Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – July 14, 1993

At eight o'clock, we went to the glass hall of Sedasima to participate in the International Congress of Medical Ethics. After the Quran and the hymn, the welcome and the report of Dr. [Reza] Malekzadeh, [Minister of Health, Treatment and Medical Education], I spoke. Domestic and foreign doctors have received a good reception. Then I visited the place under construction of the international congresses there with Akhvi Mohammad. It is very wide and comprehensive and magnificent and it is built in the basement. It should end this year. The plan started before the revolution.

We returned to the office. Mr. [Majid] Jamshidi, head of the Iranian Statistics Center, came. He complained that the separate agencies have their own statistical organization and do not pay attention to national statistics. He demanded the temporary promotion of the Department of Statistics to the position of Vice President. I said that if they provide accurate and timely statistics, the agencies will not do repetitive work and I pointed out the need of the program and budget organization for statistics.

My advisors came. Mr. [Mustafa] Mirslim, [Advisor to the President on Investigations] congratulated everyone. He stated some things about the shortcomings of the work of the consultants, the lack of clear description of duties and the lack of proper service from the institution and the office, and their lack of activity.

Then the production commission had a meeting. The Ministers of Industry mentioned the problems of the producers due to the single rate of the currency and at the same time, the prohibition of imports without transferring the currency, and the head of the Central Bank and the Minister of Economy resisted. Finally, I decided to renew the import flow without currency transfer.

In the evening, Dr. Velayati [Minister of Foreign Affairs] came. He brought the report of the meeting of foreign ministers of Islamic countries in Pakistan and said the decision to send military forces to Bosnia under the UN flag and the readiness to send five thousand troops and the opposition of America and England to the participation of forces from Iran.

I attended the meeting of the government board. There was a discussion about the establishment of a newspaper for the government, which finally explained that an apparently independent newspaper should be an organ of the government. I stayed in my office at night.