Private sector and economic diplomacy

Having signed the Geneva interim agreement between Iran and P5+1 on November 2013, the category of "economic diplomacy" was activated in the associations of private sector in Iran. Even the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce and Industries and Mines believes that besides expanding trading ties, the goal of developing commerce committees' presence in Iran is to collapse Iranophobia campaign. International economic and trade cooperation is a necessity for the policies of economic development. In the view of diplomacy literature, economic growth is realized in the frame of improving interactions among the countries. "Demolishing the effects of sanctions is one of the responsibilities of the chambers of commerce and on this subject, they must support the government. Participants of private sector may have the key role in this field." said Yahya Ale-Es'hagh in a meeting with the delegates of Tehran Chamber of Commerce and Industries and Mines.
Supporting foreign policy of Rouhani government, private sector believes that the market participants may complete the attempts by the government to show a high prestige of Iran. Ale-Es'hagh also reminded statesmen that no problem will be solved unless production sector is fortified.

Collapse of Iranophobia Campaign
The 43rd meeting of the delegates of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, and Mines was held during which private sector gave some advices to the government and the head of Tehran chamber of commerce also emphasized on fortifying production sector. For this reason, market participants regard booming production sector as a main concern; obviously, the necessary groundwork must be done before any action. In the meeting, a report was also presented on the trips of commerce commissions of the Tehran chamber of commerce and considering the nuclear agreements, Ale-Es'hagh said: "I support the government policies. In my opinion, the goal of visits by foreign trade commissions to Iran is to collapse Iranophobia campaign."

Fortifying Production Sector
Private sector's participants have recently met supreme leader of Iran and regarding this matter, head of Tehran chamber of commerce reiterated: "keeping inflation under control was the most important matter in a report by President Rouhani on his cabinet's agenda during the first 11 months. According to Ale-Es'hagh, point to point inflation now is 14.5 percent, moreover; president Rouhani said that Iran inflation rate will be single-digit soon. In this report, president Rouhani also pointed to "health care system" and allocation of some budget for this purpose. According to Ale-Es'hagh, about one million Iranians will be covered by the new health insurance system named Salamat. Ale-Es'hagh believes that keeping inflation under control is the most preferred concern for Rouhani's government. The government set up a commission to work on exit from recession and advancing towards economic prosperity. According to president Rouhani, the government follows the policies of the economy of resistance if sanctions will not be lifted.
Ale-Es'hagh also added:" As president Rouhani said, Iran's international relations with 13 of 15 neighbor countries are in best level and the basis is on developing interactions." At the same time, supreme leader of Iran supported the government policies in his statements and he also trusts Iranian nuclear negotiators.
Ale-Es'hagh reiterated: "From an economic point of view, we must proceed to upturn in economy and the proper strategy would be booming private sector while domestic production should be valued."
He also added: "Iranian banks may have both positive and negative effects. In a positive outlook, banks have to consider production as a priority. Generally, in economy the liable expectation is that domestic production is protected as precedence." According to Ale-Es'hagh, challenges in private sector have been mentioned many times and all market participants persist on making enough room to overhaul the business in Iran. Furthermore, problems and issues of banking system must be considered. Talks by Ale-Es'hagh suggest some advice for the statesmen and as he said, no problem will be solved unless production sector is fortified. Highlighting export, organizing raw materials, capital return, and money supplying for financial institutions are among the topics to be considered by the government. "To boom private sector should be considered as a right way and its requirements have to be observed." Ale-Es'hagh hoped.
Supporting economic diplomacy in private sector and also pointing to interim agreement between Iran and P5+1, Ale-Es'hagh reiterated: "Tehran chamber of commerce backs government policies. Meanwhile, foreign trade commissions visit Iran to nullify Iranophobia. Private sector hopes to overcome the shortcomings in international relations. Some delegates who travelled to Slovakia say that criticism should be mentioned in a constructive way. They say that fair talks lead to good results. According to delegates, comprehensive talks and useful results rest among the achievements of their trip to Slovakia."

Decisions on anti-smuggling bill
Reports by the head of transportation commission show that Tehran chamber of commerce did its best to find the problems in anti-smuggling area. "Passing a bill on anti-smuggling goods is not of benefit to Iran's economy. For this reason, some delegates were selected to participate in the meetings of Islamic Consultative Assembly. Although, these delegates were not welcomed by the member of parliaments, Tehran chamber of commerce is still in correspondence with the government organizations to show disagreement with this bill." Masoud Khansari, head of transportation commission in Tehran chamber of commerce reported.
He also added: "Though the bill of anti-smuggling goods and currency was approved, we could prevent it from enforcement in correspondence with the government." Khansari reiterated: "Such law put Iran's economy in dander, thus we asked for pausing the enforcement of this law for 2 years."
Ceasing fuel transit to Afghanistan (from 2 years ago) and removing the restrictions on this area were also among the subjects mentioned by Khansari. According to Khansari, fuel transit to Afghanistan was stopped 2 years ago and it has been resumed now by the persistence of Tehran Chamber of commerce.
Pedram Soltani, vice president of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture also pointed to the necessity of considering the industries which have a high potential to terminate recession in Iran. "Transportation, mining industry and its dependent industries, information technology, tourism and downstream sector of oil and gas industries are among the promising ones to end recession in Iran." he said. In Soltani's opinion, all mentioned above industries face problems related to transportation.
"All hotels in touristic cities of Iran are busy with tourists throughout the summer but infrastructures are not satisfactory in tourism industry. Unfortunately, beside ground transportation, air aviation is a weak point in tourism industry of Iran." Soltani reiterated. He also added: "Mine industry encounters some problems due to weakness of transportation system and the transportation commission must seek the ways to get rid of this problem." Soltani mentioned the question of "why giant transportation companies are absent in Iran?" and said: "such companies prefer not to develop their work because of strict regulations. Whereas, developing local transportation requires removing bureaucracy."
Reza Noorani, president of Iran export confederation also referred to other problems in transportation system like shortage of refrigerated containers and some issues related to Valfajr shipping Co. He reiterated: "If demands mentioned in Iran chamber of commerce are from guilds, so it would be a futile attempt. For this reason, more efforts must be made to deal with the problems."
Mehdi Pourghazi is another member of delegate commissions of Tehran chamber of commerce who said container tracking from foreign countries to Bandar-Abbas still faces problems. At the same time, troubles in Iran-Turkey railways still remain. Pourghazi believes that in addition to international transit, domestic transportation has to be developed. He also mentioned that few numbers of commercial cards were renewed.