TEHRAN – President Rouhani’s new nominee for heading the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry met with the representatives of the country’s private sector at Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) on Saturday.

In the meeting with Alireza Razm Hosseini, the ICCIMA members addressed the most important problems in the way of boosting domestic production and outlined the priorities that the ministry should pursue during the final months of the current government’s office, ICCIMA portal reported.

Speaking in the gathering, the ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie underlined the strong background of the proposed minister and said: "Mr. Razm Hosseini has an important characteristic compared to other cabinet members, he has already been engaged with the private sector for 20 years. Accordingly, we hope that someone like him will be able to make up for the shortcomings of the Industry Ministry, especially in the past months, when it was run without a minister.”

Also in the meeting, Saeed Mombeini, the chairman of Iran Chamber of Guilds (ICG), criticized the Industry Ministry’s lack of paying attention to guilds and small commercial units, saying: “Despite the Leader's emphasis on production over the past years, unfortunately, little practical results have been achieved in this area, and the commercial sector has also been neglected. However, if we believe that the commercial sector is also a stimulus for production, we will pay more attention to this sector.”

The private sector representatives expressed hope that with the new minister taking office, the Industry Ministry will place more importance on the private sector as a crucial player in the country’s economic development.

Razm Hosseini for his part pointed to market management, downsizing and streamlining, creating full coherence in the Ministry of Industry's interaction with related institutions and ministries, cooperating with the private sector, and taking advantage of the sector's views as its most important plans for his ministry.

Back in May, Rouhani fired the previous Industry Minister Reza Rahmani and immediately appointed Hossein Modarres Khiabani as caretaker minister of industry, mines, and trade.

Later in August, the parliament turned down Rouhani’s nominee, asking the president to propose another person for the mentioned position.

Later on, Rouhani introduced Alireza Razm Hosseini as his new nominee for heading the controversial ministry.

EF/MA