MNA � Iran�s Economy Minister Tayebnia said, despite difficulties and restrictions, all transferable state-owned companies will be handed over to the private sector in a year�s time.


Ali Tayebnia, Iranian Minister of Economy, while acknowledging that certain barriers exist, said the private sector will have been put in charge of all transferable state-own companies by the end of the new Iranian calendar year.

�Within a year, assignment of all state-owned firms to the private sector will be executed via resolving some problems like low profitability of a number of these companies despite their substantial assets,� he underlined.

Meanwhile, Tayebnia admitted that opposition of some managers and directors of public companies might pose obstacle to the privatization process.

It is widely believed that if current governmental organizations are privatized they will need to become more efficient. At present many are not profitable due to large numbers of unnecessary employees hired by the government to reduce unemployment. Furthermore, many of these companies are subsidized by oil revenues. True privatization will inevitably lead to many unpopular job cuts and large scale lay offs.