Comprehensive and practical strategies and policies in the auto industry can lead to its sustainable development. If the supportive policies in the auto industry are not thought through and planned correctly, they will have an opposite effect. The creation of a competitive market environment, not only in the auto industry but in all industries, is a necessity that must be addressed.

Dr. Hussein Azimi, Head of the Institute for Education and Research in Management and Planning and university lecturer, believes that the supportive policies should consist of the gradual freeing up of imports, a lowering of trade taxing, establishing a fund for restoring the industry’s quality and rewarding initiatives such as the purchase of new technology. If these suggestions are ignored and the supportive policies continue as they are, they will not have the effects desired. Controlled and supervised auto imports are not inconsistent with supporting the domestic auto market. Imports should be retentively allowed from next year and gradually increased. Imports must not be neglected and must be factored in medium or long-term plans of 8 to 10 years. For example, the amount of imports in the first year should be 4% or 5% of the total domestic market and this figure should gradually increase until the final year, when imports will be unrestricted. This plan can only benefit the auto industry and Iran’s economy if it is supplemented with complimenting policies; otherwise these imports and opening ups can only be to the country’s detriment. These policies can be in the form of drafting and implementing legal rules and regulations, custom duties and trade revenues.

Azimi suggested a low tariff rate of 15% for auto imports, called the ownership fee, paid directly to the government to be used as the government sees fit. But there should also be a tariff imposed by customs, which during the first years of imports should be at the high rate of 100%. This money should go to a fund called the Auto Quality Restoration Fund. The government must not use this money as part of its spending budget; rather it should be channeled to a board of trustees who will use it to develop the auto industry. However, these tariffs must be paid gradually and reduced over time, so if in the first year the tariff is 100% by the eighth or tenth year it should have been gradually reduced to zero.

The money that goes to the Auto Quality Restoration Fund must be used immediately to boost the quality of domestically manufactured automobiles. This money must be focused on things that are an indication of our domestic autos’ quality. In this way, any auto manufacturer who boosts the quality of his product will be given access to this fund. For example, if an auto manufacturer achieves an unprecedented quality standard, it can claim the cost of achieving it from this fund. In this way the manufacturer will have a double reward, first by boosting the quality of his production and second by receiving a payment from the fund. This method will encourage production and will shift the responsibility to the manufacturers gradually, in a manner which they can sustain the pressure.