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National dialogue needed for Iran’s economic survival

Business Materials 11 January 2016 15:22 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 11

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

In order for Iran to attain economic prosperity and avoid demise, it is necessary for the state and administration to grow more intimate through dialogue so that the state becomes more business-minded, said economical-political commentator, Professor Mahmood Sariolghalam.

Speaking at a conference held by Tehran Chamber of Commerce to explore progress venues for the private sector, the Shahid Beheshti University professor said the private sector needs to bring the outlook of the government closer to that of the administration, Trend correspondent reported from Tehran Jan. 11.

"By government I mean the body made up of political, security, and religious entities and by administration I mean the president and his cabinet," he noted, adding, "while the administration deals with hard, business-like facts, the state is occupied with more abstract and philosophical notions of sovereignty, security, independence, and identity."

The private sector in Iran needs to engage in closer cooperation with the government and express its views in digits and statistics in a way to imply that its progress is in line, not contrary to, that of the government, he said.

"The government is content with the status quo, while the administration is not, based on statistics. That is where the private sector needs to share what it knows with the government to make it partially worried about the circumstances," Sariolghalam underlined.

"Some national bond is needed to entail a sort of national dialogue for all to realize the facts and share the same mentality. The recent nuclear deal would have been impossible without a decision by the government, which I can say was responsible for 95 percent of the whole process," he noted.

"Iran is the 15th country in economic terms among 25 countries of the Middle East and Western Asia. Without the nuclear deal, the country was expected to be found somewhere beyond 20 in 10 years."

Speaking at the same conference, Hadi Salehi Esfahani, professor of Economics at Virginia Tech, commented on the reasons why production in Iran has not flourished.

"To have a robust production, and ensuing exports, it is needed to have robust imports and some link to connect imports and exports, which is human force efficiency," he said.

"This link is missing in Iran, that is, imported goods are not processed to become goods worth exporting," Esfahani stated.

"The link is missing because of oil. Oil has removed the link, because when there is oil on hand, the necessity to process material into exportable goods does not arise. And that is the problem with Iran's economy," he concluded.

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