TEHRAN, Oct. 3--The First Seminar on Software Exports was held at the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran on Monday.
According to ILNA, Amir Hossein Saeidi, who heads the State Computer Guild Organization, said at the event that the government has failed to support the sector effectively.
“Much-publicized projects such as the National Internet, student Internet accounts, etc., will not resolve the information technology (IT) sector’s problems,“ he said.
He said many government officials have little knowledge of IT-related matters, adding that for this reason, protests by IT industry authorities have met with illogical responses.
“Given the chief executive’s keenness on exports, ideal conditions exist for software exports at present,“ he said, adding that the private sector is ready to invest in the industry.
Saeidi further said that the recent announcement by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei regarding the privatization drive was meant to give the private sector a new lease on life.
“Despite the leader’s order, IT officials continue their indifference towards the sector,“ he said, adding that they have failed to make good on their pledges.
Software industry is faced with challenges such as low investment and lack of effective copyright policies.

TEHRAN, Oct. 3--There are some 9,500 incomplete projects nationwide, reported the Persian daily Etemad-e Melli, adding that $200 billion has so far been spent on these projects.
The daily quoted Hamid Reza Hajbabaei, a member of the Majlis Presiding Board, as saying that an additional $100 billion is needed to complete the projects.
It added that the Majlis is waiting for the government’s additional budget bill at a time when Hajbabaei says the exact figure is not yet known.
However, Etemad-e Melli, said the Management and Planning Organization (MPO) has announced that the bill will seek parliamentary authorization for 30 trillion rials.
Farhad Rahbar, MPO chief, has said that the Ninth Government is determined to finish incomplete projects by March 2007.
This is while the government has already spent 70 percent of its development budget over the past six months.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said earlier that there are over 9,000 incomplete development projects across the country that need to be finished.
The government’s budget for March 2006-2007 has experienced one of the highest rises and is one of the most oil-based in recent years. It has envisaged huge development funds.

TEHRAN, Oct. 3--Three million Afghan nationals live in Iran, said a senior Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs official, adding that only 900,000 of them have received residence permits and the rest are illegals.
According to the Persian daily Etemad, Mohammad Hassan Salehi-Maram, the ministry’s director general for foreign nationals employment affairs, said that employers who have given jobs to illegal Afghans will be given special facilities for expelling them.
He did not say whether the facilities included financial support or a lower punitive action as recruiting workers with invalid permits is prohibited under Iranian laws.
The official further said that the first phase of the project will begin with identifying illegal Afghans.
“The second phase will start on October 28, when several teams from the Interior Ministry, the law enforcement forces, the Justice Department, the Commerce Ministry and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs inspectors will go to places where illegal Afghans work to expel them,“ he said.
Earlier, ISNA reported that some 800,000 illegal foreigners are working in Iran.
Illegal workers receive a total of $1.3 billion annually. They mostly come from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
The report further indicated that the illegal workers are doing irreparable damage to the job market and that many employment opportunities have been occupied by the illegals.
“Unemployment rate has reached 12.3 percent in Iran,“ it said, adding that the illegal workers must be repatriated to their respective countries.
It further said the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs believes that all illegal workers have been employed by the private sector.
The report further said that the government has granted work permits to over 11,000 foreign specialists from 47 countries.
Illegal laborers usually work without a contract in Iran, which excludes them from all social security and health benefits.

Tehran, Oct. 3--Standardization is one of the most significant measures taken to improve the quality of products, observed Ali Asghar Towfiq, head of Iran’s Standards and Industrial Research Institute (ISIRI).
Speaking to reporters, he said that according to estimates, small and medium businesses control 95 percent of the international labor market, adding that international standards should benefit the said businesses as well as the governments, societies and big businesses, the Persian daily Hambastegi reported.
Referring to ISO (International Standard Organization) certificates, he pointed out that ’management standard’ and ’product standard’ are two different concepts. Although the quality of the products of those factories which have received the management standard should improve, there are some exceptions, even in developed countries, he underlined.
“In the past 11 months, we have witnessed 136 cases of unauthorized use of standard logos,“ he said, noting that some 2, 371 production units were either warned or banned while 9,348 units were served with written notices.
“During the same period, ISIRI issued 1,533 application licenses, and some 132 and 140 licenses were suspended and nullified, respectively,“ he said.
Iran’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as an observer would bring about some changes in financial and economic structures of the country, he added.
The official put the number of compulsory standards at 700 in the year 2001, adding that the figure reached 900 by late 2005.

TEHRAN, Oct. 3--The project to develop the world’s largest offshore gas field, South Pars, will be completed by 2012, said the managing director of Pars Special Economic Zone here on Tuesday.
“Our target year is 2012, when all phases of the South Pars development project will have to be completed,“ Seyyed Abdoljalil Razavi told ILNA.
He further said that the two sites of the project have been merged to make the total area of the Pars Special Energy Zone around 30,000 hectares.
“This area is the largest special energy zone (in Iran),“ he said, adding that the second site includes 14 gas refineries and three liquefied natural gas (LNG) units.
He said the Iranian oil and gas giant Petropars is the first company which has begun its activities in the second site.
Razavi further said that initial technical and environmental studies have been launched in the second site.
Two Iranian companies won the tender for leasing two oil rigs for phases XVII and XVIII of the South Pars last week.
Akbar Torkan, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, said the Marine Construction and Engineering Company and the National Iranian Drilling Company will construct the oil rigs, which will then be leased by Pars Oil and Gas Company.
The official said that several international companies had also bid in the tender.
Experts say recent political developments have not had an impact on operations to develop the hydrocarbon-rich South Pars region, southern Iran.
Several major international companies, including Daewoo, LG, Hyundai, Eni, Shell and Total, are operating in South Pars. Foreign companies have attached great significance to their interest and future activities in Iran’s lucrative oil industry. The Ninth Government has also extended huge financial facilities to South Pars projects from Foreign Exchange Reserve Account.
The Iranian sector of South Pars gas field, which is shared with Qatar, holds 14,000 trillion cubic meters of gas, which accounts for half the country’s total gas reserves.