President explained the five steps that the government has taken during the fight against coronavirus and stressed that despite the problems made by anti-Iranian sanctions and the coronavirus, this year’s condition in the fields of agriculture, industry and services will be acceptable because of people’s support and sacrifice.

Speaking on Wednesday at the meeting of the cabinet, President Hassan Rouhani said that that dark atmosphere that the enemies have portrayed is baseless and a complete lie.

Parts of Dr Rouhani’s speech is as follows:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Today, people’s concern is health and livelihood, and we must do something to fight the disease and unemployment at the same time. If we can implement this comprehensive vision well, God willing, we can lead the country step by step to where it is desirable for people.

Coronavirus is a problem for all countries in the world, almost the whole world has been affected by this wave of disease; both world politics and economics, people's lifestyle in the world, trade and transactions and everything is under the impact of the new situation.

In this important matter, we can be successful if the people, the government and all bodies and agencies of the country are together.

The government has a duty to try to identify the infected people and to separate the infected from the society and to direct them to the hospitals and rehabilitation centres so that their illness does not spread to other parts of the society.

The second task of the government is to take care of those who need a hospital bed or, in acute conditions, a special care unit. The Ministry of Health has made great efforts, both in the first area, which is the identification of patients, and in the second part, which is the care and treatment of patients.

The medical staff in this historical period is where the people are proud of and we are very proud in history that from the first day until today not any patient has gone to hospital to face a closed door.

This is one of the honours of our medical sector, and of course the doctors, nurses and all the medical staff have made an extraordinary effort and sacrifice during this period, day and night.

In some countries, when some patients went to the hospital and a bed was empty, the nurse and the doctor were not enough, and in some countries, there was enough beds, but the intensive care unit could not accommodate the patient.

In our country, everybody supported the underprivileged with insurance, and in some cases nothing was received from them and even foreign nationals who live legally in our country received treatment for free.

The third thing the government had to do was to provide the equipment needed for public health or to equip our nurses and doctors.

Fortunately, special N95 masks and gowns or medicine needed by nurses in our hospitals are provided on a daily basis, and most of the people's needs are met, especially disinfectants.

The situation in our country in this regard is comparable to other countries and with developed countries, and a lot of work has been done in this field.

The fourth case was the provision of essentials for people, which was part of the government's duties, and what was needed by the people on a daily basis, including food and health care.

Here I would also like to thank the Central Bank, the transportation sector, customs and various sectors. During this period, transportation and usually traffic in the country has decreased due to health protocols put forward by the ministry of health, or sometimes stopped in some areas, but truck traffic in these days has been more than in previous years. This shows that everything that was needed was provided with the effort that was made.

Shops, pharmacies, manufacturers, customs and transportation, all were active and we saw a general and public jihad in the country.

I would like to tell our dear people that this year, in the agricultural sector, our situation is better than previous years, and this year in the field of agricultural production, we expect increased production by 3.5 to 4 percent and in the field of wheat, 14 million tons of wheat is expected to be produced.

Now, the amount that is needed and what the bakeries need in public silos and guilds, or whatever they need in the industrial sector this year, and in other areas, the statistics provided by the Ministry of Agriculture are very good.

In the field of rice production this year, it is predicted that our rice production will be 2.6 million tonnes, which is a significant figure and meets the needs of the country.

In livestock and aquaculture, our situation is better than last year, and again this year we will have the growth of products and production.

God willing, we will have more and better products this year, both because of the work that has been done in various areas in infrastructure, the preparation of the canal, drainage, water supply, dams.

Lake Urmia was one of the most important issues for the government. Today, it has returned to the conditions of 10 years ago, and this is a great work that has been done, and God willing, we will do the rest of the work that needs to be done in these areas this year.

We will have big projects in the field of water and soil that will be inaugurated this summer and autumn, and God willing, we hope to work on the whole torrid project this year.

This year's conditions are good. Despite what the enemies are saying, last year the economic growth was positive without oil. In 1398, despite all the pressures, our oil-free economy has been growing, and this year, all predictions are positive.

Last year, our economic growth without oil was positive despite all the pressures, and this year, all calculations, including the central bank's prediction, show that economic growth and inflation will be better than two years ago despite the enemies' propaganda.

The fifth task of the government at this time is to help the economically disadvantaged. This is not an easy task. One of the problems in the whole world is the problem of unemployment and the problem of businesses that cannot be active.

One of the developments in our stock market was that yesterday I saw some of the people who are usually opposed to us and write very strange things, wrote that Iran's economy is bad and it is surprising that the stock market is good.

I would like to thank the Minister of Economy and all the managers of the stock exchange, and they really did a great job in 1398 and now in 1399.

The last point is that we are approaching the Army Day of the Islamic Republic of Iran and every year the situation was such that on these days we went to the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini and there was a parade of armed forces.

I thank the army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij, the police, and all those dear ones who worked hard these days to fight this disease.

Inshallah, the army has always been proud, and this year it will be proud on the scene of the fight against corona, along with other armed forces, and God willing, the army will always support the nation, and the nation will always support the army. Insha'Allah

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