Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RNISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
turkish daily news - Sepember 25, 1993
THE ECON01\IIST SElyrEl\IBEI{ 25TH 1~m:~
Iran
For the oppressed
FROM A CORRESPONDENT
IN IRAN
HECONTROLS $4 billion worth ofinvestment
in 1,200companies and nobody,
except for Iran's spiritual leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, can fire him. He is
Mohsen Rafiqdoost, managing director of
Iran's Bonyad-e-Mostazafan, the Foundation
of the Oppressed.
The bonyad was set up on the fortune of
the shah and other Iranians who fled the
1979 revolution, and has been enriched
since then with fresh confiscated property
(seebox). The largest of several foundations
supposed to redistribute the country's
wealth, its given taskis to set up universities,
build cheap housing and provide affordable
medical care. Italso makes a handsome
profit for itself.
Its investments range wide: from agriculture
and textiles to food and tourism. It
can change its spots at will, acting as a private
company when buying privatised
firms, but going "public" to control such
"strategic" businesses as the national shipping
line, enshrined in the Iranian constitution
as a publicly-owned agency.
The bonyad owns several five-star hotels
and is even building an amusement park in
Tehran along Disneyland lines, in a joint
venture with a European construction firm.
The idea of Minnie Mouse in full-length
chador may not sound a winner, but no one
doubts Mr Rafiqdoost's shrewdness. The
bonyad's operating profit last year reached
570 billion rials ($400m), the highest ever.
Mr Rafiqdoost topk it over in 1989, after
commanding the Revolutionary Guards
during Iran's eight-year war with Iraq; he
claims that one-third of the profit goes directly
to victims ef the war.
Wealthy Iranians fear the bonyad's huge
expansion, not least because their own assets
are constantly under threat. But even
the unwealthy are starting to feel that it and
other foundations have sold out for the sake
of profit. "They are supposed to build housing
for the poor, but only the rich can afford
the mansions they build," says a low-paid
government employee, trying to make ends
meet by working nights as a taxi driver.
"They are for the oppressed in name only."
Mr Rafiqdoost admits his foundation
makes a healthy profit from some of its
housing, but says that all the proceeds will
eventually reach the poor. Meanwhile, his
staffdoseem to have their minds on making
money. They gladly recite the extent of their
investments and the depth of their control
over the Iranian economy. Mr Rafiqdoost
himself is proud of the fact that the government
will often approach him to intervene
in economic policy. When lifting its subsidy
on chickens, for example, it asked the
bonyad to import millions of chickeQs, to
bring down the price. "We have intervened
over iron, tea, rice and cooking oil," says Mr
Rafiqdoost.
In a country that thrives on rumour and
speculation, the foundations are a favourite
target. Many Iranians suspect that they are
used as deniable vehicles to control everything
from the pro-Iranian Hizbullah to the
bounty on the head of Salman Rushdie.
(The 15Khordad Foundation, which offered
that $2m bounty, is the most secretive foundation
of all.)
Economic information in Iran is almost
as sensitive as military secrets, and few
really know what the foundations are up to.
Allegations of political involvement are difficult
to prove. Many accuse them of corruption,
a criticism that Mr Rafiqdoost dismisses
as politically motivated. But with no
shareholders, no public accounts and answerable
only to Iran's religious leader, the
bonyads are a law unto themselves.
.
THE ECONOMIST SEPTEMBER 25TH 1993
3