National Exports Day aims to promote Iran’s exports: TPO head

“Every year, this day is celebrated to honor the Iranian exemplary exporters in a bid to promote the culture of exports throughout the country”, the official stressed.

Briefing the press on the procedures conducted by TPO for selecting the exemplary exporters, who will be honored during a ceremony in the National Exports Day, he said that 302 exporters had submitted their documents to the related committee, among them 265 participants were selected at the first stage, of them 106 ones could come to the next stage, and finally 40-50 exporters will be announced as exemplary.

The exemplary exporters will receive their trophies from president or the first vice president, he added.

Zadboum further announced that the committee for selecting the exemplary exporters consists of representatives from TPO, Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), Iran Chamber of Cooperatives, Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Planning and Budget Organization (PBO), and Standards Organization.

The TPO head mentioned serious participation of ICCIMA, Exports Guarantee Fund of Iran, and Exports Development Bank of Iran for organizing the event as a distinctive feature of this year’s ceremony.

He further announced that concurrent with the National Exports Day ceremony, TPO will launch the organization’s mobile app, and also two online systems on its website, one for commerce consultation, and the other one for survey and receiving the viewpoints and suggestions of the exporters.

Non-oil imports fall 5.5 percent in first half

Elsewhere in his remarks, the TPO head released some data on the country’s non-oil trade during the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22) and said the neighboring countries are still the major export destinations of Iranian non-oil products, accounting for more than 50 percent of the exports.

He put the value of exports at $20.948 billion, with 22.5 percent rise in volume while 10.5 percent drop in value, and imports at $21.221 billion with 5.5 percent fall in value and 0.5 percent increase in volume during the first six months of this year.

The official also noted that TPO is improving the roadmap for expansion of the country’s non-oil exports.

Supporting domestic production

He further referred to the issue of supporting domestic production and said that in this year, which is the year of pickup in production, the major part of the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry’s plans and measures are toward this objective.

Different desks have been set up in the ministry in this due and noticeable measures are being taken to support domestic producers, he added.

“Given the integrated work being done for supporting domestic production, we can witness the targeted $10-billion drop in our non-oil imports by the [Iranian calendar] year of 1400 (March 2020-March 2021)”, Zadboum highlighted.

Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani had said on Saturday that the ministry plans to reduce the country’s imports by $10 billion by the Iranian year of 1400.

Making the remarks in a specialized roundtable on promoting domestic production in the country’s auto industry, Reza Rahmani said “Achieving this goal requires $2 billion plus 200 trillion rials (about $4.7 billion) worth of investment.”