In a recent episode of “Shiveh” on Channel 4, Morteza Zamanian, member of the Governance and Policy Think Tank’s (GPTT) Policy Council, and Habibollah Zafarian, Director-General of the Office for Energy, Industry and Mine Studies of the Islamic Parliament Research Center (IPRC) of Iran, engaged in a critical discussion on “Energy Governance.”
Dr. Zafarian emphasized that energy should not merely be viewed as a commodity; rather, it serves as a governance tool that can achieve five key objectives:
Generating revenue to support the national budget
Creating wealth for future generations
Base of the welfare policymaking
Advancing foreign policy goals
Supporting industrial policy initiatives
He noted that, given the current circumstances, the existing solution is a gradual increase in prices by the government.
In response, Dr. Zamanian criticized the prevailing notion of the duality between liberalization and stabilization, labeling it a flawed perspective. He argued that the real duality lies between floating prices and stabilization, advocating for the establishment of a floating market.
“The critical issue is that prices must be adjusted gradually or intermittently,” Dr. Zamanian stated. “Price correction under today’s conditions is only feasible with the development of a robust market in this sector.”