TEHRAN – Representatives of Iran’s private sector met with the Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani and his deputies on Tuesday at the place of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA).

In the meeting, ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie mentioned some of the major issues that the country’s businessmen were facing, noting that the government should come up with a comprehensive plan for improving the country’s economy in collaboration with the field’s academic and expert entities.

“Issues like privatization and reforming the country’s banking and tax systems all must be in service and support of the country’s productive sectors. Currently, one of the major structural bottlenecks in the country's production sector is the lack of proper liquidity injection in this area,” Shafeie said.

“As we have seen, despite the increase in liquidity in the industry sector, the country's economic statistics indicate that only a small portion of the allocated financial resources and liquidity has been directed into the production sector,” he added.

The official further stressed the need for development of non-oil exports as a top priority of the country's economy and said, “if we prioritize non-oil exports in the current economic situation [referring to the U.S. sanctions], then foreign currency policies will have to be in line with this prioritizing.”

“However, we see that trade and foreign currency policies are not that much in harmony,” he regretted.

The need for focusing on export development, removing internal barriers in the way of exports, coordinating foreign currency and trade policies, and directing liquidity to productive sectors were among other important issues addressed by the representatives of the private sector in the meeting.

EF/MA