Baku, Azerbaijan, May 12
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: The National Development Fund of Iran has allocated $22 billion to the private sector for implementing job creation plans.
The spokesman for Iran's administration, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said 410 trillion rials (about $16 billion) will be invested in thecurrent year in development projects, which in turn, will create many jobs, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on May 12.
Moreover, 900 trillion rials (about $35 billion) will be paid to government companies to be invested in development plans, he added.
On April 14, the NDF managing director, Safdar Hosseini, said that the fund's assets are being allocated mainly to carry out medium and large projects as well as development plans in underprivileged areas, Iran's Fars news agency reported.
The NDF is Iran's sovereign wealth fund. It was founded in 2011 to replace the Oil Stabilization Fund.
The NDF forecasts it total assets increase by $17.5 billion in the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 21, 2014.
Iran will deposit 31 percent of its oil income to the NDF in the current year. Based on Iran's Fifth Five-Year Development Plan, the NDF's input should be increased by 3 percent by 2015.
On May 5, Iranian vice president Eshaq Jahangiri said the unemployment rate has reached a critical level in the country. Some 700 million rials needs to be spent to create a single job, Jahangiri said.
Iran may face 11 million jobless by 2024-2025 if the same economic patterns of the past decades are followed.
Iranian interior minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has warned that the number of unemployed people will be multiplied by 2024-2025, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on April 14.
He put the country's unemployment rate at 14 per cent.
The high unemployment rate among Iranian university graduates is a main concern for the Iranian administration.
On April 11, Ali Rabiei, the minister of labor and social affairs said the administration is planning to curb the high jobless rate.
Rabiei added that although each Iranian employed receives ten million rials (about $390) as monthly salary on average, but if the inflation rate goes higher, creating more jobs will not be economically justified.
Edited by C.N.