TEHRAN - The 79th meeting of the dialogue council of the government and the Tehran Province’s private sector was held on Saturday, in which the attendees explored the ways for removing barriers to the development of the country’s industrial parks.

The meeting was attended by the Governor-General of Tehran Province Anushirvan Mohseni, the Head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA) Masoud Khansari, the Head of Iran's Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO)’s Tehran office Saber Parniyan, and the representatives of the province private sector, the TCCIMA portal reported.

During the meeting, major challenges and issues pertaining to the development of the country’s industrial parks were raised and suggestions were made for removing the barriers in the way of improving the infrastructure in these parks.

Speaking in the meeting, Parniyan criticized the parliament’s decision for overruling the regulation for allocating the one percent of the paid added-value tax (VAT) of the units located in these parks for improving the infrastructure in these parks and stated that with this decision, there are no resources that should be spent on improving and developing the infrastructure of industrial towns.

Following the approval of the VAT law in the parliament in July, this article was eliminated from the law of the Sixth National Development Plan and practically the major source of revenue for the country’s industrial parks was cut off, the official said.

Back in June, ISIPO Deputy Head Fath-Ali Mohammadzadeh announced that 60 percent of the country’s industrial parks were more than 15 years old and need to be renovated.

Making the remarks in a meeting between MPs and owners of industrial units on June 29, Mohammadzadeh noted that more than 1,011 industrial parks and zones are established across the country, 830 of which are currently active.

He emphasized that ISIPO needs more authority to effectively maintain the country’s industrial areas as the heart of the country's economy, saying: “Many problems will be solved if one percent of the added value that industrialists pay to the government is spent on industrial parks and zones.”

EF/MA

Photo: TCCIMA Head Masoud Khansari (2nd R) and Governor-General of Tehran Province Anushirvan Mohseni (2nd L) at the TCCIMA meeting on Saturday.