TEHRAN- Iran’s Deputy Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Mohsen Salehinia announced that 314 idle industrial units have been revived throughout the country since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20), IRIB reported on Sunday.

Making the remarks in a meeting attended by the acting minister of industry, mining, and trade, Salehinia, who is also the head of Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO), said that reviving the mentioned units has created jobs for 5,623 persons.

Metal, petrochemical, and food industries, with the shares of 27 percent, 26 percent, and 18 percent, respectively, constituted the highest number of units coming back to the production cycle during the mentioned time span, according to the official.

Tehran with 44 units, Isfahan with 40 units, and West Azarbaijan with 28 units were the provinces in which most of the revived units are located, the deputy minister added.

As previously reported, ISIPO has revived 211 idle production units during the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-June 20).

The Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry plans to bring 1500 idle units, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), back into operation by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 2021).

Based on the ministry’s plans for the current year, reviving 1,020 unproductive small mines is also on the ministry’s agenda.

ISIPO managed to revive 1,185 idle production units across the country during the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), according to Ali-Asghar Mosaheb, ISIPO deputy head for small industries affairs.

According to the official, the mentioned units returning to operation created direct jobs for 21,618 persons.

One of the approaches through which ISIPO is planning to help inactive units get back in the production cycle is to see their knowledge and technology needs, Mosaheb said.

“The country’s technology units and scientific and research centers have come to believe that they can help the industry and that the industry can use their potentials and capacities,” he added.

The latest data released by the Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry shows that 72,250 industrial and mining units are operating across the country in which nearly 2.43 million people are working.

According to the data, with 15,822 active units, the field of non-metallic minerals accounts for the biggest share of the mentioned units, while food and beverage products and rubber and plastic products with 8,682 and 7,524 units are in the second and third places.

In terms of job creation, the group of non-metallic minerals has also the highest employment rate, with 382,837 people working in this sector. The group of food and beverage products and the group of manufacturing chemical products are also in the second and third place with the employment of 362,223 and 200,358 people.

Tehran, Isfahan, and Khorasan Razavi provinces had 9785, 8585, 5294 active units, respectively, by the end of the last Iranian calendar year (March 19) accounting for the highest number of units among the Iranian provinces.

The employment of the said provinces in the industrial and mineral units was 402,915, 262,498, and 193,290 people respectively.

Also, Kish Free Zone with two active units, Chabahar Free Zone with 73 units and Maku Free Zone with 84 units had the least number of active units among the provinces, with 70, 1416 and 2330 people working in them, respectively.

In the past few years, many of the production units across Iran have been wrestling with financial issues as well as the problem of supplying their raw materials, so that many have been forced to shut down or decrease their activates.

MA/MA