BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 8
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
The most important program of the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade is to strengthen the local production and export sector, Iran's Acting Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Hossein Modarres Khiabani said, Trend reports citing the ministry.
Modarres Khiabani noted that there are more than 4,000 industrial enterprises in Iran with more than 80 percent progress in construction.
He added that the construction of these facilities is planned to be completed and put into operation during the current government (the activities of current government of Iran will expire in August 2021).
The acting minister stressed that 200 important industrial enterprises will be put into operation in the current Iranian year (from March 20, 2020 to March 21, 2021) with an investment of 1.7 quadrillion rials (about $40.4 billion) and more than 41,000 people will be employed.
Modarres Khiabani said that necessary steps are also being taken to develop exports and manage imports. Thus, the import of products is limited to the import of essential products, raw materials and equipment.
"At present, the import of about 2,500 products is banned, as similar products are produced domestically," he said.
According to the acting minister, work is underway to prevent the outflow of foreign currency worth $3.2 billion through the domestic production of products and equipment.
Modarres Khiabani emphasized that it was planned to produce various spare parts worth about $300 million domestically since beginning of the current Iranian year on March 20.
Iran exported more than 30 million tons of products worth $8.71 billion and imported 12 million tons worth $10.9 billion during four months (March 20-July 21).