TEHRAN – More than one million shares of Iranian state-run companies, worth 2 billion rials (over $57,000) were transferred to the private sector in the sixth month of the current Iranian calendar year (August 23-September 22).

Iran has transferred over 2.46 trillion rials (about $73.5 million) worth of shares of state-run companies to the private sector in the first half of the current year.  

Iranian state-run companies divested 47.7 trillion rials (over $1.462 billion) worth of shares in the past year, which ended on March 20.  

The Iranian government has envisioned a large privatization program in the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015), aiming to privatize about 20 percent of state-owned firms each year.  

Under the present interpretation of the Article 44 of Iran's Constitution, hundreds of state-owned companies have been privatized.