TEHRAN- The head of the National Development Fund(NDF), pointing to the government’s strategic outlook on border areas, announced the allocation of $2 billion in foreign currency resources to support foreign trade in these regions.
According to IRNA, Mehdi Ghazanfari stated on Saturday at the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding for granting facilities to economic sectors in less-developed areas: Customers in this sector must be traders and exporters so that the process of repatriating resources can be carried out in foreign currency with complete confidence.
He added: The memorandum of understanding for granting facilities (in Rials and foreign currency) to economic sectors in less-developed areas was signed between the National Development Fund and the Vice President’s Rural Development Department.
The official continued: Our goal with this new approach is to prevent the accumulation of resources in the banking system and ensure that facilities are directly disbursed to final applicants. At the same time, this does not mean a change in the Fund’s priorities; rather, the Fund will continue its activities with full strength in the sectors of oil, mining, new technologies, and the reconstruction of war-affected areas with the same approach.
Ghazanfari, emphasizing that rural development is one of the vital pillars of national development, stated: The era of villages benefiting from natural resources without the need for technology has ended. Today, it is expected that the same level of welfare available in urban centers will also prevail in remote areas, and this is precisely justice.
He stated: National development and rural development have a reciprocal relationship. When a village is developed, it contributes to national development, and the prosperity of national development must also serve as the driving engine for rural development. Therefore, part of the success in this area requires synergy among the oil, industry, and broader economic sectors.
The head of the National Development Fund’s Board of Trustees pointed to the Fund’s negligible share of the country’s total Rial facilities and said: The National Development Fund is essentially a foreign currency fund, and the Rial is not defined in its articles of association. Nevertheless, according to Article 52 of the law, over the past years, about $10 billion of the Fund’s foreign currency resources were converted into Rials, which, given exchange rate fluctuations, is worth much less today in dollar terms than its initial value.
Referring to the failed experience of allocating $1.5 billion for rural development, he added: The banking network was unsuccessful in effectively disbursing these resources to final applicants, and a large portion of this money accumulated in banks instead of reaching producers and villagers.
The official noted: Given the bitter experiences of the past and the accumulation of resources in banks, the National Development Fund objects to previous methods and is currently seeking to change its approach and adopt a new methodology for genuinely supporting the economy of villages and underprivileged areas.
EF/MA
