Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 21 / Trend, N. Umid
Iran's private sector has the capacity to replace armed forces in economic activities after they withdraw from them, board member of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries & Mines, Hamid Hosseini said, Iranian Arman newspaper reported.
Private sector can take place in the biggest economic activities which have been taken by armed forces, he said.
Hosseini also went on to note that, private sector can not compete with military forces in economic activities, adding that, private sector doesn't want armed forces in Iran's economy.
If armed forces accept working under equal conditions with private sector and not compete against them, then their presence can be effective, he added.
It should be recalled that a few days ago Iran's media quoted Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Iran, General Seyyed Hassan Firouzabadi as saying Iran's Armed Forces are ready to withdraw from economic activities.
"If government does not need our facilities, these facilities will be returned to the army" he said.
He also said that the armed forces have not entered economy activities to earn income and are not competitors for domestic producers.
Iranian experts and some officials have criticized the military forces for entering Iran's economic activities.
Iranian conservative MP Ahmad Tavakoli has argued that military forces are the competitors of Iran's private sector and prevent development of this sector, during his interview with Tejarate Farda weekly recently.
Iran's major economic entity, the Khatam al-Anbia construction firm, belongs to IRGC, which won hundreds of lucrative government contracts, including more than $25 billion worth of oil contracts (until June 2011).
Khatam al-Anbia has also billions worth of contracts in construction, telecommunication, power generation, pipeline construction, gas and banking sectors.
According to Khatam al-Anbia's official website, this entity has finished construction of 1,836 projects, while it has 288 uncompleted projects.
...
