In a rare speech, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament has explained the gross dimensions of Iran's backwardness in the economic and managerial fields by citing statistics. At the same time, he says that at the top of affairs is the leadership and the guardianship of the jurist, whose democracy is a serious institution.
On Thursday, in a speech at the 12th National Congress of the Islamic Society of Engineers and commemoration of Government Week, Ali Larijani gave a worrying view of Iran's economic and managerial situation by citing statistics.
According to Larijani, per capita GDP is one of the components of a country's economic status, but in this regard, Iran ranks 94th among 185 countries, and in terms of economic freedom, Iran is at the bottom of the table, ranking 171st among 178 countries. Describing these figures, he said, "This means that competition in our country is very low."
Larijani also mentioned Iran as 82nd among 104 countries in terms of unemployment, saying that few countries in the world have double-digit unemployment rates, and Iran is one of them. Referring to the fact that Iran is ranked 164th among 178 countries in terms of attracting foreign capital, Larijani added: "We have a problem in terms of attracting investment, and in this situation, Iran's rank is 167th among 187 countries in terms of investment support. This shows that our people prefer to invest their money in places that will yield quick results, and this is due to the difficult and corrupt bureaucratic conditions in the country, which is why people prefer to put their money in a safe place like a bank and get the same 18 percent interest, but do not invest in production."
Villages that have been emptied, brains that are leaving the country
According to the speaker of the parliament, Iran is also ranked 130th out of 140 countries in terms of compliance with intellectual property rights, which “has caused concern among entrepreneurs.” And while the Supreme Leader of Iran and some senior officials constantly mention costly enrichment or some measures in the field of nanotechnology or stem cells as signs of Iran’s “remarkable” progress, Ali Larijani, citing statistics, says that Iran “is ranked 111th out of 140 countries in terms of access to the latest technology. This issue is perhaps due to the superficial attitude of management and the lack of vision for using new technologies.”
Larijani then pointed out that only 50 percent of Iran's development plans are being implemented, placing the country in 134th place among 140 countries in attracting talent, a prominent symbol of which is the widespread brain drain from Iran.
Iran 1404, maybe another time
The Islamic Republic has consistently repeated the slogan of taking care of villages and remote areas and has shown itself to be a supporter of it. But Ali Larijani says that after 37 years, today, "the villages are being evacuated because there is no favorable economic cycle for progress in the villages and they are forced to migrate. The result is that 70 percent of the Iranian people have become urbanized, and Iran stands in 12th place among 216 countries in this regard."
Larijani's unprecedented remarks about Iran's economic backwardness come at a time when, in accordance with the plan known as the "Iran Vision 1404," which is considered an upstream document for Iran's development, the Islamic Republic should be "in the first economic, scientific, and technological position in the Southwest Asian region (including Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and neighboring countries) by this year, with an emphasis on the software movement and science production, rapid and continuous economic growth, a relative increase in per capita income, and achieving full employment." It is unclear how Iran is going to achieve the "Vision 1404" with the statistics mentioned by Larijani, which show a fundamental setback in some indicators compared to the time of the revolution.
Points not mentioned
Many critics consider Iran’s regional policies and lack of international engagement, as well as the security and military perspective on stability and authority, to be among the factors behind the backwardness mentioned by Ali Larijani, but the Speaker of the Parliament did not mention these issues in his speech. At the same time, while praising the Iranian political system for the pivotal role of the “Supreme Leader” in Iran and calling this system democratic, he complained that some of the aforementioned problems are due to the weakness of the organization, the lack of party activities, and the shortcomings of political management in Iran. This is while critics consider this pivotal role of the Supreme Leader to be contrary to the strong presence of parties and an obstacle to advancing party programs and cultivating strong party managers.
Years ago, even Hashemi Rafsanjani implicitly considered this issue a contradiction that needed to be “worked on”: “We have a specific issue that we need to work on, and that is the issue of the Supreme Leader. Because the parties that come and the powerful non-executive people who join the party want to make decisions and policies that will turn into programs, and if they win, their programs will become laws during the administration of the country. If they know that they do not have the right to determine policies and must act within specific limits, they will not join the party.”
Source: DW
