Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s First Vice-President Parviz Davoudi Tuesday said that the necessary infrastructure for the country’s all-out development is prepared.
He made the remark in the inaugural ceremony of Zarand Coke Plant, in the southeastern city of Kerman.
The country’s economic growth has risen to 7 percent compared to 4.8 percent in 2004, Davoudi said in his inaugural speech.
With an annual 15 million tons of output, the steel industry raised its rank in the world from 20 to 17, he added, Tehran Times said citing a report by the state-run tv.
The Industries and Mines Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian said in the same ceremony that the mining and industry sector accounts for 40 percent of the economic growth.
The minister anticipated that expansion plans would boost the plant’s output to 800,000 tons in two years increasing the country’s total coke production capacity to two million tons.
More than 90 percent of the 143 plans underway in the mining and industry sector have been launched by the current government, Mehrabian added.
Over 1,000 billion rials (about $90.1 million) has been expended for launching the 4,000-ton Zarand Coke Plant which is expected to create some 1,500 job opportunities.
It is the first coke production plant being built in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Moreover, it would meet the demands of Iran’s steel factories and their affiliated industries and thus make the country self-sufficient in coke production.
