According to the International Iranian Stone Exhibition, Gholamhossein Shafei, Speaker of the Private Sector Parliament, criticized the neglect of the role of the private sector by policymakers at the 13th meeting of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce today.

He believes that no change will take place unless it is first clear from the government's point of view what the private sector owes to national development and what opportunities the government and governing institutions give to the private sector to play this role and what assurances it provides. They will irrigate part of it.

The full text of the speech of the President of the Iran Chamber of Commerce of the 13th meeting of the Board of Representatives of Iran is as follows:

By holding this meeting of the Board of Representatives, we will enter the last year of this solar century. The beginning of any new era is accompanied by many insurances and hopes. The first step to a fresh start is to look back and experience it. Next year, the Iran Chamber will conduct a comprehensive research program on what happened to dear Iran, especially in the field of economics and the performance of the Chamber of Commerce in the fourteenth century, in the hope that its lessons will be a beacon for the future; But a few points worth mentioning in this session:

The good people of this land have repeatedly revolted in the hope of establishing a political system that can simultaneously preserve the independence and dignity of the country and the beliefs of the people and is based on justice and can make the best use of the country's facilities to improve public life. It is the honor of businessmen and economic activists to stand by the people in all these important developments and play an undeniable role.

A look at the performance of the Iran Chamber at the beginning of the last year of the present century shows that during this hundred years, despite many ups and downs, private sector economic activists along with doing business and maintaining and enhancing the country's economic potential as much as possible was a great achievement. The purpose of maintaining the integrity of the chamber is to prevent undesirable interference by governments in decision-making, and to maintain the independence of this institution to represent the demands of economic actors as much as possible.

Despite major developments such as the Islamic Revolution and the rise of governments and assemblies, some of which even had trouble with the term private sector, private-sector economic actors in wartime, peacetime, and sanctions still had maximum cooperation with the government and Committed to meeting the needs of the people. Throughout this period, chamber officials have tried to represent the legitimate demands of their members, and by taking the right approach, they have succeeded to some extent in moderating extremist attitudes, and now the private sector is supported even by the highest official in the country.

In recent years, the Supreme Leader has repeatedly emphasized that the only gateway for the transmission of life, light and energy into the country is the one opened by production activists. Producers are at the forefront of the vital arena of domestic production, economic prosperity and the expansion of public welfare.

At the same time, there are many grievances. For 90 years, governments have set the stage for economic decisions to be made by chambers and economic actors before making decisions; But they still ignore it in economic decisions. For years, rapid changes in the field of laws and regulations have changed several times each year. For more than 70 years, companies have been struggling with customs, currency and tax issues from the moment of production, and these problems are not only persistent but growing. Different economic programs of governments and parliaments with different tendencies have taken over; But do not hesitate to solve the root of the problem.

The last half century has been the year of the domination of distributive ideas in countries. Distribution of oil money directly and distribution of water resources, mines, etc. indirectly. Now, has the economic situation of the vulnerable improved by focusing on the distribution of wealth? Is Iran's economy now more resilient than before? Is there enough environmental sustainability in the country now? In our view and that of many experts, the answer is no.

The problem with the current political system and structure is that its task with the private sector is not clear at all. When the experience of 30 years of privatization has led to the conclusion that the economy has increased the government's share of the economy in the same period, does not it mean that the forces behind the scenes are not at all willing to promote and strengthen the private sector?

While the private sector is rightly expected to play a serious and historic role in the national development of Iran, and the historical experience of developed countries has shown that without the full presence of the private sector in production and technology, serious and sustainable changes in national development. It will not work, but what can we do? There is no belief in such a role among the country's policymakers. To the detriment, they honor the private sector, but in practice, they ax the private sector with all sorts of cumbersome laws, all sorts of trusting policies, all sorts of insulting methods, and all sorts of political and international restrictions and opportunities.

It seems that no change will take place unless it is first clear what the private sector owes to the national development in the eyes of the government, and what opportunities the government and governing institutions provide to the private sector to play this role, and what assurances it provides. They will irrigate it.

The clear message of economic activists and the Iranian Chamber of Commerce as the official private sector representative to all policymakers, especially presidential candidates, is clear: "Now is the time to change the intellectual paradigm and pay more attention to the issue of efficient production instead of distributive slogans. "It is time to leave things to the people and the private sector."

 But what should we do to promote the institution of the Iran Chamber? It is clear that the role and position of the Iran Chamber in decision-making, although improved compared to the previous period, but the expectations of the members of the chamber, economic activists and the government from the chamber have changed and increased, which should not be ignored. Issues such as striving for more inclusive membership of economic actors, diversification of room services for economic actors, more active role in international relations and transparency of operations, observance of codes of professional ethics, business in the room, etc. are issues that should be considered more than before. And principled planning to improve the performance of the room in the future, the approach of the room should be in the above developments transparency, performance improvement, performance improvement and avoidance of politicization.

This is not only achieved by the will of the chamber and the change in the performance of this institution, but also requires a change in attitude at the national level. In fact, policymakers and decision-makers must accept that the formation and operation of powerful trade unions in the economic field does not mean the existence of a competitor to reduce the power and influence of the government, but as a powerful tool to achieve national interests and should clarify strategy as soon as possible. The country internationally took advantage of this potential at the national and international levels, about which I need to make a few points.

1- On the eve of the beginning of the new century, the international political and economic atmosphere has also undergone dramatic changes. The redistribution of power and the gradual rewriting of rules have been the most important trends in international political economy in recent years. The study of macro-structural changes in the world trade environment and the study of the geo-economic situation of the region and the world show that economic relations between countries have undergone fundamental changes due to changes in the balance of power in the world. On the world stage.

2. Changes in the macro-structure of world trade have occurred at three levels.

Globalization of trade services; The service trade has been the most dynamic part of global trade in recent decades.

Global entanglement of value chains; The three value chains of North America, Europe, and Asia are both regional and global, and disruption of them causes turmoil in the global economy. A recent example of this is the disruption of China's economy as the focus of the global regional chain in the first months of the Corona epidemic, which spread the global value chain as the crisis spread to Europe and the United States.

Digitalization of the economy; In recent decades, the European Union and other trading powers have no longer traded goods and services through traditional free agreements that were simple and based on tariffs. They formulate detailed rules and regulations based on digital economics in the form of third-generation free trade agreements.

3- Iran has played a passive role in structural changes in the world economy so far. The sanctions of the last decade, along with the internal conflict over the choice of import substitution strategy or accession to the global economy, have squandered opportunities in practice for Iran to play a role in these processes.

4- A very key priority and question is Iran's macro-industrial and trade policy for the medium term, explaining Iran's relationship with the above three trends and how to comply with the rewritten rules in the world trade environment. Among these three trends, the relationship between Iran and regional and global value chains is of particular importance.

5. The next few years are crucial for the country. The proposal of the Iran Chamber is that all actors in the field of politics and economy of the country, hand in hand and away from destructive competition and only relying on the principle of priority of national interests, come together and provide the best answer to the strategic question of redefining Iran's position in world trade. Provide; Otherwise, the country will, whether it wants to or not, move to the bottom of value chains based on the sale of raw materials and low value-added exports, which have no technical or technological value.