GORGAN -- Advisor to Golestan Province Governor General, Ms. Sakineh Rafi-Nejad, said that 20 women's and youth Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are active throughout Golestan Province, out of which only eight have permits.

Addressing a press conference here Tuesday, she added that so far four cultural and artistic institutions, two research institutes, one charity society and one environmental organization have been officially registered in the province.

According to her, the preliminary measures have already been taken to register the remaining NGOs.

Referring to the fact that women's and youth institutions should be strengthened to work toward solving their dilemmas, she said, "Attaching importance to the decisive role of NGOs is inevitable, if development is called for." She underlined that one of the major deficiencies of the NGOs is their lack of educational programs and their unawareness of the latest scientific achievements.

She added that Golestan Province governor general's office has embarked on tackling such a problem to some extent by offering a term of training course.

She pointed to the limited number of the scientific board throughout the province as one of the serious obstacles confronting the training of the NGOs in the province.

She recalled that 85 percent of NGOs members attended the first training workshop held in Golestan Province.

Referring to the difficulties of women's NGOs in Golestan Province, she recalled that failure in accepting the intrinsic potentials, lack of experts as well as non-institutionalization of the collective culture among women are some of the existing problems, IRNA reported. She added, "Once the coordinating council of women's NGOs starts operation in the near future, the existing problems will be partially solved."