Margins of revitalizing the Ministry of Commerce according to Ishaq Jahangiri

The problems faced by the country in the functional area of ​​the former Ministry of Commerce made Mr. Rouhani and the economic team of the government come to the conclusion that without re-establishing the Ministry of Commerce, the existing challenges of the commodity market cannot be solved.  This idea had opponents and in the end, despite the great efforts made by the members of the government, it did not come to fruition.  The government bill in this regard was sent to the parliament in 1996 before the introduction of the second government of Mr. Rouhani, but the parliament did not agree with the formation of the Ministry of Commerce.  At one stage, when he agreed, he faced objections from the Guardian Council, and finally, on May 21, 2019, the parliament opposed the government's proposal and did not vote for the revival of the Ministry of Commerce.  This issue upset Mr. Rouhani.  They had informed him that the Minister of Silence was responsible for not voting the government bill. That evening, in the government meeting, Mr. Rouhani gave me a note and wrote that I should nominate two people for the Ministry of Silence. I wrote to him that the work of the parliament has been delayed and according to my information, Mr. Rahmani has not played an effective role, because you are angry, wait for a week and then act.

In the meeting of the government, the president spoke sharply with the ministers of economy and state.  After the meeting, I spoke with Rahmani, Minister of Peace, and I was scheduled to speak with Mr. Rouhani again.  He thought that I was his only defender;  Although I did not agree with his ministry from the beginning and I was not consulted for his ministry, but about two years had passed since his ministry and we were nearing the end of the government and I did not consider it expedient to change him.  In my conversation with Mr. Rouhani, I realized that he insists on changing the Minister of Security, he again asked me to introduce a replacement, I suggested Mr. Jafar Sarqini, Sarqini was the Deputy Minister of Security until February 1998 and he was familiar with the affairs of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

And considering the limited time left, he could quickly take over the work.  Until the end of the government, I insisted that someone from within the Ministry of Security be introduced as the new minister who does not need a period to get to know and change managers, on this basis, I nominated Mr. Sarqini, who was the deputy minister for many years during the reform period.

At that point, Mr. Rouhani made another decision and chose Mr. Modares Khabiani, who was the Deputy Minister of Commerce, as the supervisor.  The process of removing Rahmani was such that we were in my office (May 22, 2019) during a meeting to review the obstacles to the development of exports to neighboring countries, and Mr. Rahmani was asked to resign.  Mr. Rahmani did not expect such a call and was somewhat surprised, he wrote a text on the spot to give to the media.  After the meeting, I found out that the decision to appoint a supervisor has been taken seriously, I told Rahmani to go to my office to talk to the president on the phone, and in the office and before making the phone call, I found out that a new supervisor, Mr. Modares Khayani, has been appointed and the news network has published its subtitles, which was also very strange and of course it was natural for Rahmani to say goodbye sadly.

Of course, the parliament did not agree with the government and did not vote confidence in Mr. Modares Khayani whom the president introduced as minister, after that Mr. Sarqini became the caretaker for a period of three months, Mr. Dr. Sarqini was one of the senior managers of the Ministry of Industries and Mines, who was the deputy minister in Mr. Khatami's government, and he is a pure, expert and wise person.  Of course, some people believed that he did not have much faith in the private sector, but at that time he was the best choice for the government. Unfortunately, during his tenure, a dispute arose between him and the president's office, and the president refused to nominate Mr. Sarqini as a minister and decided to nominate another person from outside the Ministry of Silence.

At first, Mr. Rouhani introduced Mr. Modares Khayani to the parliament, but he also failed to get a vote of confidence from the parliament, and then the president decided to introduce Mr. Alireza Razm Hosseini as a minister to the parliament, and as expected, this time too, the atmosphere was created against Razm Hosseini.  I attended the vote of confidence meeting and Mr. Rouhani did not come, the parliament gave a vote of confidence to Razm Hosseini and he became the last government minister who did not have a few more months, but I was really surprised and embarrassed by the tone of the opposition representatives and the way they argued against the proposed minister and in fact against the government

Of course, the problem of delaying the duties of the Ministry of Commerce still remained.  Following the Parliament's opposition to the establishment of the Ministry of Commerce, the Economic Coordination Council of the Heads of Powers transferred the powers of the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad in the field of commerce to the Ministry of Peace, so that the work can be done in a centralized manner and reduce some of the problems, and a person will be appointed as the Deputy Minister of Commerce, who will have full commercial powers.  There was a difference of opinion between the office of the President and the Minister of Silence regarding this person, and finally it was agreed that Mr. Modares Khabani would take this responsibility and the Minister of Silence would make a decision.  With the relative improvement of the country's conditions, in the period after Trump's departure, both ministers wanted their powers in this area to return to the legal framework, for which the necessary planning was done and the decision that was made for special circumstances was abandoned.

One of the reasons that led to Rahmani's dismissal, in addition to the issue of not approving the Ministry of Commerce, was the disagreement between him and the President's office;  These differences of opinion were also about management changes in a mining company.  The reason why Mr. Sarqini was not introduced to the parliament after the term of the presidency was his disagreement with the President and his office on the same issue and Mr. Sarqini's failure to withdraw.  However, the Ministry of Commerce was not approved in either the 10th or the 11th Parliament.

The fact is that between the mergers and separations that happened in the 9th and 10th governments, in the two cases of the management and planning organization and the merger of the Ministry of Industries and Mines with the Ministry of Commerce, many studies were conducted in Mr. Khatami's government. In the industrial development strategy studies that were conducted during my tenure in the Ministry of Industries and Mines, the necessity of merging the Ministry of Industries and Mines with the Ministry of Commerce was emphasized, and perhaps for this reason, the parliament, considering a study, opposed this decision that was taken due to short-term needs.  But on the other hand, it was believed that the market situation would improve with the establishment of the Ministry of Commerce.