TEHRAN – Nearly 50 percent of the equipment and machinery used in Iran’s petrochemical industries, industrial complexes and power plants are build inside the country, Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday, quoting a senior official from Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade as saying.

According to Mehdi Sadeqi Niaraki, in order to maintain the current status in the next Iranian calendar year (starts on March 2020) at least 3.6 quadrillion rials (nearly $85.7 billion) of the budget is needed in this sector.

In mid-April, the Iranian Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani had also said that the country needed at $85 billion of working capital in order to sustain domestic production.

According to the official, improving the efficiency of important factors in production and creating a movement for promoting domestic production are among the plans which the industry ministry is following to realize sustainable domestic production.

Earlier in the same month, Director General of Machinery Manufacturing and Equipment Office at Iran's Industry Ministry had stated that several equipment production projects were launched last year, most of which were expected to go operational in the current year.

“These projects which are mostly aimed at producing the necessary equipment for the production lines at petrochemical, oil and steel sectors will improve the country’s domestic production and reduce the reliance on imports,” Amir-Hossein Shiravi said.

Mentioning the exports of machinery and equipment, the official noted that most of the machinery and equipment produced inside the country are also used inside and only parts like pumps and compressors are exported.

Since the U.S. re-imposed sanctions on Iran to pressure the country’s economy, Iran has been taking all necessary measures to mitigate the impact of the sanctions and counter the U.S. actions.

Improving and boosting domestic production has been one of the major strategies that Iran has been following in the past two years in order to increase its independence.

EF/MA