Budget bill for March 2008-2009 fiscal year will be submitted to the Majlis by late December, deputy head of Presidential Department for Strategic Planning and Supervision announced, adding that the new bill would have new format.
Ali Asgari told reporters on Sunday that notes have been omitted in the new bill to give parliamentarians more time to focus on more important budget issues.
Drafters of the budget bill has given priority to annual plans, the official said, adding that executive organizations would have more authority to draw up the priorities and assignments, IRIB reported.
More funds would be allocated to the provinces and management and supervision of national projects would be run by each province in a bid to increase decentralization, Asgari elaborated.
The official noted that research funds excluding those of ministries of science, health, agricultural jihad and defense would be given to the Presidential Department for Science and Technology. This would make management of research budget more effective.
Operational and field supervision will be conducted by state organizations and the department will only conduct macro overseeing operations, he explained.
On the method of drafting the bill, the official the bill would be in two sets; one containing documents, macro budget tables, budget expenditures, resources and distribution of funds among executive institutions and state companies. The other will include supporting budget documents.
“This method would help the government and ministers respond to Majlis queries more transparently,“ he concluded.

There is one physician for every 2,200 people in the country.

Managing Director of Social Security Organization of Iran’s (SSOI) Bureau for Indirect Therapy on Saturday said that based on a report compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) there is one physician for every 2,200 people in the country.
Ali Hassanzadeh further said that there is an improper distribution of physicians and many physicians are engaged in sectors other than the health sector, ISNA reported.
“National mass media and state organizations constantly announce that a solution must be found for unemployed physicians while the report suggests that the number of health sector employees is insufficient. This in itself implies that all policy-makings and plans should be devised to resolve the dilemma,“ he pointed out.
Recalling that the health sector is a complicated system, he noted, “Making changes to this system is a very rigorous task and the outcome of any such effort is unpredictable. Presently, the government determines the tariffs for health services, but the provider of the services can essentially influence the tariffs. For example our physicians tend to influence patients and give the impression that their ailment is very serious while it is not really so.
This attitude worries the patients who end up paying more money because they mistakenly think that their illness is serious.“ Hassanzadeh underlined that in many countries health sector management is not assigned to the private sector.
“If the health system is run by the private sector, health services will be transformed to consumer goods. . . . In our country, health services provider can navigate patients to any direction it wants. In other words, the supply and demand each follow their own ways. This is indeed a chaotic situation that must change. Presently, patients have to visit several physicians before their ailments are treated and this is not fair. Neither the physicians nor the patients are culpable and in essence the health system needs an overhaul,“ he noted.
The official recalled that in the national health system hefty sums are spent for curing diseases whereas considerably lower funds could be spent to achieve the results.
The Majlis, the Welfare Ministry, insurance firms, Health Ministry and state officials must join hands to rectify the health sector from within, he concluded.

Iran aims to release GEM global report for 2006 and 2007 which can open a window for promoting entrepreneurship across the country.

A press conference on ’Iran Membership in Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’ was held with the participation of GEM Project Manager Mohammadreza Zali and Dean of Tehran University’s Entrepreneurship Faculty Mostafa Razavi last week.
Speaking at the gathering, Zali termed the accession to GEM as one of the most important entrepreneurship research activities in Iran, according to a fax sent to Iran Daily by Tehran University.
He recalled that GEM was established in 1997. It published its first report in 1999 with 14 members, he added.
GEM membership increased in 2000 and 2001 and reached 43 countries in 2007, he elaborated.
The official pointed out that after Turkey, Iran is the second Middle East country to join the group. He explained that any country that joins GEM has a national research team which is obliged to implement research programs.
Zali listed conducting surveys of 28-64 age group and interviewing economic policymakers and experts in entrepreneurship, management and economy as well as using economic and social statistics as the main sources for compiling data.
He said that the main goals of the research program are to evaluate entrepreneurship activities in participating companies and find the relation between development of entrepreneurship and economic growth.
Presently Iran aims to release GEM global report for 2006 and 2007 which can open a window for promoting entrepreneurship across the country, he underlined.
Speaking at the same gathering, Razavi said that the country’s serious need to develop entrepreneurship training led to the formation of entrepreneurship group of Tehran University’s Management Faculty three years ago.
He continued that with serious support of Labor Ministry and cooperation of Science Ministry and Tehran University, Entrepreneurship Faculty was inaugurated in Sept. 2007.
Razavi explained that they aim to develop entrepreneurship activities in six MA and six PhD fields.
He said that the faculty has won the support of Labor Ministry and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, adding that funds for constructing the building of the faculty were provided by the Presidential Office.

Iran is to become the leading economic power in the Middle East by 2025 according to the target of Vision 2025 which has been in effect for the past two years. The government also intends to devise macro plans in a way that the economic system can interact and compete dynamically in the global arena.
Many experts maintain that Iran has the potential to become the economic powerhouse of the Middle East and Central Asia in view of its young population, vast oil and gas reserves and related infrastructures. This may sound a tough goal, but it is attainable.
A prosperous future can be assured by rectifying the economic system and setting new laws and regulations. The optimism of experts stems from the fact that relevant macro plans have been drawn up and Article 44 of the constitution has been revised. The article will determine the realms of public, cooperative and private sectors which was redefined two years ago at the proposal of the State Expediency Council (SEC) and the subsequent directives of the leader so that the private sector will find its due status in the economy. With the new interpretation of the article, state involvement in many economic activities will be restricted and the cooperative and private sectors will become active in areas previously under state monopoly.
Recently the parliament passed a bill on liberalizing the economy, defining the status of ownership and capital, ways of ceding governmental ownership to private sector and the range of authority of domestic and foreign private sectors for investments. Based on the bill, the rule of law will support the activities of the non-governmental sector which no longer will be dominated by the state.
Experts think that upon the pertinent and transparent implementation of this law and rectification of unnecessary red tape, the spirit of competition will gain momentum thus giving potential investors more incentives.
Presently, both experts and citizens are hopeful of the future of the economy. However, it is an open secret that the decision-making apparatus needs an overhaul. In recent years many criticism have been made regarding the traditional and complicated system of compiling the budget, the weak monetary and banking system, the inefficacy of fiscal markets such as the stock market and insurance and inefficiency of the means to draw investments.
Observers attach credence to the notion that the sine qua non for revolutionizing the economy is to revamp the entire economic structure. The good omen is that ever since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office, he has forced his cabinet to speedily improve all the bureaucratic and economic processes. He has spared no efforts to completely change around the demanding budgetary system and give more powers to ministers and governors general to facilitate sustained development and build up investments. The chief executive also wants to cut the dependency on oil revenues for meeting deficiencies in current expenditures. Ahmadinejad further intends to improve the financial and banking market and establish new paradigms for controlling inflation as well as utilizing liquidity in the production sector more effectively.
All in all we can all feel the winds of change in the national economy and we are moving toward our declared goal of becoming a major economic player in the region.
Of course, we cannot and should not neglect the shortfalls and must come to terms with the reality that no matter how hard the president is working to improve economic conditions, we must join hands to tackle all the problems that can naturally arise in the course of this drive forward.

Developing countries conduct almost 40 percent of the trade transactions among themselves, observed Commerce Minister Masoud Mir Kazemi.
Speaking at the second gathering of 42 Non-Aligned Movement countries in Havana, Cuba (November 1-3), he said that the increase in bilateral and regional cooperation among these countries would lead to decline in tariffs and the removal of obstacles, IRNA reported.
The minister pointed out that Iran is ready to upgrade mutual and regional ties with all NAM nations in commerce, science and technology.
He continued that despite threats of sanction by arrogant powers, Iran has managed to improve working conditions by reforming commercial and investment laws, approving e-trade regulations and putting into effect the competitiveness and anti-monopoly regulations.
Mir Kazemi referred to promotion of private sector, enforcement of liberalization and privatization polices, reduction of bank lending rates and preparing for WTO accession as the economic achievements of recent years.
He called the creation of economic enterprises with quick investment returns and providing motivations for exporters as the policies adopted to develop non-oil exports.
The official underlined that Iran witnessed economic growth of over six percent in the year to March 2007. He cited self-sufficiency in wheat production as yet another national achievement.
NAM is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It was founded in 1950s; as of 2007, it has 118 members. Important members have, at various times, included: Yugoslavia, India, Pakistan, Algeria, Libya, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Indonesia, Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela, South Africa, Iran, Malaysia and China.

Bank Melli of Iran, (BMI) has categorically denied allegations by the US Treasury, accusing the largest public financial institution in this country of involvement in ’deceptive banking practices’.
In a statement, a copy of which was faxed to Iran Daily on Sunday, the bank termed the allegations as politically motivated aimed to damage the hard earned reputation of BMI, warning that they may have a destabilizing impact on financial as well as other markets and the world economy.
Insisting that its operations have always been transparent, the bank said, during its almost 80 years of operations, BMI, ’always remained stringently compliant with the regulatory requirements in its home country as well as in foreign countries where in has a presence’.
The financial institution stated that the US Treasury has failed to cite or provide any evidence to support the accusations leveled against BMI on October 25.
The United States imposed sanction last month against some Iranian banks to counter what it claimed was Iran’s ’support for terrorism’.
Meanwhile, the US daily New York Times reported that the World Bank, newly caught up in the Bush administration’s campaign against Iran, has had to suspend payments for earthquake relief, sanitation and other projects there in response to new American sanctions on leading Iranian banks, World Bank officials say.
Only $5.4 million in payments has been suspended for four projects, involving earthquake relief, water and sanitation, environment management and urban housing, the officials said, and they do not expect the suspensions to be permanent.
However the bank has no plan to resume payments because it is having trouble finding banks in Iran to handle them now that the United States has barred dealing with four of Iran’s largest banks, accusing them of involvement in terrorism, or nuclear or missile programs.
“At this point, the World Bank is looking for alternate ways to support these projects,“ said a bank official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It is unknown how difficult that might be. It is not that easy to find alternatives. We have no answer on how or when at this point.“

Members of North-South Corridor have signed an agreement in Astana, Kazakhstan to activate the transit, trade and transport route.
Public Relations of Transportation and Road Maintenance Organization reported on Sunday that 14 members of the corridor in its fourth coordination meeting on Nov. 2-3 agreed to draw up their documents uniformly and use International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) stamp to facilitate transit among countries along the route, MNA reported.
They also emphasized on expansion of transportation cooperation to expedite transfer of consignments and remove obstacles.
The idea of a trade and transport route--North-South Corridor--between Central Asia and Iran has been around for decades.
North-South Corridor is the shortest and cheapest route for transferring goods from Southeast Asian countries to Russia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Caucasian region.
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Russia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey and Ukraine are members of the corridor.
The establishment of the corridor was initiated by Russia, Iran and India. The three countries signed an agreement in 2000 for transport of commodities from India and South Asia to Russia and north European countries via Iranian territory. The corridor connects Mumbai with St. Petersburg via Tehran and Moscow. In effect, it links the Indian Ocean with the Baltic Sea.