TEHRAN- Iranian Acting Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Hossein Modares Khiabani said that the imports of 2,500 commodities have been prohibited during the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-June 20), Shata reported.

Speaking in an open session of the parliament on Sunday, the official released a report on the quarterly performance of his ministry and said the imports of 1,500 products had been banned during the past calendar year, while the figure was 2,500 items just for the first quarter of this year.

For the moment, 85 percent of the imported items are raw materials, and the rest 15 percent are the consumer products, Modares Khiabani added.

Mentioning the motto of the current Iranian calendar year, which is “Surge in Production”, the official said, "We are following up the objective of surge in production through four specified ways.”

Since the re-imposition of the U.S. sanction, Iran has been focusing on the promotion of domestic production and limiting the imports in order to move the economy toward self-sufficiency and resilience.

In early April, Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry outlined its major programs for supporting the domestic production in the current Iranian year that is named the year of “Surge in Production” by the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

Developing technology and promoting knowledge-based industries, development of domestic production in line with the Leader’s stresses on surge in production, managing imports and development of non-oil exports, improving the business environment, development of financing and investment and finally development of logistics were reported to be the seven major axes of the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry’s works in the current year.

As announced by the previous Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani in mid-April, the country’s production units need 700 trillion rials (over $16.6 billion) of investment to realize the “Surge in Production” intended by the Leader.

“Unlike other ministries, we don’t need the government’s direct investment to carry out industrial projects; the mentioned 700-trillion rials resources are not going to be given to the ministry, but will be injected directly into various production units across the country,” Rahmani said.

“The needed funds will be provided through banks, stock exchange, the National Development Fund (NDF), and investment funds,” he said, adding “we expect the growth in the country’s industrial sector to become positive by the end of the current [Iranian calendar] year (ends on March 20, 2021).”

Referring to the great capacities of the country’s industrial and mining production sectors, the official said: "Industry is one of the major sectors of Iran's economy, as the share of industry, mining and trade sectors in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is about 35 percent, and it also accounts for 30 percent of employment in the country."

MA/MA