Guidelines on the Country’s Development Plans

The Guidelines, which consist of 73 Articles, provides general provisions which should be considered in all national development plans. The Guidelines establish the High Council for Health and Food Security, which shall be responsible for: decision making and drawing strategies for improvement of public health, food security and food safety; preparing and executing policies on health and food security; determining the standards of public health and food security for national development plans; and creating a monitoring mechanism. Any importation, storage, supply, and sale of biological, chemical and natural medicines, food products and nutritional supplements, which are not registered within the Ministry of Health and Medication, should be recognized as a crime and be pursued based on the Law on Combating the Smuggling of Goods and Currency. To ensure the quality of agricultural and animal products and to protect public health, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education is required to observe the products in the market with regard to chemical pollutants. The Guidelines establish the National Development Fund to convert part of the oil and gas exportation income into sustainable and productive economic growth for future generations. The Ministry of Energy is responsible for restructuring the National Water Council for the sustainable development of national water resources. To achieve self-sufficiency in the production of fundamental agricultural and animal products (such as wheat, grain, corn, rice, oilseeds, sugar beet and sugar cane, red meat, milk and eggs), to increase industrial and knowledge-based agriculture, and to reach food security in the country, the following acts should be taken: develop modern irrigation system; improve the efficiency of water use in the agriculture sector; increase combat against pesticides and plant diseases and efficient use of fertilizers; adopt the national quality control standards on agricultural products; modernize agricultural machineries; and increase the use of biological fertilizers to produce safe food. In line with the objectives of the Sixth Social, Economic and Cultural Development Plan and in order to protect the investment in under-developed areas in the south of the country the Makran Coast Development Organization will be established.