March 25, 2022
The deputy chief of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce says Iran’s three-decade-old privatization program has failed miserably because the people running the country see it as a threat to their power.
Hossain Selahvarzi, deputy head of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, wrote a scathing analysis of the privatization program carried in the economic daily Donya-e Eqtesad, the Persian sister daily of the English language Financial Tribune.
Selahvarzi wrote:
“Privatization failed in Iran because those in charge don’t care one iota about the transfer of power from the government to civil institutions. The dominant group, which controls the economy, has devised ambitious plans for itself; it needs every arm of the economic powers to achieve its goals; it won’t delegate even a small part of the powers to institutions that are not affiliated to the government.
“We all know that economic power has the ability to influence political, social and cultural powers. That is why they won’t share economic power through privatization.… The dominant political force has acted against all privatization moves at all times,” he wrote.
He said the latest effort by the Rohani Administration failed miserably as a number of the firms privatized “are being reclaimed from their private owners and being transferred to the government.”
He concluded: “Privatization has turned into a tragicomic spectacle in Iran and it appears to be continuing.”