TEHRAN- The spokesman of the Economic Committee of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) said that the U.S. sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic could not stop the country’s development projects.

“Despite the country's conflict with the most severe sanctions and the coronavirus crisis, although development projects were hampered, their implementation not only did not stop, but important projects were inaugurated”, Mehdi Toghiani noted.

Referring to the U.S. sanctions against the country and the enemy's attempt to cripple Iranian economy, he said, "The campaign of maximum pressure and sanctions against our country caused many problems inside Iran, but the enemy's goals were not achieved.”

“It is true that we experienced a relatively severe inflation; inflation that is unprecedented in the last 20 years, but we did not experience hyperinflation. It means that the country's economy was able to regulate itself”, the spokesman of the Economic Committee further stated.

“Our unemployment has risen, but those surprising numbers, which exist even in the European countries that have no economic pressure, have not been experienced in Iran”, he added.

The U.S. sanctions have targeted Iran’s all aspects of economy and industry, but the “self-reliance” approach that the Islamic Republic has taken to nullify the sanctions has proved that nothing can impede Iran from progress.

Since the U.S. re-imposition of the sanctions, the self-reliance strategy of Iran has been followed up by all state-run and private bodies.

In the past Iranian calendar year, which was named as the year of “Surge in Production” by the leader of the Islamic Revolution, all ministries defined their comprehensive programs to pursue for materialization of that motto.

Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry, as one of the major players in this due, also outlined an all-out plan in this regard.

Since the beginning of the past year, the government has urged various bodies and ministries to take the necessary measures for the realization of the year’s motto.

In this regard, every week several major projects have gone operational all over the country in different sectors.

The Energy Ministry has implemented a program called “A-B-Iran” based on which the ministry inaugurates several energy projects every week, and the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry is also following a new scheme called “Persistent Production-Effective Employment-Sustainable Exports” under which the ministry has inaugurated numerous projects so far.

The Leader named the present year as the year of “Production: Support and the Elimination of Obstacles.”

Regarding this year’s motto, the industry minister said that his ministry along with other ministries like oil and agriculture ministries will make every effort to support production and eliminate the obstacles.

MA/MA