TEHRAN – Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam-Hossein Shafeie has called on Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Ali Saleh-Abadi to accelerate the formation of a special bank account for allocation of working capital to production units.

As reported by the ICCIMA portal, Shafeie made the remarks in a meeting of the representatives of the country’s private sector with Salehi on Sunday.

The meeting was attended by the ICCIMA board of directors, as well as the heads and representatives of economic organizations, heads of provincial chambers of commerce, and some of the country’s businessmen and entrepreneurs.

Speaking at this gathering, Shafeie underlined the significance of close communication between the CBI governor and the country’s private sector and said: “From the private sector’s point of view, most of the current problems and difficulties in the country’s economy can be solved by the central bank and the presence of the head of this institution in a meeting with ICCIMA is a big step to resolve such problems.”

According to the official, unpredictability, and changes of raw materials prices, the difficulty of financing, and instability of business policies, rules, and regulations have been the three main factors that contributed the most to a severe business environment over the past three years.

Noting that an important part of these problems can be resolved by CBI and the expectations of the private sector are high in this regard, Shafeie addressed some of the inefficiencies in the country’s monetary and banking system that have the greatest impact on national production and export development.

“The first major problem is the diversion of banking facilities from productive activities. According to the central bank, the share of banking facilities allocated to the productive sectors, including industry, mining, and agriculture, accounted for only 40 percent of the total bank facilities paid last year,” he said.

The ICCIMA head said that the second factor preventing growth in production and export development was the lack of full implementation of the law on removing barriers to competitive production and improving the country's financial system.

CBI to issue new directive to support exports

Elsewhere in the meeting, CBI Governor Ali Saleh-Abadi pointed to the positive economic outlooks for the coming years, saying that the bank is going to issue a new directive in the near future for supporting exports.

The official stated that the details of the directive have been decided on in meetings with Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Fatemi Amin.

“We have formed a joint working group with the Industry Ministry and we have held regular meetings; this interaction will continue with the cooperation of the private sector,” Saleh-Abadi added.

He also noted that the CBI is optimistic about the country’s export revenues and foreign currency supply for import of basic goods in the next Iranian calendar year (starts on March 21, 2022).

Last year, a total of $36.482 billion in foreign currency was provided by the central bank, while in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (March 21-December 22), about $40 billion has been raised and financed in various ways, the official said.

EF/MA

Photo: CBI Governor Ali Saleh-Abadi (L) and ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie