President Ebrahim Raeisi's New Year address is as follows:
In the Name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
I would like to express my congratulations on the beginning of the new year to all dear fellow Iranians, especially the families of martyrs, veterans, the Supreme Leader, all ethnic groups and Iranians abroad, all nations who celebrate Nowruz, and to all those who love dear Iran.
Also, I would like to congratulate the loved ones who are serving the people at this moment.
This year, the spring of nature is happening at the same time as the spring of souls and hearts and the spring of the Qur'an, which means the holy month of Ramadan; We take this symmetry as a good omen and we hope that it will be the source of extensive material and spiritual blessings for the faithful and honorable people of Iran.
Dear people of Iran
1401 was an eventful year; It had both bitterness and sweetness, ups and downs, but if I want to say it in one sentence, 1401 was the year of the power of the people and the heroism of the Iranian nation and its brilliance in the decisive fields.
In this year, we had tragic natural events, such as the Hormozgan and Khoy earthquakes and floods in different parts of the country, as well as the tragic accident of the Abadan Metropole, which saddened both the Abadani people and the dear nation of Iran. In all of these incidents, the government's effort was a quick, effective and reassuring presence in the scenes.
Apart from the natural events that I mentioned, issues such as the autumn riots and the terrorist attack on the holy shrine of Shahcheragh (PBUH) also made the Iranian and Muslim people sad.
The unrest was not a small issue, it was the product of the conspiracies of Iran's enemies, which started almost one year after the government took office.
From August 2021 to August 2022, contrary to the predictions of the ill-wishers, the government's project, which was to restore the hope and trust of the people, made significant and acceptable progress, and in fact, the sanctions project failed with the government's detailed planning and thanks to the people's trust and support.
One of the milestones of the crystallisation of the trust of the people and the government was the stage of popularisation of subsidies in the implementation of the law of the parliament in May 2022. The government spoke honestly to the people on this issue; it fully informed the people a few months before it, explained the necessity of this action, tried to consider compensations in the implementation and increased the direct subsidies payment to six to ten times. The result was that the great work went ahead with the support and trust of the people.
In the first year of the government, several important events took place, "1. The failure of the sanctions project", "2. Improving macroeconomic indicators" and "3. Increasing the public trust of the people". This caused Iran's ill-wishers to turn to the other side of the sanctions coin, which was unrest; another branch of hybrid warfare. They tried to disrupt the progress of the country through riots, create social and political divide and isolate Iran in the world, but the Iranian nation stood up to this big and multi-layered conspiracy and defended the Revolution and Iran.
The great work of the people on the spectacular February 11 demonstrations this year defeated their plans.
People's presence in the field on occasions like February 11is "security-creating" and "power-creating", therefore, unlike the riots that gave hope to the enemy and created uncertainty in the economy, causing damage to people's livelihood, the presence of people on February 11 disappointed the enemy and after February 11 and the empowerment of the people, a new round of strategic successes of the Islamic Republic and compensation for the damages caused by riots in the lives of the people began.
I should once again sincerely thank the people and bow to them for their greatness.
It is also necessary to honor the memory of security defender martyrs and fellow Iranians who lost their lives in these incidents and ask God for His grace and mercy for them.
But the year 1401, contrary to the wishes of the anti-Iran front, had a lot of sweetness and was actually the year of great achievements of the nation.
In the year that was decorated with the name of "Production, knowledge-based and employment-creating", production grew well. New records were recorded in the field of knowledge-based companies, and the government's promise in the field of employment was fulfilled. In the production sector, the 9-month growth reached 3.7%, and in the employment sector, the unemployment rate reached 8.2%, which is the lowest rate in recent years.
One of the challenges of the 1390s, which is the lost decade of the country's economy, was the low and negative growth of investment in some years, but this year, investment grew well like other sectors.
In 1401, more than 3 thousand stagnant or semi-stagnant factories and production units were activated. In the knowledge-based sector, 140 important and key projects were started in the sectors of energy, agriculture, space, transportation, medical equipment, biotechnology, and employment in science and technology parks and growth centers increased by 50%.
In the field of health, the government was able to fulfil its promise of curbing coronavirus by completing the public vaccination and with the cooperation of the people, in the first months of the year. The increase of more than 10,000 hospital beds, free health insurance for nearly 6 million people in the bottom three brackets of society, and free hospitalisation services in cities under 20,000 people were other government services in the health sector.
In other sectors, the government's services to the people were continuous and uninterrupted; Guaranteed purchase from farmers grew by 60%, more than two thousand hundred schools were built in one year, nearly a thousand kilometers of highways and main roads were put into operation in the country, and six space launches, including the Noor 2 satellite launch, were successfully carried out.
In the fields of infrastructure and construction projects, the government's basic strategy of completing half-finished works continued in 1401.
The Zahedan-Khash strategic railway project, the huge water transfer tunnel to Lake Urmia, the large Ghadir project to supply water to our dear Khuzestan, numerous large projects to supply water to Sanandaj and Hamedan, water supply projects to 1500 villages in the country, the start of operations to transfer water from the Persian Gulf to the Central Plateau, the big Bushehr desalination project, Hazrat Mahdi (AS) hospital in Tehran, phase 14 of South Pars, the development of Abadan refinery and several other huge projects in the field of oil and gas that you witnessed, thank God, have been completed.
The opening of numerous power plant projects in the country also increased the electricity generation capacity by 7 thousand megawatts in the country, as a result of which we were able to prevent the repetition of past blackouts, even during the peak summer consumption period.
In the field of foreign policy, the government's approach from the beginning was "balanced diplomacy" and "revival of neighborhood policy and regionalism". The year 1401 was the year of fruition of this policy; Of course, from August 2021, our plans and trips started in this framework, but the results became clear to our dear people in 1401.
"Balanced diplomacy" means that we did not wait for countries that hesitate to cooperate with Iran. Procrastination in the new world and new order causes the country to lose its role and position.
Iran's position in the region is a strategic and irreplaceable position. One of the important features of the new world order is the transfer of power to the Asian continent. The role and hegemony of America in the world is declining.
Among the strategic plans of the government in the new year is to use the unique and strategic position of dear Iran and to activate the "North-South" and "East-West" routes to achieve a place on the level of the great nation of Iran in the new order.
The neighborhood policy, the results of which have become more apparent to our dear people these days, was one of the main agendas of the government from the first day.
Dear and honorable people
The successes I mentioned were achieved with your support and trust. Expressing these successes does not mean that there are no problems, but it means that as we were able to overcome a large amount of accumulated problems and conspiracies by working together, other problems can also be solved with your empathy and the government's services.
As your servant, there is not a day that I do not suffer from the hardships of people's lives and livelihoods, especially the weaker brackets. In terms of reducing inflation, the 59% inflation in September 2021 reached 43% in February 2023, but this number is not satisfactory in my opinion. The main plan of the government in 2023 is to control inflation along with sustainable economic growth.
In the field of domestic politics, this year is the year of elections for the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Assembly of Experts. The government's plan is to lay the groundwork for the participation of the people and the formation of a strong parliament. The government does not belong to any faction. The faction of the government is the faction of the Revolution and dear people. The more popular elections are held, the better it is for our dear country.
Noble and proud nation of Iran
Your help, sympathy and participation is the most valuable asset for the government and for carrying out transformational actions.
None of the government managers received a blank cheque to be continuously present in the government and in the institutions, but they are continuously subject to evaluation. If I see that a person does not have the ability or qualification to serve the people in jihad, it is natural that they will be replaced by another motivated and expert force.
I assure our dear people that in the new year, the efforts of your servants in the government to fulfill the promises, including "improving people's livelihood", "anti-corruption", "inflation control", "strengthening production" and "increasing employment", will be round the clock and non-stop.
At the end, I feel obliged to humbly thank the people for their support and sacrifices for the pride of dear Iran, to express my gratitude to the wise and wise Leader of the Islamic Revolution, whose guidance is the light of the nation's servants, to the Parliament, the judiciary and other institutions that are sympathetic with the government in paving the way to serve the nation. I would like to thank and honor the memory of the dear Imam Khomeini and high-ranking martyrs, and I wish a cheerful, pleasant and memorable Nowruz and Ramadan for the people and all Iranian families.
Peace and blessings of God be upon you.
MNA/President.ir