Former President Rafsanjani criticizes state economic policies
Published: Tuesday, August 12, 2008
15:00GMT—11:00AM/EST
IRAN – ECONOMY – CRITICISM
Washington, 12 August (IranVNC)—The head of Iran’s top arbitration body, the Expediency Council, Ayatollah Akbar Rafsanjani, yesterday criticized the economic policies of the country’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, likening the government to a “big employer” that has failed to carry out planned privatization programs.
Speaking to local officials at the Chamber of Commerce in Mashhad, the capital of Iran’s Khorasan Province, Rafsanjani said: “Today, the government has transformed itself into a big employer that has become involved in many economic arenas which it did not have the permission to enter, and with the increase in government interference in the economy, the country has been faced with many problems.”
He added that in accordance with the time-table set for implementing the privatization plan – based on Article 44 of the Constitution – the government should have transferred to the private sector the responsibility for a series of activities, but many of these are still controlled by the government, Mehr News Agency reports.
Rafsanjani, referring to his term in office and the formulation and implementation of the “25-year plan for the great Islamic civilization”, said that it was a good program, which continued to be carried out through to the end of Mr [Mohammad] Khatami’s administration, but that with the change of government, it became clear that Ahmadinejad’s government would not continue in that direction. And, in these three years, “we, too, have tolerated his government”, he said.
Rafsanjani also mentioned a plan to make subsidies more “targeted,” – a plan which he said was necessary. But, cautioning against the removal of subsidies hastily and without a plan, he advised: “Of course, this important matter should proceed on the basis of a timeline, gradually and step-by-step, because haste in its implementation would have bad repercussions.”
Rafsanjani’s remarks are the latest in a string of criticisms leveled at Ahmadinejad’s economic policies.
Last week, Majlis speaker, Ali Larijani, asked the government to find a solution to Iran’s rising inflation. He said that government officials should not propose ideological issues, but that they should rather take steps to solve the country’s economic issues. He acknowledged that Iran was facing difficulties in the areas of investment and importing some needed equipment, but said he believed they were solvable.
Also last week, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani, Tehran’s interim Friday prayer leader, in his sermon on Friday said: “Our country’s economy is really sick… We hope that officials will solve the problems of the society, especially the economic problems, with discernment.”
Sources: Tehran Times in Persian, Mehr News Agency in Persian, ISNA in Persian
© IranVNC 2008. All rights reserved.
(Original article written in Persian.)