilateral cooperation with this country due to its strategic position in the continent.

Karbasi noted that talks with Indonesian officials bespeak the fact that Indonesians are very keen Iran to import palm oil from Indonesia, adding that in this regards a mechanism for launching a barter trade is on the agenda.

He went on to say that rice, cocoa, palm oil, and coconut are major opportunities for cooperation between both states in the agro sector, noting that Indonesia can be a good market for Iran’s export of its dates.

Karbasi also said both countries have grown considerably in the industry sector, and they can take important actions in the mine discovery especially that both countries are eager to expand bilateral ties and the governments of both states are strongly determined to develop the ties.

On the low trade volume between Iran and Indonesia, he said in some period of time their trade volume has hit $2b and in 2007 and 2008 their trade volume grew considerably and their direct trade volume was around $916m while in that time a considerable amount of their goods were traded via the Persian Gulf countries.

He then pointed to the bilateral agreements between both states, saying that both countries were to sign preferential agreements to ease their trade but until now nothing has happened, reiterating that signing and implementing the preferential agreements is important for developing trade ties.

Karbasi also stated that once there was a direct shipping line between the two countries which reduced considerably the cost of trade but currently this line is limited and economic activists are obliged to use the ports of other countries, and for this reason, the cost of trade has increased highly.

He also called for the launch of direct flights between Tehran and Jakarta as well as diversifying the exporting goods to Indonesia and claimed other solutions for improving the bilateral trade.

Then the head of Iran-Indonesia Joint Commercial Committee Mr. Yadollah Tahernejad, for his part, explained the opportunities for entering Indonesia’s market in different fields.

He pointed to some fields that the private sector of Iran can have an active presence in Indonesia.

In the webinar, the participants also reiterated that holding virtual exhibitions in the current condition can be a good solution for making the private sector of Indonesia with Iran’s capabilities in the technical and engineering sector.

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Addressing the webinar, Head of the Iran-Oman Joint Chamber of Commerce Mohsen Zarrabi said that Iran and Oman can enhance their trade relation by focusing on cooperation in fishery, mining, and tourism sectors regarding the Oman Five-Year Development Plan.

He added that he believes the ground for growth in the bilateral relation and investment of Iranians in Oman is ready.

He added that fishery, mining, and tourism are the sectors that both countries can engage in cooperation.

Zarrabi then elaborated the details and trade and investment capacities in Oman and said due to economic security and stability in Oman, and its favorable political relation with Iran and other countries has turned this Arab country into a strategic partner for Iran.

He also called for developing the infrastructures for the connection of these two countries which has started in 20015 based on the plans of the joint chamber.

Zarrabi noted that Oman has eased the visa process for Iranians as Iranian nationals do not need visas for staying less than 14 days and for a longer stay, they can get visas upon their arrival at airports.

He also said Oman has allocated to ports of Suwayq and Sultan Qaboos for Iranian ships and goods and Iranians can register their companies in the free zones and even in the mainland as shareholders.

He expressed hope with the new facilities provided by Oman, Iran’s share of this country’s total imports would increase up to 10 percent.

Zarrabi also said that several unnecessary directives and regulations have hindered Iranians from having a strong presence in the target markets, adding that these overnight regulations have harmed the reputation of Iranian tradesmen.

Meanwhile Head of International Affairs of ICCIMA Mr. Mohammad Reza Karbasi, for his part, said that Oman is one of Iran’s major trade partners and the trade volume of these two countries has not been affected under the sanctions or the COVID-19 pandemic and it has even enhanced. He added that fortunately, the approaches of both governments regarding boosting cooperation have always been positive.

He then pointed to four properties of Oman for Iran. Karbasi also pointed to the direct flights between Iran and Oman, saying that fortunately, there are several direct flights from different cities of Iran like from Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Bandar Abbas, Chabahar, and Kish to Oman, and this has helped the level of ties between the two countries to increase considerably.

He also said easing the visa issuance for Iranians has been another positive development in the relation of both countries which will have an effective role in enhancing the trade relations between Tehran and Muscat.

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