Ahmad Ali Harati-Nik, Chairman of Mines
and Mineral Industries Development and Renovation Organization, is skeptical
about realization of share of the private sector in major steel plan and says,
"The only help that our organization can offer the private sector to boost its
role, is supplying them with needed iron ore."
This statement clearly shows limitation
of sectoral facilities in achieving transsectoral, large-scale economic goals.
According to sectoral studies, steel industry enjoys very high potentials and
great relative advantage due to having two main inputs, namely iron ore and
energy. In addition to these main inputs, several decades of trade in the said
industry, indigenization of its technology (Zamzam Plan as well as Meibod and
Zagros high furnaces), existence of management knowledge (obtaining top
quality management certificates by such production plants as Mobarakeh Steel
Mills, Isfahan Iron Smelting Complex…), suitable rail and road transportation
facilities, as well as growing domestic and global markets (which lead to
annual export of several million tons of steel to 27 countries), are all
indicative of many advantages of this industry and its attraction for domestic
and foreign investors. This attraction makes production of 29 million tons of
steel and the realization of a 4-million-ton share for the private sector
possible. However, a precondition is that economic and political conditions
should pave the way for this purpose.
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Productivity of every nation is sum total of
productivities of its companies. Companies represent economic
competition. |
Industrial production environment, like
other environments, is affected by many variables some of which cannot be
changed by special sectors or even the national economy. Variables such as
political and economic stability, foreign exchange rate, tax rate, labor and
trade laws, bank facilities and insurance system are major factors affecting
realization of field and sectoral advantages.
In view of the goals of the 20-year
Outlook Plan and the Fourth Economic Development Plan, as well as emphasis put
by many officials on the critical role of the private sector in the country’s
development process, macroeconomic and microeconomic relations and components
should be organized to realize that goal.
Michael Porter, an economic theoretician
and business expert, has formulated this complex macroeconomic, microeconomic
and corporate environment in the following accurate and logical manner.
Productivity of every nation is sum
total of productivities of its companies. Companies represent economic
competition. Macroeconomic policies do not result in a prosperous economy
unless work environment is really improved. Improved environment will not
cause economic prosperity unless companies are really developed. Development
cannot be imagined unless reforms are carried out by governments,
institutions, and companies. Activating many advantages of a country requires
such theoretical features and national determination. Otherwise, as put by
chairman of Mines and Mineral Industries Development and Renovation
Organization, no single entity can become successful.
