Housing has always been a subject of debate since a major share of household income is set aside for housing which was a main issue in the second, third and fourth five-year economic development plans.
In the First Five-Year Economic Developmental Plan (1989-1994), housing was not yet a major issue of concern, but it highlighted greater attention to the low income strata.

Experience has it that the private sector is more successful than the public sector in construction activities.

At any rate, the Comprehensive Housing Plan was a step in the right direction by the government in recent years. The plan can and should address the housing needs of the youth, who constitute the largest population group in the country.
“One of the good features of the Comprehensive Housing Plan is that it has been presented in the form of a package. This means that one section of the package should not be overlooked while another part comes under greater scrutiny. The plan must remain a package,“ an expert on urban development, Hamideh Amakchi told Fars news agency.
The main challenge that the government faces in the housing sector is the increasing demands of the youth. Government must above all ease the concerns of the people. As a general rule, meeting any public demand requires planning. The Comprehensive Housing Plan has targets which once materialized can be a great help in meeting the housing needs of the people. Moreover, attention must be paid to the low income strata of the society who grapple with endless financial problems.
Each year over 700,000 residential units are built in the country. Should the government cooperate with real estate developers in meeting the housing demands of the youth or pay direct housing loans?
Amakchi said, “We have two approaches. One focuses on supply and the other on demand. The government must adopt policies which can help balance both approaches.“
It is not among the government’s duties to become involved in the construction of residential units. Experience has it that the private sector has been more successful than the public sector in construction activities. On certain occasions, government has exercised only limited involvement--up to 15 percent--in construction projects for state employees and managers who live in remote areas.
This was merely aimed at providing further incentives to the private sector that was initially reluctant to become involved in construction projects.
One important point is that construction projects yield good profit. It must be understood that the economic system, as a whole, determines the profit of construction projects and not just the housing market itself. In other words, this profit is dependant on various economic parameters. Therefore, the housing sector can be tamed only when other markets are calmed. The problem is not the housing market, but rather other markets and the entire economic modus operandi.

Second International Exhibition of Precious Metals and Stones, Machinery and Equipment will be held in Isfahan from July 14 to 17.
Announcing this, head of provincial headquarters for international exhibitions noted that domestic and foreign companies will attend.
According to IRNA, Mojtaba Zarei stated that members of provincial chambers and gold and gem syndicates from the provinces of East Azarbaijan, Qom, Mazandaran, Khorasan Razavi, Yazd, Fars, Khuzestan, Kerman, Hamedan, Markazi and Gilan have been invited to take part.
Companies from Tajikistan, Italy, China, India, the UAE, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Thailand, Germany, France and Kyrgyzstan have also been invited, but until now only nine have expressed their willingness to take part in the four-day event.
He said that the main objectives of the exhibition are to introduce the latest machinery and equipment of this industry and showcase domestic and foreign companies’ achievements.
“Some 150 domestic and foreign companies were represented in the first exhibition held in Isfahan last July,“ he said.

National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) and PT Pertamina, Indonesia’s state oil company will halve the capacity of a planned refinery in western Java because of limited crude supply.
The refinery in Banten province will now process 150,000 barrels of crude a day compared to the initial plan of 300,000 barrels, Priyo Utomo, head of strategic and business development at Pertamina, said.
According to Fars news agency, the new refinery was expected to help Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest importer of gasoline and diesel, cut dependence on imports as prices of crude rose to a recor.
Pertamina and NIORDC signed an agreement last month to take a 40 percent stake each in the project, with Petrofield Refining Company of Malaysia owning the remaining 20 percent, Utomo said.

IranÕs Swiss deal has alerted world capitals.

Iran has added energy to the quiver of its diplomatic and political arrows. Its advance to the global gas market could disrupt the current balance of interests forever.
If a marker is to be put down, the turning point came on March 17 when Iran and Switzerland signed a 25-year gas deal, as reported by Asia Times.
According to the Swiss government, the deal between Elektrizitats-Gesselschaft Laufenburg and the National Iranian Gas Export Company is worth $42 billion. It is the first of its kind in the recent past in which a European energy company has actually signed a firm contract with Iran.
That the deal signified a watershed in the geopolitics of energy security was apparent from the presence of Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and visiting Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey at the signing ceremony in Tehran. Indeed, Calmy-Rey acknowledged that Switzerland has a strategic interest to secure gas supplies and diversify gas suppliers.
Looking ahead, the Financial Times said, “Following the Swiss-Iranian deal, some European leaders have voiced concern about new investment in LNG, the sector in which groups such as Total, Royal Dutch Shell and Austria’s OMV have struck preliminary agreements with Iran but have yet to sign formal contracts.“
Iran’s Swiss deal has alerted world capitals. China has speeded up negotiations on its $16 billion gas deal over Iran’s North Pars gas field. China’s National Offshore Oil Corporation signed a memorandum last year to expand the gas reserves of North Pars field and also purchase LNG from the output for a 25-year period, but was holding back from signing a contract due to US-Iran nuclear standoff.
It will be China’s second big energy deal, with the Chinese oil refinery Sinopec having signed in early March a $2 billion deal to develop Iran’s Yadavaran oil field. India, too, has begun underscoring that the Iran-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project is ’doable’. In comparison with China, though, India’s decision-making is haphazard.

Pragmatic Alternative
With the Indo-US nuclear deal slipping into limbo, the Manmohan Singh government in Delhi has shrewdly sensed the importance of reaffirming ties with Iran, both as a placatory gesture towards its leftist allies opposing the nuclear deal and as a pragmatic alternative source of energy for the country’s growing economy.
Iran has multiple choices from the East and West. Principal among them is Russia’s Gazprom. To be sure, Moscow has speeded up its energy dialogue with Iran in recent weeks. On April 23, the Iranian government and Gazprom signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the development of oil and gas fields, as well as investment and exploratory studies.
Gazprom’s bid is to secure the rights to develop several sites at Iran’s South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf and the North Azadegan oil deposit in southern Iran. Gazprom is already participating in the development of the South Pars’ second and third phases jointly with France’s TotalElf and Malaysia’s Petronas.
Russia and Iran also held consultations in Tehran within the framework of the Gas Producing Countries’ Forum on April 28. The consultations related primarily to finalization of a charter for forming an organization of gas producing countries.
On the same day, the acting head of Russia’s National Security Council, Valentin Sobolev, arrived in Tehran on a three-day visit for wide-ranging talks on bilateral relations.
Sobolev brought a letter from Putin to Ahmadinejad assuring the latter that Moscow ’confirms the principled position in its relations with Iran, and that its policy does not depend on who is in power at any moment’.
President Ahmadinejad responded, “Iran and Russia are two major powerful countries, and cooperation between our states in settling various problems will serve the interests of the Iranian and Russian nations as well as regional and international security.“
In the words of Ahmadinejad, the two countries could play an effective role in establishing a new model of international trade and diplomatic relations.

Iran’s Customs Administration has reduced the value of imported rice for the purpose of assessing tariffs to relieve the burden on the public as a result of the hike in global prices of the staple food, said caretaker of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance.
Global prices of rice have increased sharply due to severe drought and the ban on export enforced by several Asian countries, Hossein Samsami told Fars news agency.
The custom is obliged to set the price of imported commodities based on their real value, he underlined. Therefore, it has been decided that the value of imported rice be put at $400 per ton, he added.
Also, deputy head of Iran’s Customs Administration, Mohammadreza Naderi said that no excess cost over the legal tariffs would be charged on rice imports.

Tehran’s Islamic City Council has approved a single-urgency plan based on which Tehran Urban and Suburban Railway Company (TUSRC) will receive money from the Oil Stabilization Fund to construct lines three, six and seven of the metro, ISNA reported.
Managing director of TUSRC, Mohsen Hashemi said three billion dollars was to be made available in finance mode for the construction of the said lines, but the company failed to receive the facility due to liquidity shortage.
Currently, the construction of the three lines is underway using funds allocated by the municipality and the government, he explained.
All subway projects have been approved by the city council, he said, adding the government has also endorsed them.
The official disclosed that the company has sent its application to the Interior Ministry. On approval, it will be sent to the Oil Stabilization Fund’s Board of Trustees and then to the Central Bank of Iran.

The government should strengthen the national currency and adopt proper economic policies to reduce the impact of fluctuations in hard currency parity rates, a member of the Majlis Industries and Mines Commission, Ahmad Bozorgian said.
He told Fars news agency that after the Iraq-imposed war (1980-1988), the government decided to fix foreign exchange parity rate to prevent further fluctuation in hard currency prices. “Since the decision was implemented only for the US dollar, floating rates for other currencies led to an increase in the price of imported goods.“
Given that foreign exchange fluctuations in the country are influenced by global conditions, he called on the government to create a balance between the rates of various currencies to protect domestic producers and industrialists against losses.
He referred to lopping off zeros from the national currency and reinforcing financial markets as proper strategies which should be undertaken to tackle some economic problems.

Iran’s North Drilling Company (INDC) has announced that $400 million have been allocated for the construction of four offshore drilling rigs.
According to PIN, managing director of INDC, Asghar Rafiei, added that the rigs would be utilized in INDC’s and Iran’s Central Oil Fields’ projects.
The INDC, he continued, has recently purchased seven onshore drilling rigs, four of which are in operation and three others will be delivered by September.
INDC is a rapidly growing international oil and gas services company focused on providing a comprehensive range of services, new and innovative technology and superior customer service to the energy industry worldwide both for offshore and onshore drilling.
Meanwhile, an oil industry official has said that new offshore and onshore facilities of Bahregansar and Hendijan fields in the Persian Gulf will be launched by September.