TEHRAN - The 109th dialogue council of the government and the private sector was held in Tehran on Monday, in which the impacts of the implementation of the current year’s budgetary policies and the new minimum wages on the production sector and on the economy were discussed.

The meeting was attended by senior officials including Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Ehsan Khandouzi and Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam-Hossein Shafeie, the ICCIMA portal reported.

In this meeting, the members of the council stressed the need for the implementation of Article 191 of the Labor Law to adopt special measures for production units with less than 10 workers in order to reduce the consequences of unemployment due to the increase in the minimum wage ceiling in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A report was also presented in the meeting, on the performance of the dialogue council and the government’s business support committee in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20).

At the beginning of the meeting, Khandouzi, who is the chairman of the government and private sector dialogue council, said: "The purpose of starting this process [the collaboration between government and the private sector] is to achieve economic stability. We need to work together to pass this transition period and then start major reforms in the economy.”

EF/MA