Representatives of Iran’s private sector have expressed support for Reza Fatemi Amin who has been proposed by President Ebrahim Raeisi to take over the role of Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade.
Fatemi Amin met with the board members of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) on Monday where he won the support of the private sector for the post.
The meeting took place few days before the proposed minister is scheduled to attend an open session of the Parliament to win the confidence vote of the Iranian lawmakers.
Speaking during the meeting, Fatemi Amin said, “It seems that in the new period of the Ministry of Industry, we can experience empathy and close cooperation with Iran Chamber.”
The proposed minister said that his first priority would be to reform the country’s structure of production and trade.
He noted that the increase in the country’s non-oil exports over the past decade has added to the significance of the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade.
Noting that he has plan to add some $5 billion to the country’s exports over the second half of the fiscal year (September 23, 2021-March 20, 2022), Fatemi Amin said that the export commodities and the destination countries have already been determined.
He said that he plans to inject the money coming from the additional exports to the production sector.
“In my proposed export plan, we analyzed more than 50 countries in four groups … what goods we can export to them and what goods we can import from them,” Fatemi Amin said, adding that the plan was handed over to Iran Chamber of Commerce two weeks ago.
President Raeisi’s pick for industry minister Reza Fatemi Amin meets with board members of Iran Chamber of Commerce in Tehran on August 16, 2021.
In the meantime, ICCIMA President Gholam Hossein Shafei said that he saw the introduction of Fatemi Amin for “this key ministry” as a good omen because he used to be a member of ICCIMA Board of Representatives and is therefore fully familiar with the concerns of the country’s economic operators in the areas of industry, mines and trade.
Referring to the big challenges facing the Iranian economy, Shafei said that the private sector is able to do its utmost to put the country’s economy on the right track.
He noted that a constructive interaction between the government and the private sector can help solve the economic problems, urging more active presence of the private sector in the economy.