TEHRAN, Iran — Reform of Iran’s cumbersome permit system has come under the spotlight in recent months. Yet, efforts to minimize the number of licensing documents required for doing business in various sectors of the economy have made slow progress due to resistance from state organizations, among other reasons.

An investor may need to obtain several permits, intermediate approvals, consents and authorizations — out of 2,000 listed ones — from different organizations to start business activity in the country. This complicated bureaucracy consumes considerable time and energy. In its latest effort to address this matter, the administration of President Hassan Rouhani gathered local business officials and experts for a conference in Tehran on Dec. 14. Addressing the one-day event, Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali Tayebnia said his colleagues are working hard to improve the business environment in the post-sanctions era. Indeed, the latter is a prerequisite for the economy to achieve its ambitious medium-term growth targets.

It is noteworthy that Iran’s ranking in terms of ease of doing business has recently improved; while it stood at 152nd in 2014, it stands at 118th in the World Bank Doing Business 2016 report. Tayebnia acknowledged that many more efforts are needed to bring Iran to a two-digit ranking by next year, but expressed hope that this objective is achievable thanks to ongoing efforts to identify disruptive permits.

Tayebnia was referring to a specialized committee created seven years ago within the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance to deregulate the economy and facilitate the procedures for obtaining business permits under Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution, which pertains to privatizations. However, the law was revised in 2014, and the panel’s tasks were thus reduced to only one; that is, to facilitate the issuing, extension and abolition of business permits. The committee’s eight-member board was also reorganized, and the minister of economy is now the chairman.