In a decree issued Feb. 19, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei introduced the general policies of Iran’s “resistance economy.” The following are some of the key objectives presented in this document:

• Domestic capacity building with maximal utilization of the country’s resources, with a special focus on the participation of lower and middle-income classes in wealth generation
• Promotion of a knowledge-based economy through drafting and implementing a comprehensive, scientific plan for the country and promoting innovation with the ultimate goal of becoming the No. 1 knowledge-based economy of the region
• Increased efficiency in economic activity, improvement of economic competitiveness
• Utilization of subsidy reforms to optimize energy consumption in the country, increase employment and domestic production and promote social justice
• Improve Total Factor Productivity based on the empowerment of domestic human resources through skills education
• Promotion of domestic production, especially in strategic products and services and the consequent reduction of dependence on imports
• Provision of food and medicine security
• Consumption management based on the promotion of consumption of local products parallel to the qualitative improvement of domestic production
• Comprehensive reform of the financial system to respond to the country’s needs
• Targeted promotion of exportable goods and services through legal and administrative reform as well as the promotion of foreign investment for export purposes
• Increase the economy’s resistance through regional and international economic collaboration, especially with neighbors but also through diplomacy
• Reduce vulnerability of oil and gas exports through the selection of strategic buyers and involving the private sector in diversifying sales channels
• Increase oil and gas value-added exports
• Increase oil and gas strategic reserves and production to have an impact on international markets
• Implement reforms to rationalize government costs, increase tax revenues and reduce dependency on oil and gas export revenue
• Increase the share of the National Development Fund from oil and gas export revenues
• Increase transparency in financial matters and avoid activities that pave the way for corruption

President Hassan Rouhani immediately reacted to Khamenei's decree and clarified tasks for a number of government institutions on how to plan and implement the needed policies. As is common in Iran’s governmental affairs, a number of committees and task forces have been established to follow up on the actions needed to achieve the above objectives.

Some analysts see the issuance of the decree as a reminder by the supreme leader that the positive outlook for nuclear negotiations should not derail the country’s overall effort to reduce its vulnerability to external sanctions. Indeed, a number of powerful stakeholders in Iran believe that sanctions generated an opportunity to become more focused and more efficient. As such, one can understand the timing and content of this initiative as a push not to allow the Iranian industry and government to fall back into a mentality of imports and maintain the momentum that has been generated through sanctions.

It is true that the term “economy of resistance” emerged as an Iranian response to the Western sanctions regime, and it is also valid that some of the above objectives are designed to strengthen the Iranian economy against external pressure. However, the majority of the above goals had already been defined in the country’s 20-Year Prospective Document (also known as Vision 2025), which had been passed and also decreed by Khamenei in 2005. Vision 2025 called on the Iranian government to pave the way for Iran to become a knowledge-based economy and the region’s top economic and technological power by 2025.