TEHRAN -- The head of the State Productivity Organization here on Sunday said that a monopolistic and noncompetitive economy and absence of a proper mechanism to evaluate performance of directors in public and private sectors are the obstacles to achieving optimal productivity.

Mohammad-Kazem Ebrahimi Khorramabadi told IRNA that the same reasons have blocked efforts to upgrade the current level of productivity in the country.

He said that given the government's sweeping share in the country's gross domestic product (GDP), he said it goes without saying that the main impetus in the drive to boost national productivity should come from the government itself.

Ebrahimi Khorramabadi opined that in order to push the national drive for productivity, executive agencies should be institutionalized and the economy should be favorable to competition.

He regretted what he called the lack of attention given to efforts to increase productivity as a pivotal axis for development by government planners.

In that regard, he stressed, the aim of the country's economic management should be to increase efficiency and to be thoroughly knowledgeable with the methods and tools required to increase the country's productivity.

He put the human productivity rate in Iran during the period from 1386 to 1997 at about 1.2 percent annually, adding that the figure for other countries of the world stood much higher.

Ebrahimi Khorramabadi also revealed the formation of the productivity society of Iran, saying the body was formed with the aim of setting the trend in the improvement of productivity.

He said the society is to monitor private and nongovernmental efforts to increase productivity and stressed that the drive, in order to be effective, should be undertaken at the national level.

(IRNA)