TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s first private port facilities on Caspian Sea shores is to open after nearly 15 years of planning and construction, said Allahyar Asadi, who heads Ports and Maritime Organization of Golestan Province.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri said the government needs private sector for progress and development in the country.

He made he remarks in a meeting with the heads of the country’s Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture in Tehran on Saturday, for discussing the private sector’s contribution in the economy, the news portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) reported.

Jahangiri further noted that the government fully supports the private sector, saying “the government should place even more importance on the country’s private sector’s role which is the major driving force behind the economy.”

“Meeting with the representatives of the private activists of economy, who are the pioneers of the country’s industry and trade, is a great opportunity for the government to get a better view of the economy and make better planning accordingly,” he said.

He stressed the need for the government and the private sector to reach a common understanding of the country’s current economic condition, adding that finding solutions for the problems requires sharing similar views and perspectives on the country’s economic situation.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Jahangiri emphasized that the government needs the country’s private sector to advance its plans, stating: “currently, over two million job opportunities are created by the private companies, so a significant share of the country’s employment is owned by the private companies.”

Jahangiri said that the upward trend of the country’s economy and the improvement in non-oil exports and employment indexes are in fact due to the positive performance of the private sector.

“The increase in non-oil exports is a positive move that is due to the efforts of the private companies”, he said.

During the first quarter of this year (March 21-June 20), 6,000 new jobs were created by the private sector compared to the same period in the previous year, the official said.

He finally noted that the country’s banking system has pledged to allocate 9 quadrillion rials (about $214 billion) worth of facilities to the private sector by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 19, 2020).

During the meeting, the heads of the provincial chambers of commerce also brought up various issues including the need for using the capacity and experiences of the private sector in government’s economic decision-making, the need for government’s serious support for the sector, reforming the country’s banking system, amending the tax system, delegating authority to the provinces to resolve their regional problems and creation of a joint cross-border economic task force between the state-run sector and the private one as well as creation or improvement of the necessary infrastructures for imports and exports.

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In the meeting, Hemmati stated that CBI is planning to control the foreign exchange market in order to maintain market equilibrium in the country.

He further expressed hope that the continuation of the relative calmness in the markets would lead to a boom in domestic production.

“Fortunately, the foreign exchange market is stable, and the reinjection of exports revenues into NIMA are getting better which is a sign that the country’s businessmen and traders are welcoming CBI’s recent foreign exchange policies,” he said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Hemmati underlined some of CBI plans for directing liquidity to small and medium-sized enterprises, adding that the central bank is actively pursuing support for small and medium-sized manufacturing units.

“In this regard, and in order to prevent recession, new programs are being developed in collaboration with the country’s monetary experts and will be implemented in the form of a productive financing plan,” he noted.

Like the other economic bodies of the country, CBI has defined supporting production as its major plan in the current Iranian calendar year, which is named the Year of Pickup in Production, and in this regard Hemmati has several times stressed that supporting production units to flourish production is the priority of the country’s banking system in current year.

In early May, the official outlined CBI plans for neutralizing or relieving the impact of U.S. sanctions on the country’s economy and mentioned providing liquidity and working capital to maintain and boost domestic production as one of those plans.

To find the best ways for supporting production, CBI is regularly holding meetings with the representatives of private sector and also with the economists.

CBI’s plans take two major approaches, first is that they will lead to secure finance for production activities and provide the working capital needed for such activities; and the second one is that they will not be resulted in any deviation in the banking resources and also in higher inflation.

In this regard, the central bank’s committees of liquidity and credit have investigated several plans, that one of them is “Productive Finance Plan”, which will be implemented after being discussed with monetary and banking experts.

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