TEHRAN – Mohammadreza Ansari, the deputy head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), says the development of a strategy aligned with the country's economic potentials will lead to the optimization of activities and investments in the industry sector.

According to Ansari, despite creation of various development programs over the past few years, industrial development strategies have either not been implemented or haven’t fit the country’s real needs, ICCIMA portal reported.

“Developing new programs in this area requires that we first determine the areas in which we have the advantage to improve and grow,” Ansari said.

In the absence of such a strategy, we will come to short-term decisions made for the industry sector, while the basis for an industrial development strategy is to consider a set of economic trends related to each other to come up with a long-term program.

Industrial strategy refers to a set of long-term government approaches that define a framework for the development of the country's industrial sector in relation to the global economy, the official said.

The industry sector, indirectly, affects the allocation of resources to other sectors and this way influences the whole economy; thus, by considering the concept of industrial development as a path or a stage of transition to economic development, industrial strategy can be seen as a roadmap based on which industrial policies covering tools, resources, requirements and executive tactics can be identified, he explained.

Earlier this year, ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie had called on the Iranian parliament to support the private sector in preparing a strategic plan for the industry sector.

“One of the main problems in the production sector is the lack of an industrial development strategy," he said in a parliament open session.

Shafeie announced the readiness of the country’s chambers of commerce, guilds and cooperatives for formulating this strategy.

EF/MA