Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.23/ Trend G.Mehdi/
The current situation in Iran requires officials to pay special attention to the production sector, ILNA quoted Iran's Expediency Council Chairman, former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani as saying.
"Securing food for people is the top priority and every kind of loss in the agriculture sector will lead to problems," he stated.
Economic stability is the foundation for investment and entrepreneurship, he said, adding that supporting producers will culminate in boosting products both in quality and quantity.
On October 17, the Mehr News Agency quoted Deputy Industry, Mine and Trade Minister Reza Fatemi-Amin as saying that Iran's production sector is in need of 700 trillion rials (about $57 billion).
A portion of the sum had been planned to be secured through turning 10 per cent of the National Development Fund's (NDF) assets into rials based on the current year's budget act, he added.
Domestic producers are grappling with many problems,as the unprecedented high rates of foreign currencies have raised production costs tremendously, he noted.
The NDF has allocated $3 billion worth of its assets to pay facilities in loans to the agriculture and industry sectors, the NDF's deputy manager said on September 13.
Mohammad-Qasem Hosseini added that the sum will be turned into rials to finance domestic projects in industry, mine, water and agriculture projects, the Fars News Agency reported.
On May 15, the industry, mine and trade minister said that 10 per cent of the NDF's assets will be allocated for supporting the domestic production sector.
Mehdi Ghazanfari told the IRNA News Agency that three per cent of assets of specialised industry and agriculture banks will be also be paid to boost the production sector.
