Ownership proposal is based on two axis: management contract with the potential investor willing to buy the plant and privatization.

Release of management to the private sector is carried on with the aim of increasing the efficiency and raising the technical ability of the plants.

Structural policies and guidelines are needed to notch up the Nation-Wide Ownership plan.

The Nation-Wide Ownership plan will enable the government to pay off its financial obligations, introduce wider social services, base its budget on tax income, and ease its reliance on oil revenues.

The Nation-Wide Ownership plan will reduce poverty among the masses and create more income.

After a five-year transitory period into the Nation-Wide Ownership plan, the government be smaller in size and the economic system more democratic.

Recently, Iran Chamber of Commerce , Industries and Mines has released the second volume of its research project proposing a national restructuring plan. As the Nation-Wide Ownership has attracted the attention of a wide range of our readers, it seems necessary to provide some more details about the general framework of this proposal.
The Nation-Wide Ownership proposal is based on two axes: The first, a management contract with the potential investor who is willing to purchase the plant eventually from the general public and in the process of privatization. Such release of management to the private sector is carried out with the aim of:

1. Increasing efficiency and raising the technical ability of the plant.
2. Basing the behaviour of the plant on the corporate pattern during a transitory period. There should be a mutual guarantee system based on the performance bonds.
3. Creating an air of mutual confidence between the government and the potential future owner of the plant. This seems essential because the government should show that it has every intention to create a viable economic system.
   In order to achieve this goal, the government guarantees that the policies adopted during the signing of the contract with the managers would not be reversed, though the extent of facilities may increase.
4. Modificing of the laws and the regulations of the country on the basis of a client-demanded system and not on the basis of the perceptions of the government, or the planners of the country. The government undertakes to change the agreed laws in the agreed period.
5. Creating a dynamic base for long-term increase in the non-oil exports of the country.There would be some guarantees that non-oil exports should recieve the appropriate treatment.
6. Separating the performance of the national economy from fluctuations in the international prices of petroleum, and basing the economic performance on the production system of the country. Here the policy of giving preferred treatment to those who add to the net foreign exchange receipts of the country is adopted as a general policy.
7. Creating a transparent financial system that would serve the real sector activities of the economy in an efficient way. The tax system and the accountancy regulations of the country would be modified and brought to the standard practice accepted by the world.

In order to achieve these goals, the research proposes some structural policies and guidelines. It is expected that once the government is released from its entrepreneurial duties, it would have all incentives to act as a public body and for the interest of the general economy.
The managers who take over guarantee a certain level of performance. It is expected that in all cases, a combination of rising output, increasing efficiency, reducing time lags and delays, as well as reducing the dependence on the foreign exchange, would lead to a higher level of employment and increase the purchasing power of the general public.
This leads to the abolishment of the general fear that any step towards privatization would mean mass unemployment, by creating an air of efficiency. The managers agree to pay the government an annual income determined in advance and some additional returns, should their performance be better than a stated level. The government undertakes to distribute this return to the general public as owners of the plant.
The second axis is the privatization process itself. Here the government undertakes to approach the general public rather than offering the shares to a limited sector. The basic views are as follows:

1. Approaching the general public in a just manner
2. Creating a solid basis of earning income for the general public

The shares of the units under the provisional management of expert managers would be offered to the general public on the basis of one-man-one share, and at the price set by the government on the basis of the expected performance of the management. The potential owner has the right to sell his shares.
In order to avoid large-scale sales of the shares by the lower-income population, the proposal envisages that release of shares should be made in blocks. Anybody who sells one part of any block, should settle the entire block with the government.
The potential owner has the right to pay the price offered by the government for the ownership of the shares in three years instalments. As the return for the first three years of ownership is guaranteed, the private sector has every incentive to purchase the shares offered by the government.
What would this process mean to the government? The answer to this critical question is that the government would become able to:

• Pay either its domestic or foreign debts.
• Provide social services to the general public using those financial sources that used to be allocated to government's entrepreneurial activities.
• Base its budget on tax income, and reduce its reliance on the revenues from the petroleum sector.
• Put more emphasis on development plans using the income received from the exports of petroleum.
• Stay on schedule with its development activities due to the increased ability to rely on the petroleum revenues for financing.
• Promote service, like banking, insurance and auditing, which would fasten the pace of development of the country.

What would the general public gain from this process? The answer is simple enough. The most obvious benefits are:

• Reducing of deprivation and poverty.
• Creating new sources of income.
• Creating sources of wealth.
• Preventing a situation where windfall gains become the dominant sources of income.
• Creating new job opportunities.
• Increasing purchasing power.
• Creating a more stable economic environment.
• Raising the possibility of savings.

The proposal provides a more detailed framework of policies to explain how the mechanisms should work. Eventually it is expected that after a transitory period of five years, the system would be more efficient and the government would be much smaller than its present level. At the same time, the economic system would be more democratic and the general public would enjoy a much higher standard of living.