The main economic wealth of Iran is, of course, petroleum. It is the fourth among the countries of the World, after Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait, and is ranked second in the world in view of its natural gas reserve, after Russia's, totaling seven hundred trillion cubic feet. Almost one-tenth of the world's oil and one-fifth of the world's natural gas reserve are in Iran. Besides this, Iran has large mineral deposits and considerable amount of forest wealth, in addition to zinc, lead, chromite, iron ore, copper, red oxide and manganese, nickel, cobalt, tungsten, uranium, gold and silver.

In the past few years there has been a series of development plans initiated by the Iranian government to rehabilitate the country, and in spite of decrease in national revenues because of swift changes in global oil prices, the first 5 year plan for Economic and Social development was carried out and the economic institutions as well as the infra-structure of the national economy were reconstructed or strengthened. The Iranian government reports mention that although there have been some consequences of such plans to daily life of the people, such as inflation, they are supposed to be of short-term in nature and are not that much significant compared with accomplishments made in energy, transportation, ports, general and higher education, social welfare, agriculture and industrial strategic productions. The realistic politics adopted to privatize economy have been instrumental in economic growth and prosperity. The G.D.N.P. has been increased during a period of 4 years from 10,664.9 billion Rials to 13,464 billion Rials, and the average growth rate during the first four years in agriculture sector was 6.3%. The value added in the industrial sector during the first Five-Year Economic Development Plan was 9.2 percent at constant prices and the share of income from this sector in the GDP rose from 10.5% in the beginning to 16.5 at the end of the plan.

According to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Iran's economy shows a 5.5% increase in fiscal year 1996-97 as compared to 4.5% increase in the previous fiscal year. Apart from the oil sector, the economy in the 1995-96 fiscal year registered growth of 19.5% in foodstuff industries, 17.1% in paper production, 22.5% in chemical products and 11.4% in non-metallic mineral products.

The Iranian government has been imposing restrictions on foreign-exchange movements in an effort to check inflation. The national currency, rial, has been fixed at 3,000 Rials to one U.S. dollar, as compared to 70 Rials in 1978-79, before the Islamic Republic was established. CBI report shows that Iran's foreign debt has dropped to $20.36 billion on Sep. 21, 1996, compared with $22.56 billion at end of fiscal 1995-96. The inflation rate in the first half this fiscal year declined to 27%, compared with 53.6% in the same period a year earlier.

Iran has about 4,847 kilometers of network of main roads and about 1,184 kilometers of secondary commercial and industrial roads that traverse 16 provinces. Presently, 3706 kilometers of main roads are also under construction. In the past four years, road cargo transportation has increased from 19.4 million tons to 19.8 million tons, and passenger transportation has claimed from 8.7 million to 9.16 million person during last year. Presently, about 2,000 kilometers of railways are under construction and plans for 8,000 kilometers of railways throughout the vast area being studied. Bafq-Bandar Abbas and Sarakhs-Mashhed railway projects link East Asian and independent Certral Asian republics to Iranian railways network which will connect European network to Asia, and the East Asian network will link with the sea of Oman and the Persian Gulf. This rail road network revives the ancient Silk Road and benefits not only Iran but also the Central Asian countries that are linked to international and free waters conveniently.

Iran has established free trade zones in Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea and offers incentives for investment and distribution of good in the domestic and regional market.

There is a shift from oil consumption to natural gas in households and industries. More than 265 cities in Iran are connected to the country's gas pipeline network. The number of cities on the network is expected to reach 300 by the end of the five-year development plan in 1999. Iran's domestic gas consumption is around 40 billion cubic meters. Iran also has gas-export facilities and annual revenue of $3 billion from gas exports to neighboring countries and Europe is expected.

The capacity of installed electrical power has reached 17,863 megawatt during past five years. Furthermore, projects for construction of 19 additional power plants with the capacity of 14,163 megawatt are under construction.

Iran has a population around 62 million. It had an odd population growth rate of 3.2% during the early 1980s. However, the population growth rate has declined from 3.2% to 1.8% in the recent years.

The Glory of Reconstruction

Soon after the end of the eight-year Imposed War and the eve of commencement of the second decade of revolution the necessity for the rapid socio-economic reconstruction and the enhancement of the national welfare became more evident than ever before. The country's First Five-year Socio-economic and Cultural Programme, designated for the 1989-1993 fiscal year, was fully implemented after proper ratification. As the fundamental insight and the ultimate goal of development, "the economic median" distinguished the significance of this particular era.
Relying upon the valuable guidelines and based on final approval of the prominent Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei," the Second Five-year Programme consisted of principal objectives such as : expansion of social justice, increase of domestic products, development of non-oil exports, promotion of the social institutions, observance of the priority of investments, expansion of people's participations in reconstruction of the country as well as acquisition and implementation of satisfactory monetary policies and fruitful banking strategies.

In compliance with the execution of the country's two massive development programmes, during the past eight years, numerous remarkable revitalisation and reconstruction projects highlighted the presidency of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani. The worthy accompolishments of these years were all on display in an exhibition, held on the 25th August 1996 in Tehran. Thirty -two ministries as well as various executive organs, at the mentioned fair, provided the public with ample information regarding 8,000 infrastructure-orientated projects, 80,000 cultural plans and 800,000 service projects.
Many experts and analysts maintain that an accurate and impartial assessment of the administrative role of the executive branch certainly constitutes an essential and effective means of evaluating the performance of the Islamic Revolution as a whole. Thus, render their judgements based upon the success and the failure of innumerable programmes undertaken by the government since the inception of the revolution. Consequently a brief description of the following significant projects is quite warranted at this juncture

Electricity

The capacity of the country's power stations has already increased to a total of 22139 megawatt in 1995 vis-a-vis that of 7024 megawatt in 1978 and hence indicating a 300% growth. More importantly, the production of electricity currently reaches 1350 KWH illustrating a 168% increase as compared with that of 1978. At present Iran exports its excessive generated electricity to the neighbouring countries. For instance, now Shahid Rajaee Power Station in Ghazvin annually generates 1,000 extra MW electricity which substantially adds to the power capacity of the country.

Shahid Ghandi telecommunication cable factory

Affiliated with and supported by the Post, Telegraph and Telephone Ministry, Shahid Ghandi Telecommunication Cable Factory was established in the city of Yazd and its production line soon began to operate in three separately programmed phases in 1984: the first phase which included the mass production of fiber-optic cables, the second phase which manufactured the copper cables and the third phase whose total installation has recently been completed.
Shahid Ghandi's annual production capacity now consists of 6,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cables as well as four billion meters of telecommunication conductors (copper cables) which would certainly reach to a eight billion meters capacity after the inauguration of the third phase. Presently, not only its products successfully meet the particular international standard (known as ISO 9000), but the factory itself is also ranked as one of the most reputable industries of its kind in the world.
After inauguration of Imam Khomeini Airport, now under construction on the outskirts of Tehran, 4.5 million passengers as well as 115 thousand tons of cargos will be transported annually.

The Imam Khomeini International Airport

According to available statistics in 1978 the total number of country's operational airports amounted to 24, with the capacity of handling 4.7 million passengers, and by 1995 the number of country's active airports capable of receiving and handling 16 million passengers increased to 32. Also the growth rate of various airports and their reception capacities have successively been 133% and 140% during post-revolution period. In 1995 approximately six million passengers were transported via country's numerous airlines, either on domestic or international flights.