TEHRAN – In continuation of his provincial visits taking place on weekends, President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi paid a visit to Alborz province on Thursday.

Ayatollah Raisi was welcomed by the representative of the Supreme Leader in the province, the governor-general and a group of local officials upon his arrival in Alborz province on Thursday afternoon.

President Raisi at the beginning of his trip to Alborz province addressed the potential of the province, calling it “little Iran.”

Speaking in a short conversation with reporters at the beginning of his trip to Alborz, Raisi noted, “Alborz province has some advantages due to its proximity to the capital, and at the same time this proximity has created problems for this province”.

The president added, “Alborz province has suitable capacities for the development of agriculture and conversion industries, industrial towns and various industries, as well as the development of tourism. The presence of various ethnic groups and dialects from all over the country, which has rightly made this province worthy of the name "Little Iran", is another advantage for Alborz province.”

He stated, "Before holding this trip, our colleagues have held several meetings with the governor-general and other managers of the province, and the capacities, needs and problems of Alborz have been counted and solutions have been proposed to solve them,” according to the official website of the Iranian presidency.

Raisi stressed the need for the participation of people and intellectuals to solve the problems and accelerate the progress of the province, noting, "It is natural that my trip during the holy month of Ramadan has caused difficulties for you, but I travel to all the provinces and examine their situation closely, I ask all of you to forgive me for this trouble, and I hope that holding these trips will solve people's problems”.

During the visit, Raisi paid a visit to the Karaj commuter rail. During the visit, the president expressed his dissatisfaction with the excessive delay in the construction of the urban rail project in Karaj, and called the spending of 15 years for the project, which is still incomplete, unacceptable and instructed the project managers to provide accurate timetable for the completion of the remaining parts of the project.

Underlining the need to remove the existing obstacles to financing the completion of the project, the president instructed its managers to submit their proposals, and said, "The government will try to pay its share of financing this project as soon as possible."

The implementation of the Karaj commuter rail project started in 2006, but due to lack of required resources, it has remained practically half-finished.

President Raisi also paid a visit to the 100-bed hospital under construction in Kamalshahr, Karaj. Referring to the 18% progress of the project, he said, "The government's plan is to first complete those projects that have more than 50% physical progress."

"However, considering that this hospital is located in one of the deprived areas of the province, it was decided to complete it and serve the people as soon as possible by allocating the necessary funds and the jihadist action of the relevant officials," he said.

The president stressed the need to facilitate the access of the people of Alborz province to medical services. "Alborz province provides more than 60% of the country's drug needs and it is not acceptable for the people of this province to stand in line for treatment and access to medical services."

President Raisi also held a meeting with different groups of the people of Alborz province. Elites, clerics, martyrs' families, war veterans and people of the province were in attendance. 

Raisi said, "In the last 40 years, many steps have been taken for the development of this region, but there is a long way to go."

Raisi further stated, "The main strategy of today is the system of creating hope for the future, and whoever moves in this direction, moves in the direction of achieving the goal of the system."
Pointing out that today there is a very heavy responsibility on all officials in the Islamic Republic, the president stated, "Today, we must all realize that although the enemy does not want Iran to progress and become strong, our duty is to redouble our efforts."

Raisi said the main focus of efforts should be to strengthen the components of power of the Islamic Republic, noting, "Today, science, economics and the support and presence of the people are the most important components of power."

One of the most important factors in strengthening the people's trust in the system is to improve the efficiency of the administrative system, the president pointed out.

In another part of his speech, President Raisi said, "The discourse of the ‘popular government’ is to create change and try to bring the current situation as close as possible to the desired situation."

"It's not a difficult task to describe and explain justice, but it is important that people feel in practice that justice has been done," he said.

"The government will focus on the will of the people in the path of justice, and wherever the will and interests of the people are in conflict with the will of some special group, the public will, will take precedence."

Emphasizing that the people are dissatisfied with corruption and discrimination, and therefore the government should base its work on eliminating corruption and discrimination in the country's administrative system, the president said, "The government should act according to justice and the people should closely monitor the government's performance."

In another part of his remarks, the president mentioned paying attention to the dignity and improving the quality of teachers' work, providing appropriate education for students and paying attention to the education provided in kindergartens, among other government concerns in the education system.

Raisi went on to describe the government's plan for economic reform, saying, "The day we took over the government, the $8 billion in the 1400 budget for the payment of the preferred currency was almost gone, but the government did its best to manage the supply of basic goods without shock to the market, in which the Supreme Leader also helped the government a lot."

The president added, "There was no lack of coordination in this regard in different parts of the government and the government's position in this regard was quite clear from the beginning. The economic team of the 13th government is working in high coordination to implement government policies and strengthen national economy."

Raisi also talked about the document of the transformation of the popular government, saying, "16 think tanks and more than 500 experts in various fields gave expert opinions about this document".

The president also clarified the government's plan to regulate the automobile industry, saying, "During my visit to Iran Khodro, I emphasized that the monopoly of the automobile industry in the country should be reformed as soon as possible."

In the last part of his remarks, Raisi emphasized the need for consensus and participation of all members of society to bring about change in the country.

"We expect the university, as the think tank of the government, to formulate the system of the country's problems and the seminaries to offer a solution to solve the country's problems by relying on dynamic and civilization-building jurisprudence," the president stated.