Once the medical insurance databank is compiled, only individuals whose names are not registered can be covered by the plan.

According to statistics, close to nine million Iranians do not have any type of health insurance.
Expressing this in an interview with the Persian daily ’Khorasan’, deputy head of Medical Services Insurance Organization elaborated on a plan to provide health insurance to those who are not covered by any insurance services.
Hamid Reza Ghaffari noted that the government has allocated two trillion rials in the budget for the fiscal year March 2008-9 to implement the plan.
He pointed out that the insurance premium currently stands at 55,000 rials, half of which is paid by the beneficiary and the rest by the government. Although a self-insurance program is also available, it has not been well received by the people due to high premium rates, Ghaffari said.
He continued that about 2.5 million needy people who are provided for by Imam Khomeini Relief Committee and State Welfare Organization have also been insured in accordance with Public Insurance Law.
However there are uninsured persons who can neither afford to pay insurance premiums nor are covered by supportive organizations, he said.
Therefore, the plan targets two groups: those uninsured people who can afford the costs and those who cannot.
“It is an ideal situation to cover all the uninsured people but it is not mandatory. This plan only concerns health insurance. It does not include retirement benefits,“he said.
Ghaffari added, “A working group comprising of government representatives is considering ways to implement the plan. Once finalized, it will be put in force.“
Since the premium of the proposed insurance plan is low compared to other kinds of insurance policies such as self-insurance, voluntary insurance and special insurance systems for government employees and armed forces personnel, many insured persons may cancel their insurance contracts with other insurance companies and opt for the proposed insurance system, the official cautioned.
However, once the medical insurance databank is compiled, only individuals whose names are not registered can be covered by the plan, he assured.
Also, deputy health minister said that uninsured individuals used to receive part of the hospital charges from insurance. However on the order of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, policies have been adopted to provide insurance to uninsured individuals permanently with the help of the government, said Hassan Aminlou. Therefore, they can benefit from medical services through the insurance system, he added.
Earlier, Minister of Welfare and Social Security Abdolreza Mesri said that the government has drawn up an ambitious plan to provide health insurance to all Iranians.
He commended the performance of the Medical Services Insurance Organization saying, “The organization is one of the best and the most successful entities in rendering insurance services. Nowhere in the world, can you see 20 million villagers provided with health insurance in one year.“
The minister made the remarks in reference to an all-inclusive plan to cover rural and tribal people with medical insurance last year. Over 20 million rural and tribal families are insured under the plan.

Royal Dutch Shell has pulled out of Phase 13 of Iran’s South Pars gas field, but may join in the later stages of the field’s development.
“We have agreed to the principle of substitution of alternative later phases for the PLNG [Persian liquefied natural gas] project so that the NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company) can proceed with the immediate development of Phase 13,“ Reuters quoted a spokeswoman for the Anglo-Dutch company as saying.
Shell, Europe’s largest oil and gas company, teamed up with Spain’s Repsol to sign a memorandum of understanding with the NIOC in January 2002 to invest $10 billion in the gas project, known as Persian LNG.
The spokeswoman would not give a reason for the decision. Repsol was not available for comment.
Shell’s decision is reportedly due to US pressure to prevent foreign companies from investing in Iran over the country’s nuclear program.
According to a report published in the Spanish daily Expansion in early May, Shell and Repsol were trying to help Iran find new partners for the project, including the Russian energy giant, Gazprom, the Indian Oil Corporation and Chinese companies.

A phase of the huge South Pars (SP) gas field that is operated by Norwegian StatoilHydro will start production soon, a senior Iranian energy official said.
Mohammad Javad Shams, member of the Pars Oil and Gas Company’s Board of Directors, told Fars News Agency that the eighth phase of South Pars gas field development project will begin production in the month from June 21, followed by phases six and seven. Statoil is responsible for the offshore part of the project.
He said that they would reach full production capacity of 1.3 billion cubic feet (33.8 million cubic meters) each of natural gas per day by next March.
“(This) is about 300 million cubic feet above the yield from other phases which stands at one billion cubic feet a day,“ said Shams, who is the project manager for South Pars’ phases 6-8.
He was speaking a day after Royal Dutch Shell said it had pulled out of developing another phase of South Pars following pressure from US lawmakers.
Washington is spearheading a drive to force Tehran to give up its nuclear rights.

Iran will supply between 150,000 and 180,000 barrels of oil per day to Indonesia from the refinery in Banten or between 12 percent and 14 percent of IndonesiaÕs total need.

Iran will strive to increase trade with Indonesia to 1 percent of the latter’s overall international trade, Iran’s Ambassador to Indonesia Behrooz Kamalvandi said on Saturday.
“For instance, if Indonesia’s international trade totals $200 billion, Iran will try to make the value of its bilateral trade with Indonesia reach 1 percent of the figure, or $2 billion,“ the ambassador told Antara.
“Currently, trade between Indonesia and Iran is only $400 million or less than a quarter of our target,“ he said.
Iran, he said, will continue to work toward further cooperation on major projects with Indonesia.
He said that Iran and Indonesia had concluded agreements to cooperate on two major projects, including the construction of an oil refinery in Banten province, Indonesia, at an investment of $6 billion.
“The second is the construction of a fertilizer factory known as Hengam project in southern Iran whose investment value will reach $700 million in the first phase. The two countries have agreed to contribute 50 percent of the figure,“ he said.
Based on the agreement, Iran will supply between 150,000 and 180,000 barrels of oil per day to Indonesia from the refinery in Banten or between 12 and 14 percent of Indonesia’s total need. Iran’s oil supply is also intended to help Indonesia face the worldwide energy crunch.
“Part of the refinery’s production worth about $2 billion will be exported to Iran,“ Kamalvandi said, adding that the oil refinery in Banten was expected to be completed in 2012.
He said that the oil refinery project in Banten will actually be implemented by three countries: Indonesia, which would control 40 percent of the shares, Iran (40 percent) and Malaysia (20 percent).
On the Hengam fertilizer factory, he said Iran is expected to export one million tons of the plant’s output to Indonesia. In addition to oil and fertilizer, he said, Iran would also supply gas at a lower price to Indonesia on a long-term basis.
Another move by the two countries to enhance relations is cooperation in the technology sector. Indonesia and Iran still have opportunities to develop potentials which have not been exploited and Iran would continue to work with Indonesia to use the opportunities.
The two countries now have harmonious relations, mainly after Indonesia abstained in a vote on the third illegal UN Security Council resolution on Iran’s nuclear program (Resolution 1803) in March.
Meanwhile, secretary-general of Iran’s Cooperatives Organization held talks with chairman of Indonesian Cooperative Council on ways to develop cooperation.
Mohammad Reza Ramezani and Adi Sasono discussed the formation of a technical committee to speed up Tehran-Jakarta economic cooperation.
Based on an agreement signed earlier, the two countries will form a technical committee to remove obstacles to the activities of Iranian and Indonesian businessmen.
Ramezani said that preliminary steps have been taken and the committee is expected to start work in the next few months.
Cooperation in the exchange of scientific, data and economic experiences, holding special exhibits to present cooperatives productions, and promoting investments and trade are included in the agreement.

The Second National Seminar on Dams and Hydroelectric Power Plants will begin on Tuesday in Tehran and continue until Thursday, said managing director of Iran Power and Water Resources Development Company.
Abbas Aliabadi told IRNA that the event aims to promote collaboration among researchers, managers and experts involved in dam building and hydroelectric power plant industries and help develop human resources by holding training workshops.
The annual per capita precipitation in Iran stands at 2,000 cubic meters whereas the figure is 8,000 cubic meters in Europe, he noted.
Therefore, supplying potable water from hydroelectric power plants is an achievable goal, the official contended.
Currently, about 77 percent of the demand for water are supplied from dams for generating electricity, he noted. As per targets set in the Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2005-2010), about 12,000 megawatts of electricity should be generated from hydropower plants from the current figure of 6,000 megawatts, Aliabadi underlined.

Iran’s petrochemical output will reach 35 million tons in the year to March 2009, announced managing director of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC).
In the last Iranian year (March 2007-8), 12 petrochemical projects with a total nominal capacity of over 15 million tons came on stream, said Gholamhossein Nejabat.
The projects were valued at $5.8 billion and the country’s petrochemical output increased to 23 million tons, the official added.
NPC’s exports during March 2007-8 exceeded $8 billion, he said, adding that the company signed 7 contracts valued at $2.8 billion during the period, Moj News Agency quoted him as saying.
Italy, Turkey, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Qatar were the main importers of Iran’s petrochemical products.
The share of petrochemicals in the country’s non-oil exports, which is currently 37 percent, is expected to increase to 40 percent next year, Nejabat said.

Tehran and Baku will soon continue talks on the export of Azerbaijan’s surplus electricity to Iran, a senior Azeri official told Fars News Agency.
Head of the Azerenergy Company said that Azerbaijan would increase its power generation capacity to 35 billion kilowatt/hour (kW/h) per year in the next few years with the construction of new power stations. The current generation capacity of power stations is 25 billion kWt/h.
“The increase in capacity will enable Azerbaijan to export electricity to other regional countries,“ Etibar Piriverdiyev stated.