Note: May 22 (Khordad 1), the national day of productivity and consumption optimization; how has our performance to date been?

According to the calendar, the first day of Khordad (May 22) is the national day of productivity and consumption optimization. If you’ve searched this title in the past day, you will find less contents related to this title. The title that has been neglected so far and has a lot to do. For this purpose,we take a brief look at some of our country’s statistics on productivity and efficiency:

• Iran’s Rank in Efficiency enhancers subindex in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI 2014-2015): 98th out of 144 countries
• Iran’s rank in agriculture value added per worker (2016): 72th of 155 countries
• Iran’s rank in energy use per $ 1,000 of GDP: The 23rd most energy consuming country in the world from 127 countries
• Iran’s rank in terms of the share of clean energy in total energy use: 94th out of 133 countries
• Water utilization efficiency in Iran’s agricultural sector: about 33%
• Average water losses in the urban water supply network of Iran: about 29%
• Efficient daily working time in Iran’s public sector: 22 minutes

Quoted from Khabaronline news agency, According to experts, “The pathology that has taken place indicates that the dependence of the Iranian economy on the sale of oil, gas and raw materials is one of the main reasons for the decline in productivity. This has led to the formation of oil-based economy with big government and the private sector in the country has been weakened as a result. Therefore, at best, we are witnessing the formation of a 25% share of the private sector in the economy.

There are numerous projects unfinished in the country as an example of wasted capital counts which By aggregating them, they need a great deal of capital to complete, and with their prolonged build time, the economic justification for their completion disappears and leads to the formation of vacant and unused capacity in the country, where there are potential capacities that are not actualized, meaning a weakness in infrastructure.

Energy loss is another factor affecting the decline in productivity in the country, according to current statistics, per capita energy consumption in Iran is more than 10 times the per capita consumption of energy in the world, given that it is considered one of the income areas of the country, It affects the export rate.

The weakness in knowledge, technology and the use of old technology and inefficient methods is another issue that has been neglected which has a high contribution to the formation of productivity and increasing the efficiency.”

The above statistics show an alarming level of productivity and consumption in Iran. I wish that part of the incompleted plans and projects would end on this particular day, or a new scheduled plan aimed at improving productivity and optimizing consumption began. However, if some parts of the community and the administrative system do not take a step, we can start with ourselves. We can increase the efficiency of energy use and water consumption in our workplaces or our houses with simple methods. If these methods are costly, at least we can increase our efficient daily work time to distance ourselves from the above disappointing statistics. This is something that our country and our public offices are in desperate need of.

Naming a day in the calendar and continuing the past process is the easiest task that will not solve any problem. Today’s calendar sheet turns over and we are still in the state of the past days.\

Prepared by Amirhosein Abdorrezayi