Iranian President Stresses Necessity for Increasing Non-Oil Exports

"We will try in the next year to create more jobs. Also the current 40-bln-dollar non-oil exports is small and we can well increase the figure. We should find the mechanism related to exports to resolve the problems," President Rouhani said, addressing the annual general assembly of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) in Tehran on Tuesday.

"We are a great nation. We have different ways and paths and we can use them to resolve the problems," he added.

The president further appreciated the efforts made by the Iranian foreign and oil ministries as well as the central bank for standing in the frontline against the US sanctions on the country.

In relevant remarks last Saturday, On Saturday, Rouhani said that the US’ unilateral sanctions against Tehran had helped his country as the pressures push the nation to work harder and replicate embargoed products and items.

“Some countries think that sanctions are a way for reducing the pace of development in a country; but, they increase motivation for us in the country, so that we can produce the part we used to import,” Rouhani said in a meeting with heads of knowledge-based companies and startups in Tehran.

The Iranian president described working towards self-sufficiency as a practical fight against imperialism and major powers, adding, “Sanctions are aimed at reducing the growth of technology in our country … but we need to use sanctions as an opportunity for growth.”

Rouhani said that countries which build walls around themselves will be destroyed from inside and will achieve no progress.

Pointing to Trump’s administration insistence on building physical walls along its Southern borders, Rouhani said, “They do not know that all their progresses were because of the fact that there existed no walls for many years.”

If there is any growth and progress in the United States, it is because of the presence of different nationalities in the country, he highlighted.

Appreciating the work of knowledge-based enterprises and Presidential Deputy for Science and Technology, Rouhani said, “In the past 5 years, very good work has been done in science and technology.”

“One of the responsibilities of the government is facilitating communication with the world,” he continued, adding, “We need to have close relations with different intellectuals from different countries.”

Rouhani also went on to say, “Every new technology that is built inside the country has to be exported after supplying the domestic demands.”

He also said, “We need to help knowledge enterprises in different fields such as insurance, tax, loans and other fields to achieve our desired result.”

Late in January, Iran’s Economy Minister Farhad Dejpasand said the country’s trade balance had improved in the last 10 months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21, 2018), boasting that the plots to cut the country’s oil revenues to zero had failed.

Dejpasand said that Iran’s non-oil exports had increased over the ten months up to January 20 and 85 percent of its imports pertain to raw materials.

Addressing a gathering of Hormuzgan province’s business persons and investors, the minister said the enemies were unable to lower Iran’s oil exports down to zero, as the oil sales continue as before.