Tehran Times - Issuance of permits for setting up industrial units in Iran increased 25 percent during the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-May 21) compared to the same period of time in the past year, IRNA reported on Sunday citing the data released by the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade.

As reported, 3,599 permits have been issued during the two-month period of this year, rising from 2,879 permits issued in the first two months of the previous year.

The units that have received permits are estimated to create jobs for 79,913 people.

As previously announced by the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, issuance of permits for setting up industrial units in Iran increased 16 percent in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2019).

As reported, most of the issued permits were related to the food industries; and Semnan, Qom and Khorasan Razavi were the provinces receiving the highest number of the permits.

Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani has announced that some 2,200 industrial units will come back to the production cycle by the end of the current Iranian year.

The minister said that last year, 1,900 inactive units were planned to restart activity, but the planning came true for 1,700 units and led to creation of 28,000 jobs.

He further said, “We have some plans for removing the problems of the units which are facing serious challenges.”

There are some units that enjoy high potential and capacities, but due to some problems such as inadequate working capital they cannot work with full capacity, the minister noted, adding, “Our priority in the current year is to facilitate the condition for such units.”

As previously announced by Deputy Industry Minister Mohsen Salehinia, during the current year the government plans to provide facilities under the framework of subsidies for projects with more than 60 percent of physical development, to supply working capital of firms, to renovate production units and etc.

He said that 360 trillion rials (about $857.1 million) of facilities will be granted to the industrial units in this year in the framework of production flourishing plan.