TEHRAN - Head of Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO) says in order to realize the current Iranian calendar year’s motto which is “surge in production”, the infrastructures should be improved in the country’s industrial parks, IRIB reported.

Making the remarks during a visit to the northwestern East Azarbaijan Province, Mohsen Salehinia said 1500 inactive production units are set to be revived in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20), of which 90 units will be in East Azarbaijan.

Underlining the importance of domestic production, the official said: “In the current situation of the country, production is very important and by maintaining production we can play a role in the country's economic growth; therefore, all industrial units are trying to improve production.”

Referring to the support provided by the government for the development of infrastructures in industrial parks, he said: "In order to fulfill the slogan of the surge in production, infrastructure and raw material supply issues must be resolved quickly."

"Import management and export development are among the most important areas of focus for the Industry Ministry in the year of “surge in production” and we must focus our efforts on this issue to turn the threats posed by U.S. sanctions into new production and export opportunities," Salehinia said.

According to Mohsen Salehinia, currently, 43,650 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are based in over 800 industrial parks across the country, of which nearly 78 percent or 33,800 are active.

Back in 2019, Salehinia had announced his organization’s long-term plans for supporting the SMEs, noting that the industry ministry fully supports ISIPO’s efforts in this regard.

According to the official, SMEs have the potential to provide nearly 900,000 job opportunities across the country, however, currently 22 percent of the SMEs are idle and there are only 710,000 people working in active units.

EF/MA