Statements in Meeting with Producers, Entrepreneurs, and Knowledge-Based Activists

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure and chosen progeny, especially the Awaited One among the inhabitants of the earth.

Dear brothers and sisters, entrepreneurs, activists, innovators! Welcome. We have truly benefited greatly from the statements made by friends here; the spirits are high, hopes are elevated, and activities are quite palpable. Of course, I am not surprised; if I observe any prominence among our youth, our people, our employers, our entrepreneurs, and our researchers, I am truly not surprised. It is clear to me that the country's talent is very high, and we are exceptional both in terms of natural resources and in terms of geographical and international political positioning, and we are also outstanding in terms of human resources; in terms of human resources, we are indeed very prominent. Now, one of the friends mentioned that others are attracting our forces; why shouldn't we attract others' forces? Well, we do not need to; if we are very active, if we know how to retain and train our own forces, we do not need to attract forces from abroad.

What I envision in my mind, in my intellectual and rational perspective regarding the future of the country, the future of the nation, and the advancement of knowledge in this country is much greater than what is expressed in these conventional conjectures or thoughts, and it is truly much more than these words. Now, one of the friends referred to eucalyptus tree planting; a memory came to my mind. In Qom, I had seen eucalyptus trees that were almost the size of an apple tree; the eucalyptus tree was of ordinary size. In Iranshahr, where we were, there was a large garden, a big farm near Bampoor, a few farsakhs from Iranshahr. There was a garden that the Italians had built years ago for experiments and such; I would sometimes go to that garden. I saw a tree — of course, a collection of trees — that was very tall; like these old tall plane trees that might have been about fifteen meters high; I was surprised what kind of tree this was. I asked what it was. They said it was eucalyptus. I had seen eucalyptus in Qom at that size and volume, and here now eucalyptus [of this height]! I compare the growth of the Iranian nation and the potential for the growth of the Iranian nation to this difference between the Bampoor eucalyptus and the Qom eucalyptus. Our talent is very good, our capabilities are very good.

Well, last year, in a meeting with economic activists — some of you may have been there or not — we discussed various matters, and the result was perhaps that I set this year's slogan: "Production; Knowledge-Based and Job-Creating"; this was perhaps somewhat influenced by the statements of friends in that meeting we had last year. This year, at the exhibition that was held here two days ago and I went to see, I saw good work has been done; both in terms of knowledge-based issues and in terms of job creation and entrepreneurship, relatively good work has been accomplished. Here too, the friends who spoke — a few who spoke — all gave this hope, this promise that the issue of entrepreneurship, the issue of employment, the issue of knowledge advancement and economic progress of the country and production of the country is a tangible matter; undoubtedly, from this meeting and the visit two days ago and the various information I have, this can be understood. In the first half of the year 1401, economic growth indicators have also shown growth, which these indicators were officially announced in comparison to the first half of the year 1400. This indicates a movement; growth of non-oil gross production, growth of added value in the industry and mining sector — especially in the production of large workshops, shows a growth of 6.6 percent, which is a good figure — growth of fixed capital formation and similar matters; this indicates that there have been advancements.

What I want to convey consists of two points. One brief point I want to say to the esteemed officials who are sitting here, especially the esteemed First Vice President who is here. The matters that these friends mentioned, remember them carefully. These were not merely reports; they were reports accompanied by grievances. And these grievances that were expressed here, almost all of them, in my opinion, are correct; all that they said as expectations from the government and from the officials and from myself are valid expectations. However, you know, the government officials know, my habit in these matters is not to intervene in executive issues; the emphasis is on execution. In the same matters that were mentioned, such as nanotechnology and others, even in military fields — in which I have direct responsibility — I do not intervene; I insist, I show the way, I follow up, I inquire. Now I also tell you to form working groups for all these matters that these friends mentioned; that is, these are not tasks that one person can accomplish; they require working groups. Each of these working groups must be formed in the center and in the relevant administration and ministry. In this working group, it is essential to use the direct working forces; those who spoke here, these gentlemen and others who are present; their opinions should be taken and followed up; that is, inquiries should be made about where the work has reached; in the field of health issues that were reported, in the industry issues that were reported, in the oil issues that were reported, in the agricultural issues that were not mentioned here and are also important, should be pursued and followed up; if these are followed up, the country will reach the necessary growth that I will now mention a few points about growth.

We need rapid and continuous growth; the reason is that we have backwardness. In the 90s, for various reasons, we had a backwardness and a kind of relative cessation of economic issues. Not everything can be attributed to management weaknesses; no, part of it is related to external and foreign factors, part is related to internal factors; the issue of sanctions was effective, the issue of the decrease in oil value at a certain time was effective, the issue of the country's focus on the nuclear issue conditioned the economy, was effective; various such issues were effective; the result was that we have a decade of backwardness and many negative indicators, which are reliable statistics from official centers; that is, these are not claims. The indicators are negative indicators in important sectors, which of course I have noted here, but I do not want to spend time on this now. Naturally, compensating for this backwardness is not easy; this certainly requires continuous economic growth over the medium term; now let’s not say long-term. That is, for example, we must at least pursue efforts for seven or eight years, focus, and proceed with the necessary conditions, which I will now mention a few points in this regard. Therefore, this is why we have placed the main priority of the seventh development plan on economic progress accompanied by justice. The issue of justice is also important; that is, if we have progress without justice, we have not truly progressed; progress must be accompanied by justice; of course, it has mechanisms, it has a way; it is not that it cannot be achieved, that it is a problematic and ambiguous matter; no, there are ways.

We have set an average economic growth of eight percent in the policies of the seventh plan, which if we can truly achieve an average growth of eight percent over the five-year period of the plan, in my opinion, a very good job will have been done. We need this growth; why? For several reasons, we need to achieve this growth. The audience of this statement is everyone; both government officials and you dear brothers and sisters, economic activists; you are also the audience of this statement. This growth will happen with the help of everyone.

There are four reasons why we must pursue growth for these four reasons. The first reason is that we have a tangible problem of people's livelihood and household welfare in the country, which cannot be remedied without economic growth. If we want to eliminate poverty, if we want to enhance household welfare in the country, this requires economic growth in the country; without this, it is impossible. This alone is a sufficient reason; it is the responsibility of the government, it is the responsibility of capable individuals — whether intellectual capability, financial capability, or managerial capability — everyone has the responsibility to accomplish this task. This is the first reason.

Second, enhancing Iran's position in the regional and global economy. You know, in today's world, enhancing a country's position is largely related to the economic status of that country; when a country's currency weakens, its economic capabilities decrease, its credibility and position in today's world decline. We need this growth to maintain the country's position in the regional and global context. This is the second reason.

The third reason; we have a lot of specialized human resources; fortunately, one of our honors and advantages in the country is that we have a lot of specialized human resources. Well, since the beginning of the revolution, when we had about 150,000 students, now we have millions of students and millions of graduates at various academic levels; well, these need jobs, they want work. Yes, having a young specialized workforce is an honor, but if they do not have jobs and remain unemployed, what? It is a disgrace, it is no longer an honor. Then we sit and constantly ask ourselves: "Why do they emigrate, why do they go abroad"! Well, we must provide jobs. Some time ago, when I was in this Hosseiniyeh, there was a session (5), I said, that our efficient educated youth who have now come from abroad or studied abroad or studied inside, want two things from us: the first is a job; the second is the possibility of scientific advancement; we must provide jobs for them. Without high growth, we cannot create employment for this vast group of young specialists and scholars. This is the third reason.

The fourth reason is that we have a lot of youth in our country today, but will we have the same amount of youth tomorrow? It is uncertain. With the situation I observe, despite all the emphasis we have made, the results are not very encouraging; we may not have this many youth tomorrow; we must make the country wealthy for that day. If the day comes when we have fewer youth, and the country is not wealthy, it cannot become wealthy anymore. This is the fourth reason why we must create growth today so that the country becomes wealthy for the potential future when we have fewer youth, so that the country can truly manage itself.

Well, how do we achieve this growth? Of course, this has requirements. During the speeches of the esteemed speakers today, some of these requirements were mentioned; I will also mention a few points in this regard. Of course, some of these requirements pertain to government agencies that are obliged to follow up; some pertain to the economic activists themselves; some pertain to the general public. I think one of the friends referred to the issue of "waste"; well, waste of water, waste of meat, waste of bread and discarded bread are things that pertain to the general public. Therefore, if we want to achieve that goal, we must do certain things; these tasks are both governmental tasks, economic activists' tasks, scientists' tasks, and tasks for the general public.

There are two fundamental pillars here that I will first mention; first, increasing investment for production. Investment must be increased. We have had periods where activities were carried out, but investment had negative growth; we observed its effects several years later. Unfortunately, one of the negative and adverse indicators of the 90s, which I mentioned we had problems, was precisely this; there, one of our negative and adverse indicators was investment; it was done poorly. Before that, it was the same; in the previous period, we also had problems in this regard.

One issue is increasing investment, the second is enhancing productivity. Our situation regarding productivity is very poor; especially in some sectors, productivity is very low; work is done, resources are consumed, but productivity is negligible. Now, in the images that were shown of the work — I do not know which image it was related to — my eye fell on this old irrigation system that had water flowing through a muddy ditch; this is our irrigation example. I once said a few years ago that about ninety percent of the country's water is used for agriculture. [Water consumption for] industry and household uses and similar things account for ten percent of the country's water; ninety percent is related to agriculture. If we can save ten percent from this ninety percent, we will have recovered as much water as is currently used for industry and household consumption and other uses; this is how productivity works. We are poorly utilizing water; we are poorly utilizing energy. These are the two fundamental pillars: increasing investment, enhancing productivity.

There are other requirements that I have noted a few of, which I will briefly mention; because the session has become lengthy and I want to finish soon. First, government executive agencies for economic issues — whether for the entire economy of the country or for various economic sectors — must have a strategic outlook, must have a long-term plan. Of course, I usually ask the esteemed officials, and they express that they have this plan. Well, if there is a long-term plan and a strategic outlook, we will not fall into day-to-day routines and zigzag movements; these day-to-day routines greatly harm everything. One day we say something, the next day we contradict it or change it in some way; this is what these gentlemen complain about. The complaint of many of these economic activists is the same; that now regarding the business environment and so on, I will mention later; this is the first point.

Second, executive agencies must support the development of private enterprises; the country cannot be managed without the activity of private enterprises. A significant mistake that occurred in the early years of the revolution, and many of its effects have remained, was that the private sector was sidelined and all tasks, even the sale of small goods, were entrusted to government officials and state agencies; this was a major error we made. Private enterprises, which represent the presence of the people, the capabilities of the people, the initiative of the people, and the money of the people, must be supported; they must come into the field; these must manage the economy.

I have repeatedly given this example: there are two ways to work; you can put a load in a pickup truck and then sit behind the wheel of this truck, easily transferring this load from one place to another. You can set the truck aside, take the load on your own shoulders, tire yourself out, not reach home, and have the load fall on the way and be wasted. The private sector must be supported; the private sector will not enter the field without support, or if it does, it will not succeed. I know people, faithful and committed individuals who care about the country and the Islamic Republic system, who managed a private sector, a poultry farm, for example, or an industrial unit out of sincerity. They said that we could put this money in the bank, benefit from its interest for the rest of our lives, without any effort on our part, and not pay taxes, but they took on this burden, [but] it remained half-finished; because they were not supported, because pressure was exerted on them; now I will refer to this in later sections.

The fact that we have proposed the policies of Article 44, contrary to the perception of some of the good brothers, some good and well-intentioned elements object to the policies of Article 44; this objection is not correct. These policies were chosen carefully, were chosen thoughtfully; individuals who were knowledgeable about economic issues and were committed to social justice and were seriously pursuing social justice all approved it; however, unfortunately, governments did not implement it properly; it has been implemented very little. Several governments have not implemented these policies of Article 44 consecutively; they must be implemented. Of course, care must be taken, management must be exercised, and work discipline must be observed, and this work must be carried out. Therefore, the second requirement is that government agencies must support social enterprises; both financial support is necessary, and legal support is necessary. The audience of this statement includes the government, the parliament, and the judiciary; that is, all three branches of the country are the audience of this recommendation.

The third requirement; knowledge and technology must be elevated. The amount of success we have today is due to the advancement of science in the country, which has fortunately started about fifteen or sixteen years ago; it has had a good trend, has made good progress. The fact that you see this young person coming here, courageously stating that we have done this work, and we can do this work and similar things, is because they have advanced in knowledge, the path of science has opened. We said (7) go break the front lines of science, cross over, and move forward; do not settle for remaining in the rear parts of the scientific caravan of the world. Move forward. What I expressed as a wish several years ago and we must reach this wish is that I said we must plan and move in such a way that fifty years from now, if someone wants to hear new scientific discourse in the world, they must learn Persian to be able to hear the new scientific discourse. We must move in this way. That "fifty years" that I mentioned, now more than ten years have passed; you must pursue it, you must strive. Therefore, one task is the issue of advancing knowledge and technology — both knowledge and technology — for which the responsible parties are the enterprises and research centers; universities, research centers, think tanks; these must follow up, and [also] the scientific vice presidency of the president, which I believe is a very important task. In the seventh or eighth government, I insisted that this vice presidency be established; the late Dr. Ebtekar (8) — may God have mercy on him — who was responsible for this vice presidency, came to me complaining that I was not given any authority, no work was assigned to me, and no responsibilities were specified; that is, attention was not paid. Well, thanks be to God, it has progressed; later, in recent years, thanks be to God, it has made good progress, and the audience of this statement includes the scientific vice presidency, which must follow up.

The next requirement is to increase productivity; we must work on the issue of increasing productivity that I mentioned, especially regarding water, energy, and human resources, the workforce. One of the areas where we suffer from low productivity is precisely these government employees whose useful work during the week is very limited, just a few hours; this is the same decrease in productivity regarding human resources; these must be corrected. The issue of water must be corrected. In the matter of water, one of our acquaintances, our friends, and in a sense our colleagues proposed a plan regarding agricultural issues to us, I discussed it with the president, and he made efforts to go see the plan up close and confirmed it. Two days ago when we were at the exhibition, the esteemed Minister of Agriculture (9) told me that this plan is the most advanced plan in the world! This is what our Minister of Agriculture says. It is a plan that comes from a corner, from someone who is neither a government official nor a minister, who either learns it from someone or comes up with it himself, presents it, and our officials say this is the best and most advanced agricultural plan; very well, it should be pursued, it should be followed up. Now they told me that this imposes somewhat higher costs; let’s look at the future and see what will happen after we incur these costs. In any case, one requirement is this.

The next issue is to make goods competitive. The nature of Iranian goods, especially in natural sectors and such, is the best and highest quality; our fruits are the best fruits, our vegetables are the best vegetables, our stones are the best stones, many of our mines are the same, our products are good products; both in terms of quantity and quality. In the world, we must work to make our products, especially in the export sector, competitive; that is, we must both raise the quality of the final product and reduce the cost price. This is one of the very necessary tasks that must be accomplished, especially for export markets. And our capabilities are very good.

Again, in this agricultural context, two days ago when we had the exhibition, I told the friends who were there that Iranshahr is a remarkable region. One of my successes in my lifetime has been that I was exiled in Iranshahr for a while and became somewhat familiar with the issues of Iranshahr and Sistan and Baluchestan. A tomato was brought to me there, in Iranshahr, that when I opened my hand, it filled my hand. The tomato filled my hand; it was as big as a cantaloupe, the size of a cantaloupe. This is how it is. In the same Iranshahr, I was informed that in some areas around Iranshahr, colored cotton is produced; it is not white cotton, it is colored cotton; for example, blue or green. That is, the quality of our products is like this. We must be able to present these in the world. If we can make our product competitive, that is, both quality goes up and price goes down, sanctions will no longer have an effect. The other day, I was told that we made the national team's jersey, and we had to send it under another country's name. Well, this can be remedied. You must work to ensure that your product cannot be forced to be sent under another country's name; no, send it under the name of Iran and made in Iran; do not even write "MADE IN IRAN"; write "ساخت ایران" (made in Iran) in Persian. Take it abroad, and they will be forced to buy it; because its quality is good and its price is low. Now this is happening in some cases; I am aware. There are places where we are currently exporting our products, and other products are coming there, and our product is more desirable, its quality is higher, it is better, and it is cheaper. Therefore, people are inclined towards it, and they do not favor other products. We can do it.

Services are the same. Now today, one of the gentlemen who spoke, their work is dam construction and road construction and such. Many countries in the world, African countries, some Latin American countries, need dams; they need roads, they need large highways. They build these for them at high prices, with undesirable quality. We can build for them at low prices, with good quality. Therefore, making goods and services competitive is also one of the requirements for growth.

One of the most important requirements is to improve the business environment, which I have spoken about several times; in this speech that was broadcast from our last meeting, it showed that I spoke about improving the business environment, which I had forgotten. It is important. We must do something so that people can easily do business, can trade, can produce; now I have mentioned a few points here.

We must remedy contradictory decision-making. Sometimes we have contradictory decision-making. One agency makes a decision and announces it, another agency makes a contrary or opposing decision and announces it; both sit around the table in the cabinet meeting; this should not happen. Contradictory decisions must be remedied; this is one, so that people know what they should do.

Second, remedy the frequent changes in laws and regulations. Our laws and regulations frequently change. The audience of this is both the government and the parliament; especially the parliament. A regulation is approved in the government, announced, suddenly a voice rises from the parliament against it, after arrangements have been made based on that decision, and now it is canceled! These are problematic, these must be remedied. The audience of this strong recommendation includes both the parliament and the government.

Remedy the long and convoluted processes of administrative procedures. Once, a number of these officials and activists from various economic sectors came to me, and one of them said that to obtain a permit, there are many centers we must refer to, which [because] several years have passed, unfortunately, I do not remember the number; these must be corrected. Now in some areas, a single-window system has been established (10), which is very good; this is very useful; this must be done in various sectors; that is, the administrative processes for obtaining permits, for resolving the issues of people engaged in business, must be corrected, the paths must be shortened, and regulations must be deregulated. This does not mean that oversight should be eliminated; oversight must exist, but these convoluted paths must be removed.

Another issue related to improving the business environment is the arbitrary interventions by supervisory and non-supervisory institutions; this must also be removed. They intervene in matters; now, one issue is legal intervention that says: "You acted against the law"! This must be done, no one has an objection to this, but they make arbitrary interventions, with illegal opinions and without any obligation, unnecessarily interfering in people's affairs; this must also be removed.

Providing financing for activities in the private sector is also one of the things that helps improve the business environment. Of course, the esteemed government officials are present here; one of the things that is important for financial assistance to the private sector is the issue of the National Development Fund; the development fund was established to assist the private sector. Unfortunately, in various governments — since this fund was established until now; over these years — whenever their work gets stuck somewhere and they do not have a legal permit to withdraw from the development fund, they come to me to obtain a permit to use this fund beyond the law; this is not correct, this has problems; it has both technical problems and outcome problems. Assistance must be provided to the private sector; this is also one of the issues.

Another requirement is financial discipline in the budget; unfortunately, our budget suffers from structural problems. This strange and severe budget deficits that have existed in various years are one of the most problematic financial and economic consequences for our country. We have formed this Economic Council of the Heads of the Three Branches to resolve this issue [but] so far it has not been resolved. [For] the problem of the incorrect budget structure, something must be done; the issue of budget deficits must be resolved, the issue of financial commitments without reliable resources must be resolved. Sometimes there are cases where revenues are not very reliable, which the officials themselves know, but commitments are made based on these unreliable revenues. Worse than this, sometimes the demands of the parliament are imposed; many cases impose commitments on the government while there are no reliable financial resources for them; these must be stopped; these create problems in the country's economy and growth. And finally, there are other such requirements.

Another requirement is to remove government interventions in the ownership and management of economic enterprises. There are cases where a significant portion of ownership has been given to the people, but management is in the hands of the government; this is also not correct. Management must now be handed over to the people themselves. This is also an issue.

One more important issue is that government agencies should not compete with the private sector; this is also one of the things I have repeatedly emphasized, but some people complained to me that such interventions and similar issues exist. Although we have repeatedly warned, I still remind and request the esteemed government officials, especially Mr. Mokhber, to follow up on this issue that government sectors do not compete in the work being done in the private sector; because the resources of the government sector are greater and its financial concerns are less, it thus undermines the private sector. If [the government sector] enters, the private sector will be undermined. One more issue is excessive imports, which today some gentlemen also pointed out.

In conclusion, I would like to make a few brief reminders: one is that economic enterprises should separate the arena of competition from the realm of cooperation. The private sector is one that has competition and must have it; positive competition is progressive; but this competition does not mean that in large projects, in major initiatives, they should not cooperate and synergize; especially where it relates to economic issues outside the country. Various private sectors must cooperate and synergize with each other.

The next reminder pertains to small and medium enterprises, which I emphasized particularly in my first speech of the year a few years ago (11). These small and medium enterprises play a significant role in creating employment and adding value to goods and can help; we must not lose sight of them; both government agencies should pay attention to them, and large enterprises should cooperate with them in their production chains and develop and assist them.

The last issue is the issue of cooperatives. Production cooperatives can be one of the most effective means for creating employment; and especially for creating economic justice in the country.

We hope that God Almighty grants you success, grants success to the government officials. I testify that the esteemed government officials are working with all their being; that is, the effort being made is a very good effort; but they should monitor the orientations and carry out the work in such a way that, God willing, it will yield desirable results. We ask God Almighty for the success of all of you and seek His grace and mercy for the pure soul of the Imam and the pure souls of the dear martyrs.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.