TEHRAN – The Research Center of the Iranian Parliament, in a report, has said the industrial machinery sector in the country has a great potential for indigenization that should be considered by the government in future planning, IRNA reported.

“The statistics regarding the trade balance of industrial machinery indicate the high dependence of the country's industries on the import of such machinery and the existence of high potential and demand for indigenization of products in this sector,” the report stated.

According to the report, the machinery-manufacturing industry, as a strategic and parent industry, has played a significant role in the development of industrialized countries. The growing need of the country to develop industries and industrial products reveals the need to pay attention to this industry.

One of the most important challenges of the country's machinery industry is the lack of performance guarantees regarding the strategic documents of this industry, also the focus on imports, and the lack of effort in using domestically made industrial machinery and adopting the wrong tariff system.

The report put the global trade of the mentioned sector in 2018 at about $20 trillion, while the share of Iran has been only $97 billion or less than 0.5 percent.

Majlis Research Center further proposed some suggestions for the development of the country’s industrial machinery sector in the report.

Maximum use of the country's production and service capacity and support for Iranian goods, referring work to Iranian contractors, and preventing imports in this industry are some of the suggestions made in this regard.

Strengthening the industrial machinery trade promotion desk at the Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), providing a platform for provincial working groups and think tanks to further connecting the province's industries with the country’s machinery sector, defining indicators for measuring and evaluating the development of industries that use domestic products, and supporting the presence of the machinery-building industry in specialized exhibitions, especially in neighboring countries like Russia were also among the suggestions for developing the mentioned sector.

EF/MA