TEHRAN - Cinema critic Ali Mo'allem said that officials are only building cinema halls on paper in periodicals and other publications.

He added that all of them, including the officials of the House of Cinema, the City Council and the Tehran Municipality, are only making cinema on paper.

Referring to the news released about the agreement between the House of Cinema and officials of the City Council and the Tehran Municipality on building small cinema halls, Mo'allem said that over the past few years there has only been talk about building new cinema halls but no action.

He emphasized that as long as cinemas are not profitable, it is not practical to encourage the private sector to build cinemas.

Mo'allem explained that when a capitalist from the private sector can earn huge profits by investing money in housing construction, then one can not expect him to invest his money in building cinema halls and wait 30 years to get a return.

He called for the government to enact clear laws and provide serious incentives to encourage private sector investment in the construction of cinema halls.