There is no way Iran can get its hands on the technological know-how it needs to pull itself out of this slump, without the assistance of foreign parties. If Iran puts the days of an introverted economy behind it and embraces foreign partners and adopts their management methods, it can have its rightful place in global market.

For as long as we have not established a proper political and economic relationship with the international community we will be kept in the dark in regards to technological advancements we need to progress. This leaves us with no choice but to turn to an extroverted economic vision.

At present we do not see a serious push towards integration in the global economy; despite the fact that extroverted economy and adopting market principles have been identified as the saviors of Iran’s economy for many years now, and have even been suggested as the backbone of the country’s fourth development plan.

These were the topics under discussion in the first gathering on Iran’s economic diplomacy—Tehran 23-24 August 2003. This conference was truly studded with officials with the President, Vice President, Ministers, Deputies and Iranian Ambassadors as well as political and economic experts all in attendance.

The participants lauded the efforts of President Mohammad Khatami and the first Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref for supporting economic reforms in the country and called for more attention to be paid to international business in the Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan. The seminar underlined the interaction between politics and economy and called for benefiting from them in materializing national and economic development in the country. Economic growth will result in competitiveness, qualitative and quantitative development and active presence in regional and international markets, said the statement. The participants called for formation of union and societies under the supervision of the foreign ministry to help promote economic activities in foreign countries. They called on the government to adopt a supporting system to help the active presence in the global economy. They underlined the significant role of information technology to help ease access to global economic development and facilitate international competition and marketing.

Speaking at the conference’s opening ceremony First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref reiterated the priority of economic diplomacy to its political and security counterparts in the contemporary world. He said that in modern diplomacy, diplomats with good knowledge on world economic developments and know-how on commercial management, law and international trade play a decisive role. "In the modern international atmosphere, trade diplomacy and economic relations are the two inseparable elements of modern economic diplomacy," he noted. Aref said that Iran should coordinate its domestic and foreign policies with regional and international situation so as to guarantee its national interests by pursuing economic diplomacy. Turning to the Third Development Plan (March 2000-2005) which aims at developing a free economy, he said that Iran will face the challenge of job creation for its young population and that of filling the current gap between Iran and some of the world’s recently industrialized forerunners in the coming years.

The pivotal axes of the fourth development plan are mainly aimed at promoting labor culture, focusing on production and job creation, revised thinking and transformation of beliefs and scientific traditions.
"Reform of organizational structures and institutions involved in foreign trade as well as making operational the nation’s diplomatic headquarters to develop international economic ties are also among the objectives of the plan," he added. The official reiterated the need for domestic and foreign coordination to materialize the objectives set by the ruling system. "One of the most important tasks of the cabinet and its administrators is to provide necessary grounds for facilitating such coordination and attention to the system’s general orientation". He hoped that on the eve of launching the fourth development plan which aims at providing more suitable grounds for development of a free economy and further economic growth, the Foreign Ministry, and relevant organizations, will come up with more developed concepts, strategies, standards and executive trends indispensable to promotion of economic diplomacy.

Iran’s ambassador to Japan, Ali Majedi, who spoke at the second day of the conference, stated that Iran must set its priorities and then conduct its affairs accordingly. If the highest item on the country’s agenda becomes economic development, then the country’s foreign policy must also fall in line with this objective.

Our foreign policy must now be geared towards attracting foreign investment and technology. For example, when East Asian states were struggling with the economic crisis of 1997, Japan extended them all financial aid packages to help them rebuild their economy. This is because the economies of these countries are intertwined to such an extent that financial hardship in East Asia will have consequences for Japan, and subsequent consequences for the American and European economies.

But this is not true for the go-it-alone economy of Iran. What happens to the economy of Iran has no bearing for other countries in the world. This is because oil is our only trade commodity and we are living as an isolated island, separate from the international community.

In these circumstances, it falls to the embassies and diplomats abroad to facilitate this contact with the international community. This means that our embassies must have acute awareness of the needs and capabilities of the country, and use this information to establish a link between the private sectors. The role of the private sectors must be emphasized in our economic diplomacy. On a global scale, major economic institutions have—by and large—found their way, and it is the small businesses in the private sector that depend on embassies to facilitate their presence in overseas markets.

Mohsen Aminzade, Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Oceania, believes that even though our private sector has a negligible presence in the international arena, it is still a good start that can lead to the active presence of Iran’s private sector in world trade in the years to come. If the Foreign Ministry is responsible for promoting national security and interests—when the status of economic affairs are considered—it becomes clear that a grave economic responsibility falls to the ministry.

Navigating the international trade waters has become tricky with the score of sanctions and restrictions imposed on Iran, which have made dealing with the West increasingly difficult. This is why we have started to look to the East. The rapid pace of the vast economic development of Asia has also encouraged Iran to strengthen its ties with the continent’s economic heavyweights such as Japan, China, South Korea, India and Turkey.

Deputy Minister of Oil, Mohammadreza Nematzadeh, claimed that despite the central role that per capita income plays in economic growth, the people have been unfortunately kept in the dark about its true amount. At a time when the country has adopted a uniform currency exchange rate, officials are no longer justified in withholding this information from the people.