TEHRAN, Nov. 10--A senior economic expert said here on Wednesday that the removal of state subsidies on essential consumer goods such as fuel and bread is unthinkable under present conditions, adding this has made accession to the World Trade Organization more difficult.
Jamshid Edalatian, deputy chairman of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines, told Moj news agency that the Islamic state is trying to establish greater economic interaction with Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, China and India as part of its efforts to achieve economic globalization.
"The value of Iran's annual trade stands at $62 billion and if the country manages to increase it to $120 billion, it will turn into a major player on the global economic scene," he observed.
He further said that US sanctions would have a meager impact on the national economy provided the country's commercial policies are balanced.
Edalatian said China will become a political and economic superpower in the future, stressing that the populous nation will then have the ability to help ease Iran's sanctions.
"We are really eager to advance cooperation with China in all trade, technical and engineering fields," he said, adding that India and China, with a total population of three billion, could become an appropriate market for Iranian products.
"We must try to secure a share in the huge Chinese market," he said.

TEHRAN, Nov. 10--Iran is planning to build the world's highest concrete dam in partnership with foreign investors.
Announcing this, Vafa Tabesh, Bakhtiari Dam project manager, told ILNA that some 500 million euros will be invested in the giant project, which is expected to take 6-7 years to be completed. The project will be implemented on Bakhtiari River in Khuzestan province, which is one of the main tributaries of the Dez River.
"Iranian and foreign experts have reached a consensus on the location of the 315-meter dam, which will be the highest of its kind in the world," he said, adding that the project will be complex.
He further noted that a 1,500-megawat-capacity power plant could also be installed on the facility whose reservoir's capacity is estimated at four billion cubic meters of water.
"The only problem is the lack of adequate transportation links to the location of the facility," he said, adding that the only way to transfer equipment now is to use the Tehran-Ahvaz railroad.
Tabesh said it will be difficult to construct roads in the mountainous area, adding that construction of roads would cost up to 700 billion rials.
Iran is reportedly one of the world's top dam-building countries. Over 80 percent of the equipment used in dam-building projects is produced domestically. Iranian engineers design most of the plans. Some 85 dam projects will become operational by March 2006.
Fifty percent of these projects have been and will be implemented during President Mohammad Khatami's tenure.
There were 35 major dams operating across the country and 54 more were under construction in 1997, when Khatami won his first landslide.
In 1979, the year of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, national power generation capacity was 1,800 megawatts. The figure reached 2,000 megawatts in 1997 and will hit a record 5,000 megawatts next year.

More than one million tons of rice was imported in the year to March 2004, whereas the country needed a maximum of 400,000 tons of rice imports in the period.

TEHRAN, Nov. 10--A senior lawmaker said here on Wednesday that the government has failed to stabilize its rice policies in recent years, stressing that the prevailing imbalances between domestic demand and import of the product have harmed the agro sector.
Iraj Nadimi, rapporteur of Majlis Economic Commission, told Fars news agency that unstable trade policies the government has adopted in recent years regarding the rice industry will plunge it into the same crisis as the tea industry is suffering for quite some time now.
"There are no logical grounds for rice imports," he said, adding that a few officials at the Commerce Ministry and Management and Planning Organization (MPO) are in charge of making such important decisions.
The lawmaker accused the government of refusing to take account of hundreds of thousands of tons of rice smuggled into the country when establishing how much is needed to be imported.
More than one million tons of rice was imported in the year to March 2004, whereas experts contend the country needed a maximum of 400,000 tons of rice imports in the period. Given high costs of production, it is no longer economical for many Iranian rice farmers to continue the business.
Experts say the deterioration of rural economies in the wake of existing irregularities in the domestic rice market will lead to a rise in migration from rural areas to major cities, which will create instability in the country.
Some 620,000 hectares are under rice cultivation countrywide. Iran's total rice production stands at 2.2 million tons per annum whereas the country's annual rice consumption is almost three million tons.

TEHRAN, Nov. 10--Volume of goods transported from ports in Mazandaran province, including Nowshahr and Neka, exceeded 3.8 million tons during the March-October period, Public Relations Office of Ports and Shipping Organization announced here on Wednesday.
The report added that the consignments included oil and non-oil imports as well as transit and exports of oil commodities. It added that some 906 commercial vessels and oil tankers docked in these two ports in the first seven months of current Iranian year (commenced March 20), registering 42 percent increase compared to figures for the same period last year.
The bulk of the goods was destined for or originated in Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
Goods including ironware, lumber, wheat, chemicals, paper and cardboard were mostly imported via Nowshahr Port. The port also exported commodities such as livestock and herbal products and supermarket goods to Caspian Sea littoral states.
Over 2.9 million tons of oil products were transited from Neka and Nowshahr ports during March-October period, registering a 112-percent rise against the figure for the same period last year.
Volume of oil and non-oil exports and imports from these ports exceeded 3.8 million tons in the same period, showing a growth of 45 percent against figure for last year.

Iran can earn half a million dollars per annum from export of decorative plants.

TEHRAN, Nov. 10--Low quality production, poor marketing techniques, outdated packaging systems and high transportation costs are amongst the most serious challenges to the export of flowers from Iran.
According to ISNA, shortage of funds, improper banking facilities, administrative barriers, insufficient fertilizers, inadequate training schemes and lack of modern genetic modification plans are other major problems facing the industry.
This is while experts believe that the country can earn half a million dollars per annum from export of decorative plants, which is now an eight-billion-dollar business worldwide, provided that the necessary infrastructure, notably transport and marketing facilities, are created.
Despite the shortcomings, flora exports have increased by 144 percent in the past two years to reach 1,106 tons, fetching $732,000 in the first five months of the current year (commenced March).
The significant growth in flora exports comes at a time when many experts say it is still far below the country's capacities. Modern processing, packaging and marketing methods, they believe, must be employed in efforts to increase flora exports.
The International Flora Exhibition will be held in the central city of Mahallat next year to help develop the national flora industry.
Flora industry will also exhibit its products in a 200-square meter pavilion at an exhibition to be held in United Arab Emirates during the Iran Trade and Tourism Week in late December.
Moreover, Iran's first flora terminal is being constructed in Mahallat, which is believed to be the country's flora hub.
The terminal, to be used chiefly for the export of flowers and plants, is being constructed near Mahallat Flora Village in a total area of 35,000 square meters. The project will be completed by March 2005.
Three more flora terminals are scheduled to be constructed in Tehran, Mazandaran and Khuzestan provinces.
Mahallat, Markazi province, exports flowers worldwide, chiefly Europe.

TEHRAN, Nov. 10--A senior oil industry official said that Iran will examine offers by five European firms for the development of Yadavaran oilfield, stressing, however, that ongoing talks with China on the same project would soon be finalized.
Ali Akbar Vahidi Ale-Aqa, deputy head of Oil Development and Engineering Company, told ISNA that relevant negotiations will start as soon as Iran accepts the European companies' proposals.
He said Chinese firms must name a technical partner, adding that Iran is to decide about whether that partner is competent for the project or not.
"Buy-back deals are very sensitive and practiced," he said.
The official further noted that the time has not come to announce an official assessment of the prospect of signing the deal with China, but said Chinese firms are likely to take up the project.
On the giant project to develop Soroush and Norouz oilfields, Vahidi Ale-Aqa said the project has progressed by 92.4 percent, adding that the project would become fully operational by March.

Cold recycling is the better option for Iran given the poor maintenance of roads, which renders hot recycling uneconomical.

Cold recycling of asphalt and proper maintenance of roads will help lower costs in the bitumen and asphalt industries.
According to a research by Iran Asphalt and Bitumen Institute, cold recycling of asphalt will economize on production costs by 250 percent. Asghar Naderi, who heads the institute, told Iran Daily that over 60 percent of asphalt used in road construction can be recycled, stressing that cold recycling is the best technique as it has proven to be more economical and environmental-friendly.
"There are two types of recycling asphalt; cold and hot. However, cold recycling is the better option for Iran given the poor maintenance of roads, which renders hot recycling uneconomical," he said, adding that asphalt recycling technology has been in force in Iran for more than 10 years.
He said Iran spends some six trillion rials each year on asphalt production and implementation of relevant projects.
Experts contend that proper maintenance of roads could also contribute effectively to lowering costs. Poor maintenance of roads make developing economies spend billions of dollars in compensations for damages caused to vehicles by improper asphalt of roads.
The pressing need to conserve energy and minimized costs in highway construction requires that special efforts be made to identify and make the maximum use of procedures that will result in lowering energy usage and minimizing costs.
Recycling of asphalt pavements has the potential of being an effective way of conserving energy and materials and reducing costs.

TEHRAN, Nov. 10-Export of polymer products rose to 300,000 tons in 2004 from 200,000 tons in 2002, said an official in charge of petrochemicals, according to IRNA.
Petrochemical Commercial Company Managing Director's advisor Saeed Mansoori said on the eve of the Third International Iran Plast Exhibition that the import of polymer products rose by 53 percent to 760,000 tons in 2003 compared the figure for 2002.
He said polymer products marketed in floating rates would help his company meet the need of downstream industries.
He added that the main reason for decrease in export of polymer products is the low price of the products on domestic markets and growth in artificial demand.
The official said the priority would be given to domestic consumers and the surplus products would be exported.
He said 434,312 tons of polymer products were sold for 2,649 billion rials in the first half of the Iranian year which started on March 20.
He added that more than 900,000 tons of products were sold last year and this figure is expected to rise in the current year with the commissioning of new petrochemical units.
Mansoori said the Third Iran Plast fair would give the participants a good opportunity to exchange information, plan for production and sale of products.

TEHRAN, Nov. 10--Visiting governor of Russia's second largest city Saint Petersburg, Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko, here Wednesday expressed her country's readiness to expand economic cooperation with Iran.
Speaking in a meeting with the president of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines, Ali-Naqi Khamoushi, she said that Iran and Russia enjoy considerable potentials to develop ties.
Matvienko added that the private sectors should be capable of using their facilities to their mutual benefit.
The Russian official was confident that ties between the two sides can be expanded in the fields of automobile manufacturing, hydroelectric and wind power plants as well as subway construction.
Khamoushi, for his part, said that in recent years Russia had not availed of the rich investment opportunities in Iran.
Alluding to the high capabilities of Saint Petersburg's industry and technology sectors, Khamoushi was optimistic the two sides could bolster cooperation particularly in these sectors.
Representatives from the Iranian and Russian chambers of commerce signed two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on expansion of commercial cooperation Tuesday.
Matviyenko also called for setting up permanent fair in Saint Petersburg to showcase Iranian products.