[Intl-tobacco] Iran Tobacco Company to be Privatized (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Tobacco-Privatization  /ECO/
Tobacco Company to be privatized

Tehran, Sept 9, IRNA -- Industries and Mines Minister Eshaq Jahangiri
said here Sunday that Iran's Tobacco Company is to be privatized per
the Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2000-2005). At a ceremony here to
install the new managing director of Iran
Tobacco Company in office, he said that the company has a workforce of
between 10 and 12,000. He said dlrs 700 million to dlrs one billion  worth
of cigarettes are smuggled into the country every year. He added that the
country needs 45 to 50 billion cigarettes a
year. Just 15 billion cigarettes are annually produced in the Iranian
factories whose nominal capacity is about 35 billion cigarettes a
year.