All mother telecom sectors will remain under the control of the state and the rest (fixed telephone lines, mobile services and data telecommunication) can then be privatized.

Most economic resources and activities in Iran are controlled by state-owned firms and organizations. The ratio of state bodies to gross domestic product stands at around 75 percent, the highest in the world.
As experienced by other nations, economies tend to be less successful in a monopolized system. In Iran, a great portion of oil revenues is spent on state entities, yet they produce marginal results. In fact, huge investments in the incompetent public sector have impeded economic reforms.
Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution favors investments only in firms, which help augment economic growth or reduce government monopoly, Fars News Agency reports.
Government monopoly enlarges its hold over economic sectors, making them unproductive and inefficient. In contrast, progressive nations have devised competitive policies for promoting sustainable development. Iran is also doing the same under the general policies related to Article 44.
For instance, Article 44 revolves around sectors that can be privatized and those that cannot be privatized. In this respect, experts and officials have discussed the pros and cons of the issue at great length. A consensus has emerged that the following banks should remain under state control: The Central Bank of Iran, Bank Sepah, Bank Keshavarzi, Bank Maskan and Export Development Bank of Iran. This is while other banks could be privatized under the general policies of Article 44.

Changing Scenario
With regard to the government’s new role as policymaker, director and supervisor, it is necessary to categorize all services offered by the sector. It will be important to identify all telecom networks to ensure whether they fall into the category outlined under the general policies of Article 44 (those that can be privatized).
All mother telecom sectors will then remain under the control of the state and the rest (fixed telephone lines, mobile services and data telecommunication) can then be privatized.
However, some managers in the telecommunications sector took hasty decisions after the general policies of Article 44 were announced. They hastily decided that all measures taken before the general policies were issued concerning Article 44 are not legally binding. In this respect, the State Inspectorate Organization is expected to thoroughly review all the previous cases.
The policies stressed that a mother telecom network is an exception, but limiting Article 44 to only infrastructural telecom networks and ignoring other telecom networks go against the article’s general policies. This will also have to be reviewed and assessed by supervisory bodies such as State Inspectorate Organization.

Conclusion
Experts believe services should be offered in all sectors by private businesses in order to reduce state monopoly exercised on the basis of Article 44. This makes it even more important to identify each and every telecom network in the country.
With regard to offering fixed telephone line services in 30 provinces, the telecom networks of Tehran, Isfahan, Fars, Hamedan, Ahvaz, Khorasan Razavi, Khuzestan and East Azarbaijan provinces are considered mother networks in terms of fixed telecommunications lines.
Since there is only one mobile phone network in the country run by the state, the Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran is considered a mother telecom network with respect to mobile phone services.
And because there is only one data network run by the state, the Telecommunications Company of Iran is considered a mother telecom network.
As far as offering infrastructural services is concerned, Iran’s Infrastructural Telecommunications Network Company is also considered a mother telecom network.

Iran Khodro Diesel Company will deliver 1,500 buses by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2007) while it has the capacity of producing 8,500 per annum.

Under Note 13 of the current year’s Budget Law, the government is obliged to import 6,500 buses to improve public transportation. It intends to first import 3,000 buses, despite the protests of domestic producers who believe the move could harm the bus manufacturing industry.
Buses play an important part in the socioeconomic fabric of the country and form the crux of the urban public transportation systems, since the subway has not yet expanded its services across the nation, reports ISNA.
Local buses provide public transport within the city or one or more towns, usually for trips of only a few kilometers. Intercity, interstate or inter-provincial buses provide transport between cities, towns, rural areas and places usually hundreds of kilometers away.
Some public buses offer express service in addition to plying the local routes, which provide frequent stops along a route, sometimes two or more per kilometer, while express lines make fewer stops and move with greater speed.

Recession
The Iranian bus manufacturing industry has been in recession for the past few years and producers hoped to see some kind of change in the sorry state of affairs because of Note 13. However, the Interior Ministry dashed their hopes by giving the go-ahead to importing 3,000 buses, though some claim that they are secondhand.
Majid Sheibani, managing director of Iran Khodro Diesel Company, confirmed that the bus manufacturing industry has been in recession for some time.
Bus production depends largely on customer demand, which is articulated by the Interior Ministry.
Iran Khodro Diesel Company will deliver 1,500 buses by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2007) while it has the capacity of producing 8,500 per annum. So, when the government announces plans to import buses, experts and analysts make speculations about malpractices and corruption. Therefore, the government is obliged to outline its related policy in a way that should make economic sense.
As stated by officials, the government intends to import 3,000 buses from Brazil, some of which have been claimed to be secondhand.
In order to add 6,500 new buses to the public transportation fleet, the Interior Ministry has purchased 1,500 buses from Iran Khodro Diesel Company, 1,000 from Shahab Khodro Company, 500 from Oqab Afshan Company and 500 from Kerman Khodro Company. The reason behind these small orders has been linked to ongoing protests by service companies over the poor quality of domestically-produced buses.

Demand
Mohammad Ahmadi-Bafandeh, managing director of Tehran and Suburban Bus Company, said his company desperately needs new buses to improve and expand services.
According to the official, the company has 2,400 new buses that run on gas but half of them are not working properly.
On average, some 800,000 passengers do not find bus transportation adequate and have to use other means of transport to reach their destinations.
“In order to avoid service delays at bus stations, the company has been forced to use dilapidated buses by repairing them. However, most of them create a great deal of pollution or break down in the middle of the road because of technical faults,“ he said.
The situation is almost the same in other bus services companies as they also complain about the poor quality of domestically-produced buses as well as the fact that some quickly become dilapidated.
So the pressing question is whether the situation is going to improve now that the government has decided to import secondhand buses from Brazil?
It should be noted that 12 years ago the country imported a large number of secondhand buses from European countries, which also failed to give the desired results.

Summation
Many advocates argue that an efficient public transport system has substantial economic benefits for users as well as the country, as it helps reduce air pollution and boosts savings.
Transport-oriented infrastructure maximizes economic returns on investments by encouraging trade transactions and transit. Translating the economic impact into a steady source of revenue for public transport construction and operation has been a dream for most urban planners.
Officials deny allegations that the government will import secondhand or poor quality buses from China or other countries. If that’s the case--and let’s hope that it is--then the question is why the government is not purchasing the much-needed buses from domestic producers, whose products are of acceptable quality and inexpensive, instead of importing them?