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3.3. Economic Activity 3.3.1. Employment From 1976 to 1986 and from 1986 to 1996 the proportion of Iranians aged 10 years and over grew at an average annual rate of 3.6% and 3.3 % respectively, while the economically active population increased 2.7 % and 2.3 % respectively. The difference in the growth rates of these two population groups resulted in a decline in the labor participation rate from 42.6 % in 1976 to 39% in 1986 and 35.3 in 1996. In 1996, the labor participation rate in Iran among the population aged 15 and over was 43.1 %. This compares very poorly to the industrial countries ranging from 58.5% (Spain) to 77.1% (USA) Furthermore this indicator has experienced a steady downward trend since then. In Table 1, the actively employed population 10 years of age and over by type of activity is presented for the Caspian coastal provinces. A comparison with figures nationwide shows the entire coastal population comprises about 11 percent of the total while Mazandaran province alone constituted 40% of the entire work force. Among the different activities, agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing are the largest contributors to employment comprising about 38% of all activities, this represents only about 23% of these activities nationally. The second major employment sector in the region is services (including health and education) accounting for 17.7 % of these provinces’ total workforce (or 10.8% for the country). The third and forth ranks are credited to mining with 13.4% (country=0.8%) and to sales, hotels and restaurant with 12.4% (country=0.13). These figures show that first of all the utilization of natural resources (e.g. agriculture and mining) and mining play an important role in employment and consequently in the economics of the coastal provinces. Secondly, they are at wide variance with the national average. In Tables 3 and 4 below, the number of employed and unemployed population and the difference between the actual market demand for employment and the number of people seeking it are presented. 3.3.2. Heavy and light industry In the Caspian littoral provinces, after agriculture industrial activities play an important role in the economy. According to the 1998 statistics, there were 13,904 industrial workshops and factories in the country, of which 1,132 workshops were in the Caspian provinces. The national industrial labor force numbered 875,528 of which 81,592 were in the Caspian provinces. The added value of these workshops for the whole of country stood at 36,961,339 rials and for Caspian units 2,026,689 rials (5.5% of the national added value). In Table 1, the provincial distribution of these units and the labor force are represented. In figure 1, the countrywide rank of the Caspian littoral provinces based on number of workshops is shown. In 1998, 6,866 permits for establishing workshops were issued in the country of which 1,075 relate to the Caspian provinces: 488 workshops in Gilan, 487 in Mazandaran, and 100 workshops in Golestan. In Mazandaran the units that have more than 10 workers, account for 40,000 jobs that include 93% men and 7% women. The largest single employer (about 20.7%) was the textile industries. The rest were employed in food, the beverage, and tobacco industries. The added value of the large provincial workshops in 1998 was 800,000 rials. The food, beverage, and tobacco industrial group with 41% employees have allocated more than 44% added value of these workshops to itself. Textiles, clothes, and the leather industries with more than 36% of total employees have allocated about 23% of the added value to themselves. Generally, the industrial aspect of the agricultural sector in the province is not so good and it stands in 8th place nationwide. A listing of the main factories and their number is shown in Table 2. In Golestan province, the industry sector has not developed properly like in Mazandaran So it ranks 16th in the county. Regarding the current agricultural activities and existing potentials, there is room for expansion and development of agro-industry in this province. Statistics on industrial units in the province has been displayed in the table on Mazandaran. In Gilan, compared to the two other provinces, industry is more developed and ranks 5th in the country.In 1998, 490 industrial workshops with more than 10 workers were active in the province. The different types of these units are shown in Table ?. The bulk of these workshops’ activities focus on non-metal minerals, food industry, pharmaceutics, machinery and equipment. Total number of these units stands at 1,986. Rural industries, which are active in Gilan, include hand-woven carpets and handicrafts. Many people are employed in this sector (1,486 people from a total number of 2,828 people). Tea production in the country is located in Gilan Province and its related industrial units are found in Lahijan, Roudsar, and Langarood. In 1998, there were 119 tea factories (including 102 governmental and 17 private units) with a capacity of 2,744,47 tons per day in the region. 3.3.3 Mining Terms of mineral materials, due to its vast area and presence of various geological structures. Iran is a major exporter of several raw materials like oil, gas, lead, zinc, iron, copper and coal. Meanwhile, there are other minerals including chromate, manganese, bauxite, sand & gravel, decorative stones, rubble stones, ballast, gypsum, limestone, kaolin, dolomite, barite, salt, silica, feldspar, talcum, asbestos, turquoise in this country. In 1998, the total export of mineral materials was 9,323,221 tons in amount of 1,029,555 million Rials. The main importers of these products were Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia. The amount of their imports was 3,275,292; 211,815; 179,614; 51,759; 29,076 and 63,771 million Rials respectively. The sum of the above items was 3,874,468 million Rials, which was about 4% of country’s entire export of mineral materials. The main portion of these materials was transported on the ground from the city of Astara in Gilan Province. From 2,575 mines in the country, 226 of them are located in the Caspian coastal provinces (8% of the total national mines). The mines in the coastal provinces are either public or privately owned. There are 135 private and 91 public mines in the region, which have employed 8,164 workers. The total value of these mines is 213,542 million Rials (9.6% of the total value of the mines in the country). Table #1 contains the number mines, average employment and the value of products in each province and at national level. The condition of the mines in each province is as follows:
Gilan Province The estimated mining reserves of the province are 106,686 thousand tons and 1,509,350 tons with the value of 49,635 million Rials were produced in 1998. The major mines in this province include limestone, rubble stone, decorative stone, coal, mica, kaolin, feldspar rubble, silica and shell mines.
Mazanadaran Province The estimated mining reserves of the province are 491 million tons and 15,808 tons with the value of 1,522,800 Dollars were exported in 1998. The major material exported was Barite. The annual production was 1,896 thousand tons in the same year. Meanwhile, 85% of the workers in this business are employed in the coalmines. Mazanadaran Province has the most diverse collection of mining in the region. The most important mines include chalk, rubble, limestone, kaolin, granite, marble, ores slag, conglomerates, silica, barite, coal, fluorine, bauxite, lead and zinc mines.
Golestan Province The diversity of mining materials in this province is less than the other two provinces in the region. Its major mines include limestone rubbles, bauxite and coal. In 1997, a total of 178,793 tons with the value of 10,720 million Rials were produced. Coalmines with the production of 142,243 tons (almost 2/3rd of the total output) were followed by limestone and bauxite mines.
3.3.4. Primary industry Agriculture In addition to the suitable climatic conditions of the Iranian coastal provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan, this region enjoys a very fertile soil excellent for agricultural purposes. Therefore, this region has a special and prominent status in the country. In the plain region of Gilan, due to the wet climate, most of the soil is sedimentary with small grains. Also there are wet grassy and semi-wet soils as well. The sedimentary soils with small grains are the most appropriate kind of soil for agricultural purposes. This type of soil has covered vast areas of the central plains of Mazandaran, which is considered as one of the most fertile parts of this region. In the plains of Gonbad and Gorgan in the Golestan Province, due to the extensive evaporation and presence of semi-arid lands especially in the northern part of the province, there are vast salty and marshy lands without any agricultural value. Never the less, in the southern part of this province, near the Gorgan and Gonbad region, there are arable lands that are considered as the main center for cultivation of grain, cotton and oily seeds. The soil in the mountainous region of this province, due to the sharp slope of the mountains and the shallow depth of the soil is not very suitable for cultivation. In the agricultural year of 1997-8, the cultivation lands of the coastal provinces were more than 1,158 thousand hectors that is about 1.5% of the total agricultural lands of the country. In this region, the maximum amount of land is present in the Golestan province. Mazandaran and Gilan Provinces hold the second and third places. 62% of the agricultural lands in the region are irrigated by water and 47% is cultivated by rain fed farming. 78%, 58% and 46% of the Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan Provinces are irrigated by water respectively. Golestan Province with 54% and Gilan province with 10% rain fed farming are the biggest and smallest users of this method in the Caspian coastal region.
Non-Fruit & Fruit Trees: There are 1,848 and 117 thousand hectors of fruit trees and non-fruit trees in the country respectively. Meanwhile, there are 182 thousand hectors of various fruit trees in the coastal region (10% of the national total amount), where Golestan Province with 10 thousand hectors and Mazandaran Province with 103 thousand hectors have the smallest and biggest orchard lands in the region respectively. The littoral provinces also have 29 thousand hectors of non-fruit trees (25% of the national total amount). Most of these types of trees are located in the Gilan Province. Table #1 provides useful information about the agricultural lands in these provinces. Table #2 shows the main agricultural crops in the littoral provinces. Tables #3 and #4 indicates the amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. One of the most important aspects of coastal provinces is their significant contribution in production of certain crops in the country like rice (more than 90% of the country’s production), tea, olive, cotton and citrus crops. In addition, production of oily seeds, vegetables and summer crops are the other major products of the region. In the animal husbandry sector, in view of Caspian coastal area’s suitable climate and reach resources, these provinces are very active in this field. For example in 1998, there were 9,228 thousand head of domesticated animals in the region. Sheep is the main domesticated animal with approximately 6 million head (65% of the all domesticated animals) followed by cow, goat and other species. Mozandaran Province possesses the most number of domesticated animals (39%). Golestan Province (33%) and Gilan Province (28%) are in the second and third place. The number of animal husbandry farms in the region is 1,399 that 70% of them is situated in the Golestan Province. The meat production in this province has been more than 168 thousand tons, (half of it has been red meat and the other half white meat). The total production of eggs has been 30 thousand tons, from which 57% belonged to the Golestan, 50% to the Mazandaran and the rest to the Gilan Province. This region also has a prominent role in number of production units for breed of layer type as well as breed of broiler type in the country and provides most of the required productive hens and chickens of the poultry farms in the country. In the mean time, Gilan Province is ranked number one in production of silk in Iran and was able to produce 3,069 tons of silk in 1998. Table ? provides the major animal husbandry activities in each province. 3.3.5. Tourism Iran, regarding its historical and traditional characteristics, is considered as one of the seven important countries in the world in view of tourism attractions. But because of some issues, Iran has enjoyed very small number of tourists in comparative to world statistics. So that in 1997, 1007597 tourists traveled to Iran that comparing to 1986 with 85801 tourists and 1992 with 249103 tourists, the number of tourists has increased considerably. These tourists were from different countries and mainly including: 18,000 Central Asian people (from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan), 255,000 South East Asians, and the rest were about 96,000 tourists from Middle East, and 220,000 European tourists. 115,925 foreigners have entered the country were not tourists. Statistics of tourists distribution in every province is not available, but the majority of tourists who want to visit Iranian historical places and tourism attractions, mainly travel to central provinces like Esfahan, Fars, Kerman, Yazd. For instance, in 1998, the number of foreign travelers who have been resided in hotels of Golestan Province were 829, so that if we added this to the number of tourist who traveled to the two other northern provinces, the total hits at about 5000-10,000 which is not so considerable. Instead, every year thousands of Iranian people travel to these coastal provinces to enjoy their natural attractions. From the total number of tourists who visited Iran in 1998, 57% by land borders, 41% via air borders and the rest have been entered Iran by sea. The number of tourists who arrived in Iran from Central Asia and Caucasus by land, air and sea were 236, 169, 8 respectively. In 1998, 302574 tourists from Azerbaijan Republic visited Iran. 182267 Azeri tourists has entered Iran by land, 120257 tourists via air and merely 50 people by sea. Iran has received 10024 tourists from Armenia, 16466 tourists from Belarus and Russian Federation and 583 tourists from Kyrgyzstan. Majority of the Central Asian tourists have entered the country by land border of Astara in Gilan Province and who traveled to Iran via air have arrived in Tehran. 3.3.6. Service sector 3.3.7. Transport The history of road transportation in Iran begins in about 400-500 B.C. Since then, it has always been regarded as an important and vital aspect of national infrastructure. Today transportation constitutes a major part in development of the economy’s economy and it conjures up memories of the heyday of the Silk Road commercial route of 1,000 years ago. For these reasons, the government in recent years has paid great attention to enhancing the national transportation capacity and has devised a comprehensive scheme on the basis of five year development plans, encompassing, land, sea and air transportation.
Roads Roads are defined as following:
In Table 1below the types of roads in coastal provinces are provided. According to these data, total roads in the whole region was 5,954 km. In 1998 which was about 8% of the country’s total of 74,349 km. Out of this figure about 36% of the total are main roads, 39% asphalt by-roads and 15% graveled by-roads from other adjacent provinces. According to an approved plan, the construction of a highway from Tehran to the north is underway. The project would do a great deal to facilitate transportation between these two areas. Great concerns have been expressed towards the environmental consequences of this motorway. It will cut through the protected area of Central Alborz and increase the noise and air pollution, disturb wild life, contribute to deforestation and create population centers around the motorway.The road connections within and outside the coastal provinces are shown in fig. Regarding the number of and type of vehicles there was a total of about 4,000 vehicles in the coastal provinces. In Table 2below, the breakdown, according to the vehicle type and province are represented. The total number of passengers transported within the province was some 5,239 thousands.
Railroads Another means of transportation within the Caspian region is the train. At present the railroad system covers only the eastern parts of the area and is a branch of the Tehran- Mashhad main railroad with a length of 496km that passes through Sari (center of Mazandaran Province) to Behshahr and Bandar-e-Torkaman and then ends in Gorgan (provincial capital of Golestan province). It is estimated that by 2021, the railroad will cover Gilan province from Tehran up to Astara through Rasht. The Mazandaran railroad will also be expanded to service the eastern areas of Caspian Sea in Golestan province.
Railroad expansion program until 2021 Airports Up to 1997, there was 58 airports in the country, four of which are in Rasht, Ramsar, Noshahr and Sari. Construction of an airport at Gorgan is under study. In Table.3 below the number of flights, passengers and cargo are represented.
Ports Along the 700 km long Iranian Caspian coastline, there are different commercial ports used for the transportation of passengers and goods destined for domestic or regional ports. According to the Ports and Shipping Organization of I. R. of Iran (PSO) commercial ports are classified on the basis of their capacity and strategic imprtiance: (1) Main ports (can berth receive ocean-going and large vessels); (2) Multi purpose ports (for local and regional transportation, and (3) Ports under the direct control of PSO. On the Caspian coast there are two ports categorized as main ports and these are located in Noshahr and Bandar-e Anzali in Gilan and Mazandaran provinces respectively. In addition to domestic usage these ports are also the country’s water access routes for transportation between Iran and the littoral countries in the Caspian Sea. After the fall of the former Soviet Union and the resulting enhanced relations between Iran and newly formed Central Asian states, the importance of these ports are increasing and the government has planned to upgrade their capacity, as well as construct new ports. It should be mentioned that there are also a few fishing ports referred to in the fisheries section. The significance of ports of Noshahr and Anzali are represented in Table.4. Nowshahr port in Mazandaran province has been chosen as one of the country’s `Special Economic Areas’ (SEA) in order to facilitate the transboundary commercial relations. AmirAbad port near Nowshahr port has also been selected as a SEA. Apart from these two commercial ports, there are other smaller ports, regarded as small-scale facilities with locally importance. Torkaman port in Golestan province on the east is one of them. 3.3.8. Import-Export Activity 3.3.9. Occupational health and safety 3.3.10. Average houshold income An analysis of the human development situation income of the I.R. Iran shows that an increase in per capita income is a prerequisite for human development. Despite ups and downs in the national economy during the last two decades, gross domestic product (GDP) has in general terms grown steadily. In the last 10 years, however economic policies were increasingly liberalized and privatized to respond to the need for reconstruction of the economy. There are no aggregate figures at the provincial level for household expenditure and income; therefore the annual average of the country is presented. According to the Statistical Yearbook of Iran 1998, the average net expenditure of households was 13,337,000 Rials in 1998, which is about USD 1,667 according to the free market price of the dollar in Iran (USD 1 = 8000 Rials). For urban households it was higher and equaled 16,670,000 Rials and less for rural households at 10,804,000 Rials. The figures of 14 years ago (1986) were 1,038,500, 547,000 and 762,000 Rials respectively indicating rougly an 8% increase in net expenditure for a period of 14 years. The average expenditure on non-food commodities for both, urban and rural households constituted 64% of the total expenditure. The distribution of urban household expenditure indicates that about 34% of the total expenditure went for housing which is approximately more than 50% of what is expended in big cities, especially in Tehran, and less in small towns and cities. Figure 1 outlines the urban household expenditure distribution The average annual household net income in urban and rural areas in 1998 was 15,151,894 and 9,367,760 Rials respectively for an average of 12,259,827 Rials. Table 2 represents the income distribution by source of income.
3.3.11. Housing In 1996, there were 784,003 houses in the three Caspian coastal provinces. Gilan province accounted for 447,088, Mazandaran 235,800 and Golestan Province had 101,151 residential units. The numbers make for a regional average of 1.2 households ????. Population growth in the region during the past years has naturally meant the construction of new buildings, an increase in rates of land usage and growth of the housing industry. In 1998, the average price of an old building nationwide was 453,000 rials per sq. m. In Tehran the price stood at 1,368,000 rials per sq. m, in Rasht 397,000 rials per sq. m, and in Gorgan 384,000 rials per sq. m. Rasht and Gorgan stood 9th and 10th in the national housing price indices in this respect. The average price of each square meter of a residential unit in the country was 678,000 rials. In Tehran it was 1,558,000 rials, Rasht 848,000 rials (4th) and Gorgan 652,000 rials (9th). The average combined monthly rent and deposit stood at 57,663 rials per sq. m and 41,279 rials per sq. m in the latter two provinces respectively. In Rasht, the median rent was 3,564,000 rials per sq.m (3rd nationwide) and the mean deposit stood at 65,198 rials per sq .m. In Gorgan, rent was 2,682 rials per sq. m (10th) and a deposit was 37,172 rials per sq. m (9th nationwide). |
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