TEHRAN- Head of Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO) Ali Rasoulian announced the opening of 650 workshops in the country in the past nine months and said: “Today, if we want people to be prosperous, we must provide the necessary hardware and software infrastructure for production, and the determination of the government is to ensure that a balanced investment is formed in the country.”

The official also said, “We have created more than 100 industrial zones in deprived areas of the country, although the construction of these zones is mainly implemented from the organization's internal resources.”

Unfortunately, most of the investments have taken place in big cities and these investments have not been made in different regions of the country, he criticized, adding that small cities and regions that have investment capacity have been given less attention.

Last month, Rasoulian said that over 40 trillion rials (about $105.2 million) has been invested for implementing infrastructure development projects in the country’s industrial parks and zones since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2022).

“With more than 2,200 development projects being implemented in industrial parks and zones, we hope that nearly eight trillion rials (about $21 million) will be invested in these projects by the end of the year,” he added.

Mentioning his organization’s plan for establishing 1,000 workshops units in industrial parks across the country, the official expressed hope that some of these units will become operational by the end of the year.

He further underlined reviving idle units as another priority plan of ISIPO, saying: “Since the beginning of the 13th government administration (August 2021), 2,200 stagnant production units have returned to the production cycle.”

In line with the current Iranian year’s motto, which is “Knowledge-Based and Job-Creating Production”, the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade has been implementing new programs to support productive units across the country.

Providing infrastructure and incentives to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are among the major programs that the ministry has been following in relation to industrial parks.

Rasoulian had earlier said that over 2,023 projects related to providing infrastructure for industrial parks, including water, electricity, and gas supply, with 60 trillion rials (more than $157.8 million) of credit were underway in different parts of the country.

According to Rasoulian, 2,067 idle industrial units were revived in the country’s industrial parks and zones during the previous Iranian calendar year 1400 (ended on March 20, 2022).

The official noted that with the reviving of the mentioned units job opportunities were created for over 39,000 people.

“ISIPO had put it on the agenda to revive 2,000 stagnant units inside and outside industrial parks and zones in the previous year and by the end of the year 2,067 idle units returned to the production cycle, which provided employment for more than 39,000 people,” Rasoulian said.

The official noted that 1,433 small workshop units were also established in the mentioned year most of which were productive and knowledge-based units with high technology.

The necessary licenses were also obtained for establishing 26 new industrial parks and zones across the country in the previous year, he added.

He stressed that reviving idle production units is the main approach that the government is currently following in the industry sector.

The government is seriously pursuing its programs to resolve production units' problems in collaboration with the private sector; Very good planning has been done in this regard, Rasoulian said.

MA/MA