Tehran, Iran, Oct.15
Trend:
Iranian Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade advised companies to seek foreign partners to produce cars, the Minister of Industry said at a meeting with the Members of Iranian Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 15, Trend reports citing ILNA.
"Joint production is always on the agenda, and companies are negotiating. Since the performance of some former foreign partners was not appropriate at the time of sanctions, we advised companies to seek new foreign partners." Reza Rahmani said adding this is not a government issue, but the private sector's matter.
“Under new conditions, there must be a close relationship between the Ministry of Industry and the Chamber of Commerce; this cooperation will lead to making new decisions. I have no obejctions to meet with the private sector representatives once a week,” Reza Rahmani added
He went on to say that in recent years, the main problem for production units was access to finance and working capital.
"We disagree with the central bank about importing goods without transferring foreign currency,” he said. “We believe that to support the production, the foreign currency transfer should be restricted and controlled to allow the import, but the central bank does not accept that.”
The minister named protection of domestic production as a national task. "We plan to allocate $10 billion of import revenues into the domestic production by 2021," he added.
Rahmani went on to say that the growth of the industry last Iranian year (ended on March 21, 2019) was negative.
“In the first three months of this Iranian year [began on March 21, 2019], there was no growth of the industry sector, but it shall be positive in the second quarter,” the minister said.