TEHRAN -- President Ebrahim Raisi spoke at length about the economy at a gathering attended by hundreds of experts and businessmen in what was described as the first international privatization event in Iran.
Raisi said hard decisions to be made which some people may not agree with. He also focused on the issue of privatization in Iran.
“Privatization does not mean abandoning industrial units. It is the beginning of the government’s supervision on privatized companies,” he said.
For the past 15 years successive governments have talked about privatization.
During the past years, hundreds of workers of privatized companies have protested to the privatization process that has handed over many government companies to well-connected but often disinterested and non-expert individuals who only used the assets to take hefty loans from government banks with no intention to pay back.
Many of these companies including the sugar mill at Haft Tappeh and the heavy equipment factory in Arak which used to be profitable in the past are currently on the verge of bankruptcy according to their workers.
Raisi said on Saturday that privatization empowers the private sector. He called for looking back and reviewing the privatization process that has taken place.
He said “fair and critical review of the past is essential and inevitable,” so that lessons could be learned, and corruption could be prevented.