Raising efficiency and increasing productivity in financial and human resources of the country. Streamlining the government in policy making matters. Decreasing the redundant governmental tasks and transferring the non-governmental affairs to the other economic sectors. It is evident that the goals mentioned above, will be farfetched if the government fails to provide the requisite conditions for fulfillment of tasks such as supporting of the increased governmental investments in state-run businesses alongside with allocation of some of these businesses to private sectors, identification of the government’s policy making areas and separation of job production duties with state affairs for the purpose of optimizing governmental productivity in these areas and omission of current unnecessary rules and regulation and formulation of new rules with the intention of empowering private and co-operative sectors. In the forth five-year development plan, the proposal for the transference of authorities, liquidation and integration of state owned agencies with the intention of sustaining the privatization plan and consolidating the private sector was brought up which properly supplemented the previous regulations regarding the privatization process. It also introduced various methods concerning the privatization excluding the transference of state owned stocks; presenting a scheduled plan for specifying and segregation of governmental, monopolistic and other sectors’ activities that have the least appeal for the private investors; taking a leap towards the attainments of some of the goals stated in the previous privatization rule. In spite of all these efforts, privatization required more coherent, complete and straightforward rules which became feasible by the means of general policies of the article 44 and codification of the respective bills, emphasizing on the following objectives: Accelerating the national economic growth. Expansion of ownership in general level of people for the purpose of securing economic justice. Improving the efficiency of firms and productivity of human, financial and technological resources. Increasing the general employment level. Encouraging investments and savings amongst people for the purpose of remuneration improvements. Privatization is an important factor facilitating the process of reaching these objectives, by playing a crucial job in the job of transferring the state-owned stocks, improving the efficiency of the firms and lowering the government financial and managerial contribution level in the economic activities of the country. The international conference on globalization, privatization and economic justice was held in Tehran on 6-8 of January, 2008. The opening speeches of the conference were carried out by Dr. Davoud Daesh Jafari - the Minister of Finance and Economic affairs, Dr. Mohammad Nahavandian – the Head of Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines of Iran, Dr. Gholamali Haddad Adel – Chairman of the Iranian Parliament, Mr. Rahim Mashaee - the head of National Center for Globalization Studies and Gholamreza Heidari Kord Zangeneh - the Executive Director of Iranian Privatization Organization.
A large number of national and international experts and highranking authorities attended this conference, enriching the seminar to the higher levels. “With regards to general policies of the article 44 of the Iranian constitution concerning the expansion of the private sectors, most of the economical problems will be solved through transference of the state owned firms and their activities to the private sectors. It is evident that fulfillment of this goal is not probable in one or two-year period and might require several economical plans” Dr. Davoud Danesh Jafari continued, “we have to confess that Iran’s economy has been always dependant on government investments, supervision and financial power and above all oil revenue; whenever the oil price was in a good condition, some positive actions have been done, in case of the opposite, we always faced problems” Dr.Danesh Jafari added that; today, our private sector is strong and competent in financial matters and incase of having a well-planned strategy for the private sector investments; we will be able to draw on its positive benefits which are constructiveness and also ceases the inflation rate. International and regional unions and institutions have grown quite recently and private economies have flourished-besides national ones. Such growth signifies the need for Iran to bring about change in national and regional economies. State economies, with features like inappropriate distribution of resources and opportunities, lack of functional stability and clarity, political limitations and unfamiliarity with international trade and underdevelopment in management and technology generally moves toward inefficient privatization. Thus Iran’s economy lacks competitive potential on the international playground and cannot attract foreign investments; meanwhile the Constitution of Iran and Islam both advice and emphasize on privatization. One major privatization outcome is to realize and activate the stock market, manage prices, separation of state from the private sector affairs and bestow the impoverished their fair share of the pie. Moreover, training workshops and professional commissions as part of article 44 are keys to privatization in Iran.
Dr. Gholamreza Heydari Kord Zangeneh the Executive Director of Iranian Privatization Organization also stated that, the prerequisite of the globalization is having an open economy. Privatization is the first step in globalization process, with government stepping aside gradually and just focusing on supervision and control. He also added that broadening the capital market, encouraging the large scale ownership of the stocks, softening the rules and regulations, creating motivation and enthusiasm between the employees of the firms, fulfilling the consumer interests and adjusting the subsidy rates are amongst the future objectives of the privatization in the country. He declared that the Iran’s Industry is old and obsolete in some parts, leading to the lack of competitive power amongst the domestic products. Dr. Mohammad Nahavandian, the Head of Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines also mentioned that privatization should not be narrowed to transference of just a limited number of firms to the private sector, rather it has to be utilized in a way that helps our industry to enter the global market-place; he considered the economical statism to be the main obstacle in economic growth of the private firms and added that, “we have to resort to a kind of policy that makes the most of our current possibilities leading our firms and businesses into the global market, and achievement of such a goal is not possible without the empowerment and improving the private sector and it is just through the active engagement in globalization process that we would be able to experience and create globalization in its true and fair nature” One of the traits of the current century regarding the international trade-market is adopting policies that broaden the export and import levels respectively. Another characteristic is streamlining and simplifying the structure and dimensions of the governments, strengthening and focusing on the private sector activities that encourage the competitive environment, helping the economy to gain from the positive effects of the efficient exploitation of the human and financial resources. Liberalization of the trade and globalization are progressing and prevailing each day and expansion of the information technology with its unbelievable upswing , paves the way for further growth of the globalization. In addition to the conference, an exhibition including the achievements of the governmental firms in regards to privatization has been hold, which drew a lot of attention from the participants of the conference.
