President Rouhani addressed a meeting of country’s cooperatives union on Saturday afternoon, where he pointed to some of the most pressing issues of economy, the most important of which he believed was absolute dependence of budget on oil income; “even the monthly salary of the government employees had been paid from oil income, and for annual planning of the budget, it is famous to see what would have been the upcoming year in terms of oil incomes,” Rouhani said, “a third of public spending of the government is paid for by oil income.”
On JCPOA, Rouhani defended the deal as ‘breaking all the rings of chains of the sanctions;’ “I would not allow some extremist circles to destroy the nation’s hopes,” said the president.
Rouhani further emphasized that no one in the history of Iran would claim that this deal undermined national glory; “all the world have recognized the deal as a move toward global peace and stability,” he asserted.
Touching upon yet a different issue, president hailed cooperatives a sector as a path toward distributing wealth and preventing unfair concentration of welfare in certain classes; “we should identify cooperatives as a sector of economy bringing about justice for all; however, despite the hopes for increased role of cooperatives after the Revolution, it ceased to hold its role in economy; the Ministry of Cooperatives and Labour should carry out an investigation into the probable causes of the successes and failures of the sector,” Rouhani told the meeting.
Rouhani cited as successful cases of the cooperatives transportation and agriculture; on the job creation role of the cooperatives, he emphasized that housewives should participate, through cooperatives, in generating income for the family and the idea that women should foster children at home should be discarded.
“The Ministry of Cooperatives and Labour should prepare a blueprint for the cabinet to be passed; cooperatives should come to the focus of attention of different players of the economy to see more active sector after sanctions, a sector which contribute positively to the development of the country,” Rouhani concluded.