TEHRAN – The board of representatives of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) held its 22nd meeting on Sunday during which various economic issues including the elimination of the subsidized foreign currency allocations for the import of basic goods, were discussed.

As reported by the ICCIMA portal, the meeting, which was the first gathering of the ICCIMA board members in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21), was chaired by the ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie.

Speaking in the meeting, Shafeie touched upon major topics including the importance of knowledge-based production, the recent accusations leveled against the ICCIMA, the government's new economic policies, and the elimination of the import duty exemption for manufacturing and industrial machinery.

The official further criticized the government's disregard for the private sector's proposals in the process of eliminating subsidized foreign currency allocations.

He called on the government to consider people’s livelihood as the priority before implementing any economic program or reform plan.

“The stability of macroeconomic variables, especially the exchange rate, is the first important issue. Another point is that changing the pricing mechanisms does not improve the production process alone,” he said.

EF/MA