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Iran’s leader, department heads meet to outline resistance economy

Business Materials 25 February 2014 15:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.25

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei held a meeting on Monday with the heads of the three government departments to delineate aspects of the resistance economy plan, the Fars News agency reported on February 25.

The leader referred to the country's economic problems as being people's main concern, saying that if the resistance economy plan is implemented properly, the national economy will flourish in mid-term and the economic infrastructures of the country will be improved.

On Feb. 19, Khamenei outlined a 'Resistance Economy' plan, with a main theme of supporting the domestic production relying on national resources.

The leader emphasised improving economic productivity, supporting job creation plans and enhancing social welfare indices.

He also highlighted the need for reforming the national financial system, increasing non-oil exports, implementing the subsidy reform plan, improving consumption patterns and securing sufficient sources for food and drug imports.

For more than a year, Iran has operated under the ideology of the 'Resistance Economy', a concept declared by the Supreme Leader in a speech in August 2012.

In that speech, Ayatollah Khamenei urged the then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to adopt what he termed a 'Resistance Economy', laying out 12 key areas including that Iran's production should be developed and increased and that Iranians must be persuaded to shun foreign imports in favour of domestically-made goods.

According to Khamenei, the 'Resistance Economy' would promote economic self-reliance, a strategy that would defeat the efforts of the U.S-led West to defeat Iran via economic and trade sanctions. It would thus ensure Iran's continued defiance of the West, and progress of its 1979 Islamic Revolution by harnessing the country's full potential. Beyond the economy, it would 'break the illusions' of the U.S. that increasingly harsh sanctions would force Tehran to capitulate over its nuclear programme.

The ideology of the 'Resistance Economy', with its core concepts of self-sufficiency and even sacrifice, proclaims that the Islamic Republic can survive and indeed flourish despite U.S-led sanctions.

Iran's Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs has set up a special committee to pursue the implementation of the resistance economy plan, recently outlined by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Tasnim News Agency reported on February 23.

Iranian Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia said that the Supreme Leader's guidelines about a resistance economy will lead the country into getting rid of the dependence on oil income.

The committee is tasked with preparing a comprehensive plan to materialise objectives of the resistance economy plan, he added.

Edited by S.M.

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