Publish Date: 17 February 2014 - 15:35

TEHRAN, Feb. 17 (MNA) – Iran’s minister of Industry, Trade, and Mines has predicted a high rate of firm closures for the next year.

Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, who was speaking in the ceremony held on ranking Iran’s top companies, told that the minister of Labor and Social Welfare had warned that if the country did not improve production, more and more business firms would be closed, bringing about a flood of unemployed staff.

“Unfortunately, the rate of industrial employment has been minus 36 percent last year, which has been unprecedented in recent years,” said Nematzadeh, recommending productive firms to improve their financial balance.

“All should think of producing money, since we have limited credits, and industrial firms should plan to seek financial credits for themselves,” Nematzadeh was quoted as saying.

Nematzadeh also recommended upstream industrial firms to provide financial credits for their downstream firms in the chain. “The provision of credits is a mutual safety measure for upstream and downstream business firms to survive the financial hardships; if they do not do this, the result will be unemployment and a flood of jobless staff for upstream firms,” he detailed about the issue.

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