Statements in Meeting with a Group of Entrepreneurs from Across the Country

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

I am very grateful to the dear friends who organized this session and provided me the opportunity to meet with the esteemed and dear entrepreneurs during the last days of the blessed month - which are precious days - and to hear these useful remarks from friends. Of course, I am sure that your gathering has much to say; each of you, from your respective fields, has suggestions, new ideas, and undoubtedly good news that is pleasing for our nation and our country - just as much of what has been said by friends is indeed pleasing for our dear nation - and you also have criticisms and demands, all of which are justified.

Well, two days ago, we had a session with scholars, and today we have a session with practitioners. Although many of you are scholars; you have combined knowledge with action. As it is stated in the noble narration: "Knowledge calls for action; if answered, it remains; otherwise, it departs"; knowledge invites action. If action follows knowledge, then knowledge remains, or perhaps it can be said that it develops and grows - if action does not follow knowledge, knowledge also does not remain. "Otherwise, it departs"; without action, knowledge also goes away. The importance of action can be understood here; the importance of work can be understood here. Work without knowledge is less effective; knowledge without work is ineffective. This is the importance of work.

Well, when work is so important, then entrepreneurship is equally significant. If someone can create the conditions for work, they have performed an act of worship. The view of this work that is produced should not only be from the perspective of tying an unemployed person's hand to a job so that they can have an income; well, this is certainly a very good thing, it is necessary, undoubtedly. That is, entrepreneurship, creating employment in the country leads to the production of wealth; just as capital and capitalists create jobs - whether financial capital or scientific capital - workers also create capital, they create wealth. This is indeed an important aspect of employment, but the importance of employment is not limited to this. Another aspect of the importance of employment is that you are extracting a treasure. A person who has talents can produce, can create; they were lying there, you engaged them in work, this inner treasure was extracted; this is very important. A person who has no work, no employment, has often left a hidden God-given talent idle without their own choice; when you engage this person in work, this spring that was within them, which was not being utilized, this spring that was thirsty and was not being quenched, you set it into motion. Therefore, employment and job creation have both a significant economic aspect and a very high human aspect.

Thus, I say that entrepreneurship in various sectors - of course, today this gathering of friends and dear ones who spoke addressed limited sectors. These are not the only ones; in the vast and extensive fields of the country's talents and natural and human capabilities, entrepreneurship has numerous branches, and you are just a selection of them; a handful from a heap. Entrepreneurship in the country is widespread - it is an act of worship; this entrepreneurship is an act of worship; it is a valuable work; it is a value-creating endeavor.

Well, this session of ours is primarily a symbolic session. It is true that I have benefited from the statements of friends, and your remarks will be broadcasted and the nation will benefit; however, this session shows how extensive the capabilities of our dear country are. You observe, now suppose if in agriculture, in various industrial sectors, in various fields of other sciences and technologies, in services, in commerce, they come and present the works that have been done, every listener will see and observe firsthand that, thanks be to God, our dear country - as I have said many times - has many capabilities, has great capacity. Today, we are actually witnessing the country turning into a vast workshop; work is bubbling up from all sides, innovation is being created, there is reliance on knowledge, there is reliance on experience.

Well, I told the university professors who were present here the day before yesterday, and I tell you as well; do not think that we are satisfied with these things, or that we are unaware of the unemployment rate in the country and do not see it; no, all the work that has been done is the first step; all these works are the initial steps. We must take the subsequent steps. What is important for taking the next step? The most important thing is that we must know that it is possible to take a step. After we understand that action is possible, we must feel that this action is a duty; a tremendous duty.

Of course, work in itself is important; but today, for two fundamental reasons, work and entrepreneurship are more important than ever. The fact that it has been said that work is important in Islam, well, there are numerous narrations from the Imams (peace be upon them) regarding the importance of work, regarding the virtue of work, that the works you mentioned are examples of this virtue, and now I have noted this narration here: "Whoever works will increase in strength, and whoever falls short in work will increase in weakness"; work increases the strength of work itself. The property of work is not reduction, but increase; the increase of the workforce itself, not the product of work. Well, the product of work is clear that it increases - when you work, work has a product - but in this narration, Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) says that when you work, the power of work and the workforce also increases. "And whoever falls short in work", someone who is negligent in working, "will increase in weakness" or "fatigue". This does not only apply to individuals; this "whoever" means not just anyone doing this work; well, this does not apply to individuals only, it applies to societies as well: every nation, every community. The more you work, the more your workforce increases. The more human activity there is, the more vitality there is in movement. This is what work is; in Islam, there is so much talk about work, including this narration that I just read here. However, today we have said that for two reasons, work and naturally entrepreneurship are of greater importance.

The first reason is that we are in a phase where we are ready for a leap; today we are ready for a leap in progress. Our issue today is not just about moving forward. The conditions of the country have become such that this nation can create a tremendous movement, a leap in progress for itself. Why? First, many infrastructures have been prepared; knowledge in the country has increased; strong managements have emerged. One of our problems in the past was the lack of strong and healthy management in our country. Today, we have the experience of thirty years of strong revolutionary management. So this is an infrastructure. The grounds for work have been prepared; hope for progress has increased. When they come and say we have produced a medicine in the country that the whole world needs, and everyone in the world is afflicted by it, and none of the scientific centers in the world have been able to produce that medicine, we have been able to produce it, this gives hope to our youth. When the nation observes that we have been able to develop nuclear knowledge from within ourselves without having a supporting country, to advance it, this gives hope to the youth.

In the world, how many countries possessing nuclear knowledge have been able to create it indigenously? Very few. There are some, but they are very rare; they have taken it from others. Many of those who currently possess nuclear knowledge - we are aware of this; I know it based on information - have received the knowledge package from supportive countries; for ideological, political reasons, and other matters. Not us; we have been able to do this ourselves. As has been reported, significant work has been done in this area. In the field of stem cells, our youth have been able to achieve great things through perseverance, diligence, and learning. Well, these are very encouraging.

So today, our experience is greater, our hope is greater, our infrastructures are more numerous, and the season of capability and the season of leap has arrived. The nation has recognized itself; it has recognized its youth; the high intelligence quotient of the country has been recognized; thus, it is the season of leap. When it is the season of leap, then work gains double importance; entrepreneurship also gains double importance accordingly. This is one reason.

The second reason why work is important for us today, why entrepreneurship is important, is that we are currently facing global pressure. There is enmity in the world that wants to restore its devilish dominance over this country through economic pressure and sanctions and the actions that you know about. This is the goal. A country as good as this, with so many resources, natural resources, with this geopolitical position, with all these capabilities, has been under the thumb of a power in the world; one day it was the British, one day it was the Americans - in fact, the system of domination, the apparatus of domination, the empire of domination. Now America is a corner of this empire - they have dominated this country; the revolution has cut off their hands. They want to return dominance to this country. All these efforts are for this purpose. The issue of nuclear energy is a pretext. Those who think that if we resolve the issue of nuclear energy, the problems will be solved are mistaken. They raise the issue of nuclear energy, they raise the issue of human rights, they raise various issues, which are all pretexts. The issue is one of pressure; they want to bring a nation to its knees; they want to bring down the revolution. One of the important actions is this economic sanction. They say we are not against the Iranian nation! They lie; the target is the Iranian nation. The sanctions are meant to make the Iranian nation weary, to say that we are under pressure from the Islamic Republic; to sever the relationship between the nation and the Islamic Republic. This is the goal. Of course, they do not know our nation; like all other cases, their calculations are wrong upon wrong. From the perspective of the system of domination, the great sin of the Iranian nation is that it has freed itself from the yoke of domination. They want to punish for this sin, for why you have freed yourself from the yoke of domination, oh nation! This nation has found the way. Their calculations are fundamentally wrong; they do not understand what they should do and what they are doing. Well, but they exert pressure; economic pressure through sanctions.

We must create a real resistance economy in the country. Today, entrepreneurship means this. Friends rightly said that we will circumvent the sanctions; I am also certain. The Iranian nation and the officials of the country will circumvent the sanctions, they will thwart the sanctioners; just like other instances in the past years in political matters where they made a mistake, took an action, and then had to return, one by one apologizing. You must remember several instances. Now, the youth do not know. In the last twenty years, there have been several such actions. This time will be the same. Of course, sanctions are not new to us; we have been under sanctions for thirty years. All the great movements of the Iranian nation have taken place in the atmosphere of sanctions; therefore, they cannot do anything. Well, but this is a reason for all officials and those concerned for the country to consider themselves obliged, to feel obligated to create work, to produce, to increasingly invigorate this vast workshop; that Iran is truly a vast workshop today. Everyone must feel obliged.

What I understand from the overall remarks of the gentlemen and ladies who spoke - which is also felt in the reports - is that there are grievances regarding the flow of work. Of course, we laid the cornerstone with the policies of Article 44; that is, if the policies of Article 44, which itself interprets the provisions of this article, are fully, precisely, comprehensively, and continuously implemented, many problems will be solved. However, what I feel from the overall remarks is that two actions are expected from the governmental apparatus: one is the precise and knowledgeable management of resources. Many of the issues raised stem from the fact that financial resource management has not been conducted precisely in all matters. This is necessary. I recommend this to the dear ones from the government who are present here to focus on this. Many of these criticisms and issues, many of which are valid, are related to this. Resource management means that we direct resources towards areas that today have financial and non-financial added value for the country. What I mean by added value is not just financial added value; rather, it is what increases production, what boosts business, what increases hope, what increases employment, and so on. So a fundamental point is the issue of resource management.

The second point is the improvement of the business environment, which is one of the main duties of the government. The honorable minister mentioned in their report the improvement of the business environment. Improving the business environment is primarily the duty of the government. This issue of regulations, various facilities, numerous bureaucratic complexities, all of these are things that if corrected, the improvement of the business environment, which is one of our major economic issues, will be achieved. This single-window approach for operations that they mentioned - if this is implemented, in my opinion, many problems will be solved. This pertains to the public sector, which is an important sector. The duty of the government, the obligation of the government, in my opinion, is primarily these two things; of course, officials have many responsibilities, but the foundation and essence, as one can gather from the overall reports and remarks, are these two things.

One fundamental point regarding work that entrepreneurs must pay attention to is the quality of domestic production; the quality of domestic production is very important. Of course, part of this relates to financial issues and regulations and so forth, and the support of the government; but part also relates to the determination and will of the officials, the entrepreneur, and the worker. It was said: "May God have mercy on the person who performs a work and does it well"; may God's mercy be upon the person who performs a task and does it accurately, correctly. This is foresight, beyond today. You see today in the world, there are companies that have been operating for a hundred years, a hundred and fifty years, and their products are sold worldwide. The name of these is enough to make the product popular in the market; because they have worked correctly, they have worked well, the customer trusts them. You say that we should encourage people to consume domestic products. I have been encouraging this for several years; I have said it many times, but this does not happen with slogans. Well, yes, to some extent, people should trust, pay attention to our words, because we have said so, they should go and do something; this is part of the issue. Another part relates to quality. Well, quality must be improved; qualities must be elevated. Yes, I believe in the issue of imports that several friends mentioned. In the meeting of officials, I announced at the beginning of Ramadan that I said; both to the parliament and to the government to address the issue of imports; now I also asked the honorable minister of commerce on the way, and he informed me that good work is being done in this area; yes, that is true. The issue of excessive and illogical imports is a significant danger; people must understand this. When we consume a foreign product, we are actually making one of our own workers unemployed, while forcing another worker to work; this is the reality, but the issue of quality is very important; and durability; these are very important. If domestic products possess these characteristics, naturally, there will be a tendency towards them. Of course, unfortunately, there are some who, due to the wrong culture of the cursed monarchy - the era of tyranny, the era of dependency - still look to the outside. There was a time when our government officials explicitly stated that an Iranian cannot produce a simple item! They practically imported everything. In that era of tyranny, a high-ranking official, who incidentally I had never had any connection with, saw me in a gathering - we never had any relations, we did not meet - and I was criticizing the very things that existed. He turned to me and said: What are you criticizing? We sit like lords, other countries work for us like servants, sending goods inside; is this bad? You see; this was the logic of the statesmen of the era of tyranny! Now, this logic appears to be this, but its essence was something else; numerous economic corruptions and moral corruptions. Yes, the issue of imports and managing imports is important. We advised the friends who were here, in the meeting of officials and system operators, we said to manage imports; we do not say to stop them. Some things must come, some things must not come. A proper management must be conducted; this is certainly necessary.

Another task that I have noted here that falls upon the government officials is the development of skills. These technical and industrial vocational schools, these applied science universities, these technical-professional schools, vocational training centers must be developed. We need knowledge, but we also need skilled hands. One of the fundamental tasks, in my opinion, is that we must work in the fields of industry and agriculture.

Another point is the issue of innovation and creativity and beauty in the country's productions. Among the things that must be taken into account is innovating in all productions continuously and considering aesthetics, that is, saturating the aesthetic sense of the consumer. This is one of the issues that must be given importance. I truly thank the friends who are working and striving in these areas.

I will also make this final recommendation: to train manpower, especially in knowledge-based industries - as friends mentioned - must be given great importance. In some areas, fortunately, this work has been done. In the field of nuclear energy, we are aware, in the field of stem cells, we are closely aware that the training of skilled, efficient, scholarly, and research-oriented manpower has been carried out. Attention must be paid to this in various sectors.

May God willing, may He grant you all success. Yes, we will, God willing, overcome the enemy, circumvent the sanctions, and our youth will experience good days in the future, and this country is a very talented country. Today is like a day when suppose a sharp-flying eagle that can soar at very high altitudes has managed to leap from the courtyard of this space to the rooftop. This is an experience. This ceiling of flight will be much higher than this. God willing, the day will come when your country will be a scientific reference, and it will be a source of pride for Muslims to say that Islam managed a country like this, and God willing, in terms of practice and production, you will become a reference for the world's people.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.