Convincing the World: One of the objectives that we have pursued in the Foreign Ministry is based on the fact that economic interests and power are more present in the definition of national interest in the world. In the interaction between countries, economic interests are becoming more prominent than before.
In our foreign relations we do attach special interests to the economic aspect and do believe that the primary objective in our national economy is developing it, but this would be possible when we establish a friendly relationship with our partners and create a favorable international environment for the interaction between our economy and our partners.
In order to create a favorable international environment, we must promote the business and investment opportunities in Iran. It is not enough to have a good opportunity in Iran, it is necessary to promote and explain it to other people. Even ideas in today’s world should be promoted with a planned and organized promotional policy. It is not important to have a good idea! The important point is to convince the other side that this idea is a practical one and would be of some assistance and benefit to others.
We have a lot of advantages in our economy: abundant natural resources and raw materials, skilled manpower and educated human capital, low-cost energy, etc. Iran is a land of opportunities, and making investment here will have a better yield comparing to many other parts of the developing world.

Economic Liberalization: We went through an eight-year war and the Iranian economy used to look like other war-stricken economies in other parts of the world: The intervention of the government was huge. But since 1989, we have embarked on a new economic plan which is based on a “peace economy” rather than a “war economy”. Huge intervention of the government started to diminish in 1989 and a set of reforms were introduced to the economy.
Since that time we have implemented two 5-year economic development plans. Through these plans, Iran has been able to successfully secure 10 years of GDP growth. We still have lots of challenges, but the fundamentals of economy are not weak.
We have now started the Third Development Plan, which has distinguished characteristics compared to two previous plans: First, it calls for a more open economy in terms of both liberalization and privatization, and it has envisaged the creation of a special organization to focus on privatizing the state-run companies. Moreover, privatization has included some sectors which were not included in the past two plans: downstream oil and gas sectors, transportation, some activities in telecommunications and above all, the privatization of the banking sector.

Strong Indications: The Third Development Plan adopts a better mood in receiving foreign investments comparing to previous plans. The amazing fact is that the new legislation that is now before the Majlis was passed in the first hearing unanimously. Of course this is a strong indication that the whole system whether they are from this faction or that faction are united to invite the foreign investors to be partners with Iranians. This is a strong signal to foreign investors that they should not be concerned with the internal political debate.
The question of “Whose money is coming here?” no longer makes sense. People’s savings are accumulated in financial institutions that operate on a global basis. They have an international thinking to invest their money wherever an opportunity arises. For us, the art is being able to attract the deposits of the people who saved their money in different parts of the world and deposit it in the financial institutions for those who are capable of using them. This kind of thinking is beginning to grow: No matter where the investment is coming from; we can use this money to create more jobs, and to expedite our economic development.

The Global Choice, the Only Choice: Liberalization, privatization of the new sectors of the economy and the attention paid to foreign investment and other logical reforms in the financial sector, in the fiscal policy and in the trade policy and the new approach to the international economic cooperation, which are among the features of the Third Plan, all create a solid base for our international interaction with the whole world and for our economic development.
We have only one choice: to expose ourselves to the new world. Because Iran is an internationalized country, in terms of thoughts and ideas, whether it is Islam, our culture, or the recent doctrine of “dialogue among civilizations”. Our economy is also international: We sell oil on the international market and collect the money and use the whole money to buy products from various parts of the world. Our whole economy is interacting with the world. It is necessary for us to adopt a kind of relationship with foreign partners that would enable both parts to act in a more favorable manner.