Transferring a major portion of the economy to the private sector is the main prerequisite for implementing the general policies of Article 44 of Iran’s Constitution which seeks large-scale privatization, said chairman of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines (TCCIM) Yahya Al-e Es’haq.
He told Fars News Agency that the chamber should perform its duties by preparing suitable grounds. “We should move away from the current economic situation, which dates back to 80 years ago. We did not perform well in the field of economy in the past,“ he regretted. Iran, which is located on the North-South Corridor, can be considered a golden gateway to countries in the East and the West.
“TCCIM can help the government, parliament and economic institutes draw up the bylaws and strategies,“ he noted.
He called on the State Expediency Council to pay more attention to a draft prepared by the TCCIM to implement Article 44.
Given that 80 percent of the state-run economy is due to be handed over to the private sector, increasing the capacity and entrusting more responsibilities to the chamber is of high importance, he said.
The chamber can be involved in many activities including establishing investment companies, providing legal counseling and cooperating with foreign companies, noted Al-e Es’haq.
A huge amount of money has been spent on training managers of the state-run entity, he said adding that they should cooperate with the private sector in solving their problems.
He added that manpower is important in materializing the objectives of privatization. He regretted that the capacities of 3.5 million graduates and a large number of students have not been properly utilized and mismanagement is the main reason for the problem.
Chambers of commerce can play a key role in rectifying the situation, he noted adding that they can also assist the Judiciary draw up rules and regulations and pave the way for implementing Article 44.
“If we can’t implement Article 44, we cannot achieve the targets of Vision 2025,“ he added. Notification of general policies of Article 44 was a big step towards developing the economic structure which has been under state monopoly in recent decades.
“By notifying state officials of the general policies of Article 44 at a time the country is involved in many other pressing issues such as the nuclear case, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has attached great importance to privatization. Therefore, all officials should try their best to implement it,“ he stated.
The government is obliged to boost the private sector’s share in the economy, under Note C of the constitution’s Article 44. To this end, state-owned organizations and ministries have taken extensive measures as experts debate the pros and cons of privatization in all fields.
Article 44 states that Iran’s economy comprises three sectors: state, cooperative and private, based on systematic and sound planning. The state sector includes all large-scale and mother industries, foreign trade, major minerals, banking, insurance, power generation, aviation, shipping, transportation and the like. All these will be publicly owned and administered by the state.
The cooperative sector includes cooperative companies and enterprises concerned with production and distribution in urban and rural areas. And the private sector consists of agricultural, animal husbandry, industrial, trade and service activities that supplement the economic operations of the state and cooperative sectors.

Iran will provide oil at a concessionary rate of $110 per barrel to Sri Lanka until July under an agreement signed during the recent visit to the South Asian nation by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Speaking at the weekly cabinet briefing, Sri Lankan Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana said that though oil prices are increasing in the world market, ’with this relief measure, the country has been able to save nearly $1,500 million under this agreement’, according to Fars News Agency.
A committee appointed by the Sri Lankan president is studying world oil price fluctuations to find out ways of providing relief for consumers.
“We do not want to place burdens on ordinary masses and have not taken any decision to increase fuel prices,“ he said. “Once the expansion of the Sapugaskanda oil refinery is completed with Iranian assistance, we can save a huge amount of money spent on oil imports,“ the Sri Lankan minister added.

Despite obstacles created by some western countries, the Islamic Republic has managed to acquire the technology for horizontal directional drilling (HDD), said engineering and planning manager of Oil Pipeline and Telecommunication Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company.
“For the first time, Iranian specialists succeeded in installing 12 pipes across Bahmanshir river bed using HDD technology,“ explained Abbas-Ali Jafari, according to IRINN.
While noting that this method was initially used in 1972 in the US by installing just one gas pipe, he added, “Crossing 12 oil pipes with different diameters through a canal with a width of only 40 meters has been achieved in Iran and for the first time in the world.“
Directional boring, commonly called horizontal directional drilling or HDD, is a steerable trenchless method of installing underground pipes, conduits and cables in a shallow arc along a prescribed bore path by using a surface launched drilling rig, with minimal impact on the surrounding area.
Directional boring is used when trenching or excavating is unsuitable.

Moscow is nervous that Iranian gas could revive the Nabucco gas pipeline supported by the European Union, just when, thanks to its deft maneuverings over the past year by projecting the rival South Stream, it thought it had all but killed the US-backed project.
According to Financial Times, the Iran-Switzerland gas deal means the early commissioning of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), a joint project between Swiss company EGL and Norway’s StatoilHydro. In short, Iranian gas could find its way to Europe through these two pipelines in the near future--Nabucco and TAP.
Moscow would not like such a turn of events. As Igor Tomberg, an expert at Moscow’s elite Institute of World Economy, put it, “Tehran has been pursuing a more energetic gas policy, indicating its readiness to cooperate with the European Union. This can be interpreted as the struggle for the vast--some say inexhaustible--European gas market.
Competition on the gas market will soon affect prices. Meanwhile, Iran is playing on the EU’s desire to ease its dependence on Russia and save money.“
Tomberg concludes, “Iran and Russia should probably not compete against each other but join hands on the gas market. Moreover, there could be an agreement under which Russia will continue to supply gas to Europe, while Iran will export its gas to the East.“
But will the Iranians heed such advice? It is the million-dollar question. The Iranians want to keep all options open. In any case, why should they stay out of the European market? Energy exports would be the bridge that facilitated Iran’s all-round integration with the western world. The Iranian elites know that the ’East’ will not and could not compensate Iran for forgoing the European option.
Equally, Tehran is frustrated with the presumptuousness that underlines the thinking behind these potential eastern partners, who opt for selective engagement of Iran rather than having the willingness to offer comprehensive strategic cooperation with Iran based on shared concerns and interests in a multipolar world.
In essence, after having thwarted the US campaign to isolate it, Iran is now shifting diplomatic gear to ensure that its integration with the international market becomes irreversible.
The US and its allies fear that the gas deal between Iran and Switzerland may encourage other gas deals between Tehran and Europe.
“The worry is that the Swiss deal will lead others, such as the Austrians, to confirm energy investments in Iran, and that companies like France’s Total could then follow suit and sign contracts of their own,“ an unnamed western diplomat told Financial Times.
Despite US pressure for tougher sanctions against Iran, Tehran and Bern signed a 25-year supply agreement in March, worth up to $42 billion.
Washington and its allies are concerned that new energy agreements between Iran and European companies may further reduce the effect of illegal sanctions against Tehran as Asian firms have long defied the US and signed such deals.
Flynt Leverett, a former US National Security Council adviser on Middle Eastern issues, said Sinopec of China and SKS of Malaysia had concluded deals with Tehran even after sanctions forced US companies to stop signing supply contracts with Iran.
Despite UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s rhetoric to broaden sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program ’to include investment in liquefied natural gas’, the newspaper says no such sanctions are on the agenda of the UN or the EU.
European diplomats also conceded the possibility of a EU agreement on sanctions on Iran’s energy sector in the immediate future to be very low.
It seems even US threats to impose punitive measures on firms investing above $20 million in Iran’s energy sector, would not dissuade energy majors from investing in Iran, which holds the world’s second largest gas reserves after Russia.

Export incentives for technical and engineering services reached 200 billion rials in the year to March 2008, against 92 billion rials in the year to March 2007, said deputy head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization.
This indicates a 100-percent growth in export incentives for technical and engineering services, Babak Afqahi, a advisor to commerce minister, told ISNA.
He explained that export of technical and engineering services reached $1.6 billion in the year to March 2007 and it increased to $2 billion in the year to March 2008.
Iranian companies have implemented over 60 projects pertaining to power generation and transmission, communications, post, water supply, water treatment, construction of power plants and establishing gas pipelines in countries such as Venezuela, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, UAE, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Oman, Afqahi pointed out.
The official noted that exporters of technical and engineering goods and services would receive eight percent of its revenues as export incentives from the government.

Iranian auto manufacturing company Iran Khodro is to open its permanent showroom in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday.
According to a fax sent to Iran Daily, the company’s sales representative in the UAE, Alireza Aminifar said that the aim is to be present in the UAE market, which is very competitive, and to introduce and supply Iranian made cars.
He added that the Iranian made sedan ’Samand’ has been welcomed by UAE residents of different nationalities and the company has opened service offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah so far.

Iran has about 55 billion tons of mineral reserves of which more than 37 million tons are proven reserves, said Minister of Industries and Mines Ali Akbar Mehrabian.
He further said that 215 million tons of the mineral reserves are being extracted, adding that conducting further exploration operations will help the country produce various minerals, ISNA reported.
The minister stated that continuation of privatization trend and implementation of Article 44 of the Constitution are on the top of the government’s agenda, noting his ministry is forerunner in privatization of state-run companies.
Mehrabian said that expansion of private sector activities is a duty of the Ministry of Industries and mines.