Following the provincial trips by senior managers in the government, last week from the 10th to 16th of Dec, 9 ministers visited at the sites of the projects to keep track of the objectives of the 11th cabinet in different sections.
The Minister of Agriculture travelled to Hormozgan province, the Minister of Education to Fars province, the Minister of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education to Sistan and Baluchistan province, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance went to Isfahan province, the Minister of Road and Urban Development visited East Azerbaijan province, the Minister of Sport and the Youth went to Kermanshah province, the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade travelled to Khuzestan province, and the Minister of Cooperative, Labor, and Social Welfare went to Alborz as well as Shiraz province.
The Minister of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education had the longest trip of all to one province which took 5 days. The trip not only had ministerial aspects and was about the issues of development projects but like the most trip taken by the Minister had medical aspects, and he had several eye surgeries in the deprived areas of the province.
Minister of Health announced in Zahedan the capital of Sistan- Baluchistan province that over 500 thousand inhabitants of the province have been covered by the Plan of Evolution Health System.
In the opening ceremonies of 12 specialized army field hospitals in south east of the country, Seyed Hasssan Ghazizadeh Hashemi said in Zahedan, “Over 100 billion Tomans has been paid to provide health-care services for the people of Sistan and Baluchistan.”
He added, “More than 600 development projects in the field of health care is being constructed all around Sistan and Baluchistan which will be operational by the end of the eleventh cabinet’s incumbency.”
He considered an increase of 50 percent of hospital beds in Sistan and Baluchistan province during the last 3 years as one of the valuable services of the cabinet and referred to the delivery of 800 more beds.
Stating that the increase in the number of hospital beds as a part of the accomplished programs of the Ministry of Health in Sistan and Baluchistan, the Minister of Health said, “The province has always been the gateway of contagious diseases due to its proximity to two instable neighboring countries. However, we have honor to say that because of our efforts we have not witnessed the cholera for two years while this contagious disease had killed people in the region before that.”
Minister of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education said, “At present, most people in Sistan and Baluchistan have health care, and in addition to health bases, health centers have been established in the province. The health electronic record will be formed for the people who have health care in a year.”
He appreciated the land force of Islamic Guardian Corps for setting up field hospitals and said, "Providing mobile services either by philanthropists or by armed forces has brought a lot of advantages for the deprived people in different regions of the country."
Hashemi added, "The Ministry expects more from armed forces to take this types of measures because their supports can have more role to provide health and treatment services for deprived people."
While Minister of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education was continuing his trip to Sistan and Baluchistan, the new Alzahra Ophthalmology hospital was put into operation in a land of 6000 m2 in the presence of Hassan Hashemi.
While senior executives were travelling to different regions of the country, the Minister of Agriculture visited Hormozgan province last week."
With Mahmoud Hojati's presence in the province and his participation in different programs, the largest greenhouse in the South of the country was put into operation in Roudan in the presence of Minister of Agriculture.
In the operational ceremony of this large plant, he said, "We should plan for the market of agricultural products. In order to put the plan into effect, we should reinforce the people and the agricultural organizations."
Emphasizing on supporting the private sector, Mahmoud Hojati said, "If we continue to work with old agricultural structure, the agricultural products cannot be sold by farmers."
Emphasizing that the products should be produced as per the order specification placed by clients, he added, "Nowadays, we should have an assessment on the market before production and try to reduce the gap between the production and the market."
** There is the required capacity to promote all-round agricultural sector.
Mahmoud Hojati, continuing his visit to Hormozgan province, participated in the 37th Annual Seminar of Plant Protection Organization in Bandar Abbas. Referring to the successes achieved in wheat harvest and the manifestation of country's capabilities in agriculture, he said, "The progresses in Agricultural sector and its sub-categories including wheat self sufficiency, fighting with plant diseases and pests, as well as breeding fish in cages prove the claim."
The Minister of Agriculture, addressing the officials of Plant Protection Organization, continued, "What has happened since 2 or 3 years ago that you could reduce the fight against Sunn pest at less than 0.5%, while we used to witness pest stricken wheat fields which were over 7% of the total fields of the country.”
He pointed out, “However, now that all the equipment and know how is provided for us, no excuse for the shortage of agricultural products is acceptable.”
Hojati pointed out the issue and the problems of pesticides and asked for the conditions in which the pesticide will only be supplied by officially licensed stores, and the pesticides should be given by prescription signed under a code with the instruction of use and the type of the tools for the consumer’s information.
The Minister of Agriculture said, “Everything should be arranged in a way that pesticides without identifications and the permission to distribute will not be found in the country, and the pesticides bearing license to be supplied, produced, and distribute will have the required identifications to be recognized and trackable from the smuggled poisons.”
Hojati, the Minister of Agriculture, emphasizing the production of healthy products, said, “We should reach a condition that the complete information; including the manufacturer, location of product, and the field will be inserted on the products through barcodes by which the domestic and foreign customers can track and identify all the information, and this is possible.”
**The Cabinet’s motto is “to make national dialogue and consultation pervasive”
In his first official trip to Isfahan and in a meeting with the members of the provincial Art Consultation Council, the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced, “The Cabinet’s motto and approach is to make national dialogue pervasive, to institutionalize consultation, and to increase cultural and political capacities.”, and he said, “a secret lies in the dialogue which enhances the level of intellectual share, mutual understanding and reduces the wrath and anger.”
Seyed reza Salehi Amiri, emphasizing the role of art and artists in institutionalizing national dialogue, intellectual share, and mutual understanding in the society, added, “We must invest in the fields of art because it is the elixir that causes the growth and the sublimity of the society.”
He pointed out, "The society is exhausted and needs the art and artists to return. Art is not merely a showcase to satisfy everyone but a national capacity for the progress, the welfare, and the peace of the society.
Stating that the art is required to overcome the problems of the society, Salehi reiterated, "The art must be viewed from the perspective of emotion not aesthetics."
He added, "The art can blow a gentle soul and be an antidote for social problems in the society where divorces, additions, marginalization, and 14 million lawsuits in the courts are overwhelming."
The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, while inviting domestic cultural practitioners and artists to take advantage of the art in order to institutionalize national dialogue and promote ethics and virtue as a necessity and priority of the society, added, "Isfahan can be the center of national dialogue, and we expect the Isfahan artists to institutionalize national dialogue."
By paying homage to the art position of Isfahan, he said, "The art route to reach the summit of the development must pass through Isfahan. We know Isfahan not by Iron and Steel mills, but by its great art and artists. Isfahan art is a pure gold which is exuded by Isfahan artists."
The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance said, "Isfahan can be the cultural economic hub of the country in order to pass beyond the oil economy."
Pointing out that the spirit of the economy is the culture and art, and artists are their creators, he said, "Economy is nothing without art, and the art without artists is like a human without a soul."
** More latitude for teachers paves the way for training creative students
The minister of Education had a trip to Shiraz, the center of Fars province and said among teachers, “To create creative and skills among students, we need creative teachers, and to have creativity among teachers, we should provide them with more latitude so that they can be more initiative in the educational process.”
Fakhrodin Ahmad Danesh Ashtiani added, “We should pay attention to brains in education and training which will be followed by hardware and software.
He continued, “Education and training has its own problems which require specific and suitable solutions which can be provided by the teachers’ encouragement, attempts, and activities.”
Stressing the necessity to maintain teachers’ dignity and status, he reiterated, “Maintaining teachers’ dignity and status cannot be obtained by only safeguarding their rights and livelihood but by their more activity.”
Danesh Ashtiani added, “The Ministry of Education is an investment not a cost system; it trains manpower for the society. The practical realization of this motto is subject to the creation of the view that the education is the source and the cause of development. Only then, all will seek to resolve the problems of the education and training.”
The Minister of Education continued, “At present, over 20 million Rials is determined and spent as the budget of each student; that is, 280 thousand billion Rials budget in this year for 13.5 million students.”
He said, “People themselves spend around twice of this amount on the procurement of textbooks, education, classes to educate their children.”
He added, “The existing problems in Iran training and educational system despite expenditure of this large amount indicate that we have structural problems in educational system so that the problems cannot be solved by incurring more costs and dedicating more budget.”
Danesh Ashtiani said, “ The structure of education in the country requires changes” and added, “The most important changes are to prioritize the school and to avoid centralization.”
During the provincial trips, the Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade went to Khuzestan province, and while visiting and considering the issues and problems of the industrial towns of Ahvaz, he attended a number of projects putting into operation.
Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh visited the industrial cities and attended the projects on operation, including Ahvaz Industrial Town No. 4 where the IT Services Center with an area surface of 10 thousand m2 was put into operation and where he visited and considered the issues of Behtash Khuzestan Industrial Technical and Engineering Co., Pars Global Piece, Asman and Kamyaran Industrial Town, Ahvaz Industrial Town No. 3 where the online network was launched and where the Tak Nan Biscuit Factory with the capacity of 12 thousand tons was launched, and Ahvaz Industrial Town No. 2 where Persian Gulf Atieh Steel Co. was inaugurated.
** The Cabinet’s attempt is to support private sector to produce and provide occupation
In the ceremony of the beginning industrial Eucalyptus agricultural plant of MDF production in Industrial Town of Susa in the north of Khuzestan province, Nematzadeh said, “The Cabinet intends the implementation of investment to be led to a paved path for production and employment by the private sector.”
He stated, “The activity in the field of timber and paper production is the Ministry’s priority in order to protect forests, and Khuzestan has appropriate capacity in this respect.”
He said, “Since there is appropriate water and soil in Khuzestan, it has a good capacity to plant trees in order to be used in MDF industries and timbers.”
Nematzadeh continued, “The rapid growth of eucalyptus trees in Khuzestan represents the high capacity of wood production and its utilization in industrial sector which should be noted in Khuzestan.”
Introducing the correlative relation between industry and agriculture, he said, "In this regard, both of these economic sectors should work closely together."
The Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade stated, "Establishment of the factory manufacturing MDF from eucalyptus in Khuzestan is an important step towards self-sufficiency of the country." And he added, "Private sector has been successful in this field, and the activity of Pak Choub Industrial Group by planting eucalyptus trees is important and can be considered as an index in this field."