TEHRAN – Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Alireza Razm Hosseini attended the 10th meeting of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA)’s board of directors to discuss major issues related to the private sector, the ICCIMA portal reported on Saturday.

In this meeting, the representatives of the country’s private sector raised several issues including the national budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year (begins on March 21, 2021) and the private sector’s proposals for amending the bill, inflation, and the significance of joining regional treaties including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) for the country’s trade.

Speaking in the meeting, the ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie underlined the negative impact of the sanctions on the performance of the country’s production sector and called for the authorities to make realistic and practical decisions to support the private sector in the face of the created challenges.

“We need to look for ways to make maximum use of the opportunities that the removal of the U.S. sanctions can present in order to strengthen the country’s economy by completing value chains in the production sector, as well as increasing the production of basic goods and changing production methods by using advanced technologies,” the official said.

He further mentioned RCEP, which is a free trade agreement initiated by Indonesia, between the Asia-Pacific nations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The members of this agreement account for about 30 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) and have a market of 2.2 billion people, or about 30 percent of the world's population, which unfortunately has not received much attention in Iran, while the treaty could have implications for both members and other economies such as Iran, he stated.

The ICCIMA head finally emphasized that the country’s trade regulations and policies should be amended to facilitate economic relations with other nations and also pave the way for joining such treaties.

EF/MA

Photo: ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie