TEHRAN (IRNA) -- President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said here Monday night in a live TV address, “Iran is land of blossoming talents and might and current trend of country’s advancement and development does not match this land’s material and human resources.”

Addressing the Iranian nation and reporting on the economic reforms within the government’s plans, he said, “Taking a look at Iran’s economic outlook during the past 40 to 50 years would attract our attention towards two differing, and rather contrasting phenomena.”
The president reiterated, “The country we had after the victory of the Islamic Revolution was a left behind land, which had not achieved its deserved status in any of the sectors, and Iran’s scientific, economic, agricultural and technological fields were entirely segregated, with no bright horizons at sight for the country.” Pointing out that after the victory of the Islamic Revolution great developments have occurred throughout Iran, President Ahmadinejad said, “The services rendered to the nation during the course of the past 29 years have been unique.”
He reiterated, “Of course there have been periods in the history of this country when broad construction works took place and the country’s cultural heritage is proof for the existence of those eras.” Ahmadinejad referred to the advancement of Iran during the reign of Safavid Dynasty, arguing, “During the Safavid era, too, many services were rendered to the Iranians, including setting the foundations of a systematic economy, road construction, improving the living standards at villages, keeping in mind that the government’s role in people’s lives was minute then, and restricted to safeguarding national security and the nation’s solidarity.”
The president emphasized, “After the revolution developments took place at various fields, such as in industrial, scientific, technological, and agricultural fields -- all of which were on the verge of total annihilation -- that were unprecedented, so that our agricultural sector has a backbone now and is able of presenting services to the nation despite having suffered from many years of draught.”
Ahmadinejad added, “Today we are at the peak of success in many branches of scientific and technological activities and in modern technologies, such as nuclear and nano technologies, as well as the aerospace technology we have reached noticeable advancement, so that we have sent to space our explorer spaceships and their related satellite, too, is ready to be launched.”
The president referred to the unprecedented advancement of the country in rural and suburban development, dam construction, port construction, oil industries and other infrastructure activities, arguing, “Unfortunately, despite all such advancement, we feel that the current status quo is not truly reflective of the Iranian nation material capabilities and this land’s human talents.”
Ahmadinejad emphasized, “The output of the conducted works and the investments made is not befitting for the Iranian nation and we notice certain deficiencies in the general status our country’s economic apparatus.
President Ahmadinejad added, “The Government has surveyed the general status of the country’s economy and the roots of the obstacles for advancement, and today we have a e clear and comprehensive image of the problems and a proper work plan.”
Ahmadinejad said that not achieving an economic growth rate appropriate with the country’s potentials is one of the obstacles and deficiencies currently, arguing, “We make huge investments and enjoy a high quality and quantity of human resources, the country’s top managers and administrative organs work some 20 hours a day, but the economic growth of our country is not constant and sustainable, suffering greatly from slightest shocks.”
The president referred to the government’s moves during the past two years in various fields, including those in different industries, arguing, “The country’s economic growth was satisfactory last year, but it could have also been better.”
Ahmadinejad emphasized, “The curve of the country’s economic growth from 1998 to the present day shows great fluctuations and has never been growing constantly, showing incongruous growth in various sections, with no part growing parallel with the rest.”
The president referred to unemployment problem as the country’s economy’s second major problem, saying, “We have been entangled with the unemployment problem for some 40 years and at least ever since 20 years ago, particularly for the past 20 years we have had two-digit unemployment rates, with the exception of a short period when the rate was below 10 percent.”
Ahmadinejad pointed out that the entire plans have been implemented but the unemployment rate has not become a single digit figure and the country’s work force does not enjoy appropriate opportunities, adding, “Of course we tried to decrease the unemployment rate to less than 11 percent, but this rate is not constant and has constant fluctuations.”
The president said that inflation is our national economy’s third major problem, arguing, “Inflation, too, has a 50 year record in our country and everyone feels it, while inflation has had a step by step fluctuation.”
He reiterated, “In country’s development plan efforts have been made to lower this inflation rate, but that has not happened and as a result we inject liquidity to the system in form of making investments, but the output is not satisfactory.”
Ahmadinejad considered the main root of inflation in country’s total dependence on oil incomes, saying, “The main source of the government’s income is oil sales and ever since the victory of the revolution everyone has wished to decrease this dependence and lots of efforts have been made to reach that end, but still the major part of the state budget depends on oil sales.”
The president emphasized, “Inflation is among the major roots adding to deepening the social gaps and depriving the government of the chance to devise proper economic plans, while creating problems for implementation of the government’s various plans, and we therefore need to harness and decrease our national economy’s inflation rate.”
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad continued his report referring to the existence of lots of problems in our national economy, blocking the path for proper and sustainable planning both for the system and for the nation.
He said, “The existence of such problems and obstacles leads to waste of national assets and increase in spending in various economic sectors.”
The president considered wasting the national resources and extravagance as two major problems with our economy arguing, “Currently the greatest waste is in consuming energy in our country, while the wasted time and other resources too, are huge, and we can for instance particularly refer to the waste of different types of energy, fuel, bread, electricity and time.”
Ahmadinejad said that extravagance is another problem in various parts of our economy, adding, “Unfortunately extravagance takes place at large scale in many sections of our national economy, while our culture emphatically advises us to avoid it.”
He said, “For instance, we use excessive amounts of water in our agricultural sector, and while irrigation of one hectare of land is possible using one to two thousand liters of water, even if we were not suffering from draught, the current water usage is much higher and extravagance has unfortunately become habitual in that sector.” He said that the other problem is the deepening gap between the rich and poor social classes, arguing, “lowering this gap was one of the ideals of our revolution, and of course we are not opposed to living in abundance of a social group, but what bothers us is that a large group is our society is deprived.”
President Ahmadinejad pointed out, “Lots of work has been done in this respect and the gap has been lowered to some extent, but if the general status of our economy would not be properly altered, this gap would not be eliminated,” adding, “This gap takes roots from great differences in consumption and incomes.”
He said, “The gap is still too deep, and since we are all members of the same family it is not right for some members to consume several times more than the consummation of the other members.”
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad added in his live TV address, “Why can we not harness the inflation rate and fix the economic rate despite spending tremendous efforts and allocating lots of funds?”
He added, “The conducted technical surveys prove that there are several reasons for the emergence of this economic status, which are mainly structural problems.”
Ahmadinejad said one of the problems is the low productivity rate in the country, reiterating, “We have a very low productivity rate in our country and do not get an appropriate outcome from the extent of our human power and assets’ investment,” adding, “We need to tackle this problem at any rate.”
He added, “The government has re-defined the productivity system and these new definitions need to be elaborated at people’s houses and country’s schools.”
President Ahmadinejad said, “For instance, we need to allocate the required assets at all sectors and expect them to be appropriately productive,” adding, “For instance in industrial sector, if one unit of energy can lead to production of five units of products, this situation should not be vice versa.”
The president considered the second cause for extravagance being on-goal-oriented of the allocated subsidies system, arguing, “the subsidies are an economic tool at the disposal of the economic mangers in a bid to support the low income and deprived social groups; for the establishment of a comprehensive social security system; for elimination of the social gaps; and for supporting certain industrial sectors that benefit the society or certain other beneficial measures.” He added, “The subsidies need to be distributed in a goal oriented manner, but allocation of them pursue no certain goals currently, for instance in case of fuel, energy, electricity, water, washing detergent, rice, and some other consumer goods we pay subsidies, but these subsidies are not allocated to those groups that truly deserve them and 70 percent of them are absorbed by three social deciles, while they should be evenly allocated.”
Ahmadinejad emphasized that this phenomenon has had a negative effect on our industries and service sections, leading to sales of inputs, rather than the output of work in our economy, reiterating, “In the laws seen in our development plans, our comprehensive social security and welfare plans, and our transportation plans the government has been urged to pay goal oriented subsidies, that means paying them mainly to the people and places where they are most needed, such as villages, sanitary purposes, health and education.” He set example about allocation of subsidies in the country, saying, “Only in oil products section, considering the price as 90 dollars per barrel, we are currently paying over 900,000 billion rials of subsidies (9.000 rials equals one U.S. dollar approximately), while using the same amount we can create an economic evolution, uproot poverty, an activate various economic sectors, but we spend that mount and the problems, too, remain unsolved.”
The president pointed out that government is not opposed to consumption, but is rather after creation of jobs and wealth in the country, saying, “The current apparatus of paying subsidies is very problematic, since it is meant to help the deprived classes, but it works in the opposite direction.”
He said, “The government intends to make the subsidies goal oriented,” adding, “The subsidies need to fill the social gaps, lead to economic growth, boost production and solve the people’s problems.”
President Ahmadinejad further reiterated in his live TV address, “In near future the National Statistics Center of Iran will issue a communiqué so that those who need to apply for subsidies would fill out forms that will be evaluated, so that with highest benefits we would leave behind the goal-orientation period of subsidies.”
The head of country’s Supreme Economy Council considered another problem with our economy to be the tax system, saying, “The taxes collected presently are neither balanced, nor the appropriate amount,” adding, “In most countries the amount is over 20 percent of the gross national income, but in our country the comparative figure is 7 percent, most of which is paid by those with monthly salaries.”
He referred to the point that many tax collecting opportunities are not properly defined, arguing, “Since we do not have a proper tax collection system, many of our citizens do not even know they have to pay taxes.”
Ahmadinejad added, “The government has devised the comprehensive, automatic information and tax collection system, that based on proper training and sufficient information dissemination, can improve and reform the country’s tax collection system.” The president also referred to the status quo of the country’s customs system, arguing, “One of the other problematic points of our economy is our customs system,” adding, “Our Customs Organization has shrank regarding the size of its staff, but swollen larger considering the tasks and volume of commissioned works to it.”
He said, “There is no connection link among the different customs offices nationwide either, which is why despite the hard work done, the problems remain unsolved.”
Ahmadinejad emphasized, “We need an appropriate apparatus in order to reform our Customs Organization and the government is after solving this problem through ratification of a law.”
The president referred to the country’s banking system as one of the root causes of economic problems, saying, “The law on our banking operations is not defined structurally the way it should have been elaborated,” adding, “The banking system is like the veins and arteries in a human body that is in charge of pumping fresh and healthy blood into every limb of the system and this system’s dysfunction can lead to serious deficiencies in entire system.” He emphasized that criticizing the banking system does not equal criticizing the body of country’s banks, nor the management of the banks’ heads, who are among the most hard working social groups, saying, “The current banking system of our country is not capable of evaluating the economic active elements and cannot calculate the real benefits that are to be paid to various economic activities.”
Ahmadinejad said, “The banking system does not have the time to have proper supervision over the process of economic activities; it pays loans and allocates facilities, but they are not spent where they are meant to, while paying those loans and allocation of those facilities need to be in accordance with precise regulations in order for them to reach the active economic bodies.”
He reiterated, “Currently the country’s banking system cannot lead the assets towards the country’s economic objectives,” adding, “It is possible for a small group of people to take advantage of this system illegally, but if this structure would be reformed this problem, too, would be solved.”
The president posed the question, “How come under such conditions that allocation of facilities by the banking system has been increased the country’s economic growth rate has not raised proportionally?” reiterating, “The government has prepared a plan to prepare the infrastructure of our country’s banking system in a way that the bank managers would be capable of managing and supervising the allocated resources towards their proper usage within the framework of the Islamic economic transaction.”
He said that the system of evaluating the national currency of the country is one of the effective measures in establishment of economic balance in the country, arguing, “If this evaluation would not take place the natural way it should, lots of problems would be injected to our national economy.”
President Ahmadinejad added, “The rate of foreign currencies’ exchange need to be managed and a certain fluctuation needs to allowed.”
He said, “The government is currently in accordance with the laws trying to harness harsh fluctuation in value of our national currency, since otherwise it would keep sending wrong signals to the general body of our economy, creating economic problems for our country.”