The capacity of cities to implement the slogan of New Iranian Year of 1396 / small enterprises and urban entrepreneurship; key for urban production and employment

IUESA: Referring to the naming of 1396 by the Supreme Leader as “Economy of Resistance; production-employment,” Dr. Pourzarandi, the president of Iran Urban Economics Scientific Association (IUESA) said his reemphasis on economic issues and people’s livelihood indicate gap between ideal and current situation about economic issues in the country.            

Saying that the Supreme Leader has introduced domestic product and employment as key components in the country, Dr. Pourzarandi said the importance of this issue led this year to be named as “economy of resistance; production-employment” by the Supreme Leader.

As the Supreme Leader asserted, success and efficiency in implementation of resistance economy policies will be obvious when it is tangible.

Noting that the most tangible ones are welfare, employment, and family’s costs, he said if we want to evaluate the government’s performance in improvement of people’s livelihood based on resistance economy, we should analyze the performance according to indicators and variables of unemployment rate, family’s costs, Gini coefficient, and inflation rate.

Looking at statistics, increase in unemployment rate in urban and rural areas of the country will be evident that is contrary to paragraph 1 of general policies of resistance economy, he said.

Generally, it can be stated that costs of household expenditures have been drawn from food to non-food costs and mainly housing and transport. This means that people, particularly poor classes of the society, spend on non-food needs instead of food, indicating poverty development in economic, social and even feeding aspects in urban communities, he added.

Referring to the capacity of cities to accomplish the slogan, he said globally, metropolises are development engines, and there is a capacity for Iran’s cities to be influential in economic growth and development in 1396.

Emphasizing that the share of cities in countries’ GDP is usually more than their population, he added city managers can formulate the package of production and employment in cities with the help of responsible organizations, and supporting small enterprises and urban creativity should be put on the agenda.