TEHRAN – Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA)’s mining and industry committee, as well as the committee for improving the business environment and removing barriers to domestic production, held a joint meeting on Saturday to discuss issues regarding the promotion of domestic production and removing barriers in the way of foreign trade.

At the meeting, representatives of the country’s private sector and senior government officials discussed the consequences of the government’s restrictions on imports of raw materials and machinery in the current economic condition, and explored the possible effects of such restrictions on domestic production, TCCIMA portal reported.

Speaking in the meeting, Mohammad-Reza Zohrehvandi, head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce's Industry and Mining Committee, mentioned the “domestic production promotion” policy which the Industry Ministry has been following this year, and said: this policy has been adopted in a time when the government has also banned the imports of about 1,600 commodity items. Now the question is upon what justifications these bans have been made and whether it would have been better if the imports had been controlled through tariff instruments.”

Iranian Industry Ministry is implementing numerous executive programs for promoting domestic production across the country in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 21). In this regard, the ministry is determined to follow the government policies for reducing imports of domestically-made products in order to support the country’s producers.

However, many of the private sector producers believe that the mentioned restrictions are not limited to the products which are domestically produced and the restrictions expand to raw materials and machinery as well.

In this regard, Seyed Mohammad Niazi a consultant to the industry ministry in industry affairs said imports of machinery is not prohibited unless the intended machinery could be produced inside the country.

Earlier this month, Industry Minister Reza Rahmani said developing the country’s domestic production must be seriously pursued whether the country is under sanctions or not, stressing that the Industry Ministry is determined to pursue its plans on boosting domestic production and non-oil exports based on the country’s Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (ends in March 2021).

According to Rahmani, the ministry’s programs mainly focus on developing and supporting domestic production, development of industry, technology, while improving the business environment, as well as expanding exports to the neighboring countries.

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.

To this end, the Iranian government has put supporting domestic producers atop agenda in the current year.

Banning the imports of some domestically-made products and providing the required working capital for the production units and offering them facilities are some of the major measures being pursued by the government to support production units.

EF/MA