Parviz Dawoodi and Privatization in Iran

The Fars News Agency reports that "Iran's first Vice-President Parviz Dawoodi was appointed as the official in charge of implementing Article 44 of the Constitution," i.e., privatization ("First VP Responsible for Execution of Article 44," 9 July 2006). Moreover, it says:

Following the recent directive by the Supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on the major policies for the implementation of Article 44 of the Constitution which rules for the transferring of a large part of governmental assets to the private sector, the cabinet decided in its last meeting that a special committee must be formed for implementing the Article with a number of cabinet ministers as its members.

The cabinet is yet to decide during its Sunday meeting that which of the statesmen should become a member of the said committee, but it has already appointed first Vice-President Parviz Dawoodi as the official in charge of the committee. ("First VP Responsible for Execution of Article 44," 9 July 2006)

Why "a special committee"?

What do we know about Dawoodi? Very little.

It is said that Dawoodi received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1981.

(Does Iran have any economist in a top economic position who has not been trained in the United States? Good grief. Ebrahim Sheibany, Governor of the Central Bank, has a Ph.D. from Indiana University; Mohammadreza Shojaeddini, Vice Governor of the Central Bank on Administrative & Training Affairs, has a Ph.D. from Iowa State University and was an advisor to the IMF Director from 1998 to 2001; Akbar Komijani, Vice Governor on Economic Affairs, has a Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Mohammad Jafar Mojarrad, Vice Governor on Foreign Exchange Affairs, has a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.)

What else?

• Dawoodi was a professor of economics at Shahid Beheshti University and served as economic advisor to the Judiciary Chief, Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi.


• "During the presidency of Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997), he was deputy minister in economic affairs of ministry of economics and finance, as well as deputy of Judiciary in economic affairs." (President Ahmadinejad Appoints First Vice-President," 11 September 2005)

Wikipedia claims that Dawoodi is very unlike Ahmadinejad in his economic vision, that he "teaches liberal economic perspectives in his classrooms," that it "is believed that his economic ideas are highly influenced by modern economic theory," and that he "is for free markets and open economies," though it doesn't cite sources for the claim.

All in all, it's a BAD sign.

Needs further investigation.

Update

Yoshie Furuhashi, "Privatization Iranian Style," Critical Montages, 14 October 2007.