TEHRAN – Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade plans to reduce the country’s imports by $10 billion by the Iranian calendar year 1400 (March 2021-March 2022), IRNA reported on Saturday, quoting the industry minister as saying.

According to the official, of the mentioned total $10 billion reduction in imports, $1.2 billion will be in the textile and garment industry, $500 million in cellulose products, $2.7 billion in petrochemicals, $2.4 billion in mining, $600 million in steel industry, $650 million in home appliances, $650 million in machinery, $1.4 billion in the automotive industry, and $250 million in electrical and electronic appliances.

Making the remarks in a specialized roundtable on promoting domestic production in the country’s auto industry, Reza Rahmani said “Achieving this goal requires $2 billion plus 200 trillion rials (about $4.7 billion) worth of investment.”

Deals worth $286m signed with domestic auto parts manufacturers

During the mentioned roundtable, deals worth 12.3 trillion rials (about $286 million) were signed with domestic manufacturers of auto parts for producing 42 different car parts.

As reported, producing the mentioned auto parts inside Iran is going to have saved the country over €91 million.

During the signing ceremony, Rahmani noted that the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has pledged to provide the country’s industry sector with one quadrillion rials (about $23.8 billion) of liquidity in the second half of this Iranian calendar year (September 23, 2019-March 19, 2020).

According to the official, Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade has implemented several programs for promoting domestic production and increasing exports in the current Iranian calendar year.

Coming under seven major axes, the ministry’s programs mainly focus on developing and supporting domestic production as well as expanding exports to the neighboring countries.

Supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), supporting the country’s exporters and creating specialized working groups in order to promote exports to the neighboring countries, reviving the country’s idle production units and small and medium-sized mines, supporting domestic auto part manufacturers, holding exhibitions for encouraging domestic production, signing cooperation agreements with knowledge-based companies and universities are among the major steps taken by the industry ministry in order to promote domestic production and boost exports.

EF/MA