TEHRAN – Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam-Hossein Shafeie has said that the government should put more importance on the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for realizing the year’s motto which is “surge in production”.

As reported by the ICCIMA portal, in a meeting with Asghar Mosaheb, the acting head of Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO), Shafeie stressed the need to strengthen the interaction between the government and the private sector, saying: “Increasing government’s attention to supporting SMEs is one of the requirements for materializing the surge in production.”

“In the current situation in which the government must pay more attention to domestic production and capacity building to materialize the “surge in production”, it is more important to address the problems of the small and medium industries as a large chain in the country’s production and employment,” he stressed.

Further in the meeting, Mosaheb for his part emphasized the use of private sector capacities in formulating government’s operational and development plans, saying that promoting joint cooperation between the government and the private sector will increase the productivity of small and medium enterprises and the two sides can work to make it happen.

ISIPO believes in developing joint cooperation with ICCIMA in implementing strategic plans to help develop the country’s SMEs, he said.

According to Mosaheb, implementation of cluster development programs and subcontracting exchange systems, as well as promoting new ways of financing for small and medium enterprises are among the programs that can solve some of the problems of the SMEs through cooperation with the government.

He also underlined the use of the potentials of the country’s joint chambers of commerce to develop trade relations between Iranian SMEs and the private sectors of other countries and expressed hope that increasing the level of interaction and improving the production standards of the SMEs would lead to economic development for these enterprises.

EF/MA