TEHRAN- The chairman of the Business Environment Improvement Center of Iran’s Ministry of Labor announced that a single-window business system will be launched in four provinces of the country during this [Iranian calendar] week (Saturday-Friday).

Ali Firoozi said that this system will be set up in the centers of four provinces, which are Mashhad (Khorasan Razavi Province), Tabriz (East Azarbaijan Province), Shiraz (Fars Province), and Isfahan (Isfahan Province), in order to reduce the required time for the establishment of a company to three days.

Last month, the head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) had announced that the single-window business system would be launched in four provinces of the country soon.

During a ceremony on May 30, Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA) launched the business single-window system.

Speaking in the inauguration ceremony of the single-window system, which was participated by Iran’s Finance Minister Farhad Dejpasand, TCCIMA Head Masoud Khansari said a single-window system for the starting businesses would be a great step toward improving the business environment in the country.

He said the first step in improving the business environment is to establish a single-window to facilitate the process of starting a business.

Deputy Economy Minister Mohammad-Ali Dehqan Dehnavi along with the ministry officials and TCCIMA representatives were also present in the inaugural ceremony.

Addressing the attendees, Khansari noted that in order to turn threats [U.S. sanction] into opportunities the government needs to support the private sector by reducing unnecessary bureaucracies and facilitating license issuances.

To this end, improving the business environment and improving competitiveness indicators are of utmost importance, and fortunately, in both areas, the Tehran and Iran chambers have taken very good steps that can help government agencies, Khansari said.

“We are happy to have been able to do that in the Tehran chamber, and we hope that this will be a prelude to other measures to improve the business environment,” he stressed.

Also speaking in the ceremony, Deputy Economy Minister Dehqan Dehnavi said that with the single-window system going operational, the time for issuing business licenses, which previously took 72 days on average, is going to be reduced to three days.

“Up until now, it took an average of 72.5 days to obtain these licenses, and in this regard, we are in the 178th place among the world countries,” Dehnavi noted.

Referring to the Economy Minister’s support for the single window project, the official said: "With the approval of the minister, the 55 days required to authenticate in the tax system is now eliminated, which means there is no need to obtain an economic code to start a business.”

MA/MA