‘More Industrial Needs to Be Indigenized’
TEHRAN (Dispatches) - Iran’s Minister of Industry Reza Rahmani has announced that his country is planning to lower the imports of machinery and equipment used in major production lines, in a bid to further indigenize manufacturing capabilities in the face of the U.S. sanctions.
Rahmani said that Iran has a comprehensive plan to "deepen domestic manufacturing and to indigenize the country’s industrial needs”, with reducing the imports of manufacturing goods by $10 billion in 2021.
The comments come as Iran is seeking to diversify its economy amid some tough and unprecedented sanctions imposed by the United States.
Speaking in a meeting with young entrepreneurs in Tehran, Rahmani said Iran was resuscitating thousands of factories and plants that had become defunct as a result of decades of massive imports into the country.
He said more than 1,850 industrial units across the country had already resumed operations while another 2,000 will be reopened until March 2020.
The minister said the government had carried out a major study about import needs in the manufacturing sector, including on the hardware and machinery that are normally produced outside Iran, adding that the results of a survey would be available to domestic companies in a near future.
"In the past, we used to face bottlenecks in supplying some pressing needs of the country’s production process,” Rahmani said, adding, "Today, domestic potentials have emerged concurrent with the implementation of foreign restrictions.”
Iran has reported increased industrial activity, specially in the manufacturing sector, since it began to feel the impacts of the American sanctions.
Output of steel, aluminum and other metals that face high demand in the industry have surged, according to official reports, while companies that supply equipment to the oil industry, the main target of sanctions, have reported lower imports since last year.
Rahmani said that Iran has a comprehensive plan to "deepen domestic manufacturing and to indigenize the country’s industrial needs”, with reducing the imports of manufacturing goods by $10 billion in 2021.
The comments come as Iran is seeking to diversify its economy amid some tough and unprecedented sanctions imposed by the United States.
Speaking in a meeting with young entrepreneurs in Tehran, Rahmani said Iran was resuscitating thousands of factories and plants that had become defunct as a result of decades of massive imports into the country.
He said more than 1,850 industrial units across the country had already resumed operations while another 2,000 will be reopened until March 2020.
The minister said the government had carried out a major study about import needs in the manufacturing sector, including on the hardware and machinery that are normally produced outside Iran, adding that the results of a survey would be available to domestic companies in a near future.
"In the past, we used to face bottlenecks in supplying some pressing needs of the country’s production process,” Rahmani said, adding, "Today, domestic potentials have emerged concurrent with the implementation of foreign restrictions.”
Iran has reported increased industrial activity, specially in the manufacturing sector, since it began to feel the impacts of the American sanctions.
Output of steel, aluminum and other metals that face high demand in the industry have surged, according to official reports, while companies that supply equipment to the oil industry, the main target of sanctions, have reported lower imports since last year.