On one hand, the economic growth of the city requires sustainable resources to provide reliable support for the economic movements of urban management. On the other hand, it is in the process of development, costs, and expenses. The Economic Deputy is responsible for planning and fulfilling the economic goals of Mashhad municipality and thriving on the economy by developing a theoretical plan and model of urban management support. In order to achieve the mentioned objectives, this department is simultaneously active in several areas.

On the other hand, the possession of land as one of the sustainable income sources of the economy is an activity carried out by Mashhad municipality. In recent years, the lands have been attained by some processes such as receiving toll, bartering for other properties or taking the possession of lands in areas with a renovation and refinement plan.

On the other hand, opportunity creation is a role played by the Economic Deputy as facilitator and leader of urban management goals. While production of rial revenue sources has been taken into consideration by the Deputy, the first priority in the production of opportunities is to lead the city’s economy to a sustainable development. This is mainly the responsibility of investment and partnerships management in the Economic Deputy. 

However, the successful projects of this field are exploited by the marketing and operation management. This management earns revenues by selling or renting shares or produced units.

Another mission defined for the Economic Deputy is the maintenance and assignment of resources and products concomitant with the production of resources and development opportunities, which affects the entire urban economic process. 

Financing urban megaprojects has been initiated since the publication of the first corporate bonds in worn-out textures in 2005.

To date, billions of tomans have been injected to these areas from the sources of bonds with the goal of renovation of the target areas (Samen, Shohada, Abkuh, and Amel). Despite the establishment of some projects in this field, the main burden has been on the shoulders of urban management. In this regard, some commitments are more than the opportunity capability in the target textures. 

In addition, urban railway requires significant financial resources as the cleanest public transportation method. In this respect, the project has been funded through issuance of participation bonds. However, no measure has been taken to generate opportunity from this green route due to the lack of economic perspectives in past periods. 

Nonetheless, the productive opportunities of the urban railway will certainly not meet the needs and costs of it. In other words, providing the resources of this huge project is beyond the urban economy, and the national economy should support the city of Imam Reza. 

By changing the macro approaches to urban management, attempts have been made to create new opportunities with the aim of increasing the pilgrims’ durability and moving towards the urban economy development. Moreover, projects have been defined to reduce the differences in social welfare indicators in less-privilaged regions. It is hoped that offering investment opportunities can attract investors who are eager to participate in Mashhad urban management, and on the other hand, the urban management will attract their ideas and suggestions to define new investment packages.

Investment management and participations of municipality of Mashhad has been established since 2007 in order to manage and utilize municipal properties and micro and macro capitals of the private sector, improve the urban economy and provide sustainable resources for the comprehensive and balanced development of urban infrastructure and the creation of new job opportunities. 

It has significantly contributed to the development of the urban economy, elimination of the inequalities in privileged and less-privileged urban areas, and creation of unique buildings by concluding participation contracts in various urban areas with various applications. It is noteworthy that the Economic Deputy was established as an independent organization in 2012 by the approval of the city council of Mashhad, and the mentioned management acts as one of the domestic administrations. Currently, this management has four sub-departments.

Participations and Investment Department

The Participations and Investment Attraction Department has been established to negotiate and hold meetings with investors and project managers and to publish calls to recognize investment opportunities and define economic packages. After completing the documents of the project, the department prepares bill of cooperative and investment projects, follows up the issuance of license from the Islamic Council of Mashhad, and concludes contracts with investors in line with the evlauation of projects presented in terms of urbanism, traffic and economics, and justifiability of the project.

Another program of this department is communicating and coordinating with the municipalities of the regions and managing the properties in order to identify the lands in which project can be defined and review the profitable projects on the properties and real estate available to the municipality in accordance with the upstream documents in order to create added value for the municipal properties and monitoring the implementation of profitable, nonprofitable or non-structural projects in the city through the private sector. Moreover, the department has an updated database of investors and internal and external project managers in order to provide investment packages with appropriate efficiency.

Determining the actual and legal project managers for effective interaction with investors, holding exhibitions, conferences, and meetings with investors, providing investment packages, and following up the call of these packages are among the other duties of this department carried out in line with the maximization of the capacities of the private sector, economic activists and popular participation.

Project Implementation and Supervision Department

The Department of Project Implementation and Supervision monitors the implementation of participatory contracts, the performance of technical and project control consultants, following up of attaining guarantees, delivery of lands and the temporary and definitive delivery of projects, assessment of schedule presented by the investor, evaluation of maps of projects and presenting them to the deputy of urbanism and updating the status of the projects after the contract.

By establishing interactions and coordination with various regions, the department acts on periodic visiting of projects, complying the performance with benefits and in line with the licenses, Commission Article 5, and articles concluded, and controlling the status quo provided, levels of maps, and technical visits and control of each project. Other responsibilities of this department include follow-up and possible HSE correction of participatory contracts in the event of changes in the original contract and determining the new partner shares, obtaining permission from the city council, commenting on the reasons for project delays, reviewing and presenting the created maps to the marketing management, and exploiting the municipality’s share.

Now and more than a decade after the establishment of the department, over 50 participatory projects with an investment fund of more than 55 thousand billion rials have been carried out in the form of residential, commercial, administrative, recreational, tourism, and parking complexes, some of which have been completed and exploited and the remaining under construction buildings have had 70% physical progress. In addition, more than 20 investment packages with a value of 60 thousand billion rials have been provided by the department and are prepared for negotiation and transferring to investor applicants.

Two departments of Foreign Investment and New Investments are also subsectors of this management, which currently operate under the supervision of the Economic Deputy Mayor.

New Investments Department

In order to advance smart city and be turned into the city of life and hope, the level of investment, optimal allocation of urban resources and responds to the requirement basket of the city and citizens and investors’ interest must be promoted and diversified in the city of Mashhad. Strengthening the infrastructure of economic development with modern approaches and top technologies, especially the development of the service sector with the aim of providing top commercial, financial, academic, IT, and advanced research services are among the strategies of the Islamic Council of Mashhad in the fifth era of urban management. 

On the other hand, the innovative management and application of modern methods in financing the holy city of Mashhad with a population of three million people and hosting approximately 20 millions of pilgrims annually can play an important role in booming the city’s economy and the municipality. 

The Economic Deputy of Mashhad Municipality has established the New Investment Department in order to boom the city’s economy, increase the satisfaction level of citizens, pilgrims and tourists, and improve businesses by identifying and supporting projects, as well as investment and business opportunities and events.

The programs of the New Investment Department are followed in four areas of process standardization (e.g., the formulation of guidelines and a bill on incentives for new investments), identification and implementation of new investment strategies guaranteeing sustainable earnings (e.g., financial diversification), development of the offerable content as well as the needs assessment and identification of new projects (e.g., information and communication technology, new energy, transportation, biotechnology, culture, and tourism) with the aim of attracting and directing private sector capital.

Foreign Investment Department

The annual hosting of more than two million international tourists, benefiting from the necessary infrastructures including international airport and proximity to the countries of Central Asia, along with the hosting of the consulates of Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and having sisterhood treaties with cities of countries such as China, Pakistan and Afghanistan have laid the proper foundation for foreign investment in Mashhad Municipality.

The Department of Foreign Investment was established in 2015 due to the importance of taking advantage of foreign exchange opportunities and advancing the objectives of the Economic Deputy regarding the formation of sustainable urban incomes. Given the significant importance of the activities of this department, it works directly and in coordination with the Economic Deputy. 

Some of the most important responsibilities of this department are establishing relations with international organizations and institutions to expand constructive economic relations and accelerating the pace of introducing urban economic opportunities and capacities through signing a Memorandum of Understanding and concluding contracts. Accordingly, the foreign investment department signs agreements and concludes multi-dimensional contracts on various economic fields with other countries and international organizations and associations. By doing so, the department is able to introduce investment opportunities in Mashhad, brand the economic identity of the second metropolis of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and facilitate the path of entrance of investors to this field, which has been followed up by signing a Memorandum of Cooperation with the legal institute of organization for investment economic and technical assistance (HCLA).

Moreover, the long-term strategy of the foreign investment department is establishing international relations through non-governmental institutions and FMDV association, such as the International Development Fund for Cities so that cooperation in this area could be expanded by developing agencies in metropolises of the world and permanent secretariats. Another important duty of the foreign investment department is attracting and managing foreign capital to implement urban projects. The presence of the holy shrine of Imam Reza and the annual pilgrimage of millions of Iranian and international individuals to this holy place have provided an ideal opportunity for introducing prospects and establishing business relations. 

One of the most important missions of the department is establishing diplomatic and economic relations with the commercial sectors of embassies and active international agencies in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This phenomenon, along with the establishment of the Economic Deputy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has provided a unique opportunity for using formal diplomatic capacity to introduce investment opportunities in Mashhad to ambassadors and foreign consultants residing in Iran. As a custodian for accepting international investors, the foreign investment department has designed eight steps for the process of accepting and cooperating in the urban projects of the Economic Deputy, as follows:

Step 1: Declaring the needs, submitting the project information, definining in the annual budget, and formulating the economic package in cooperation with the applicant organization and the planning and economic studies management of the economic deputy

Step 2: Delivering the economic package to the foreign investment department

Step 3: Identifying the appropriate technical technology and valid companies in cooperation with the applicant organization

Step 4: Communicating and exchanging basic information with the foreign investor

Step 5: Inviting the foreign investor, holding a field visit, providing the final information in collaboration with the applicant organization 

Step 6: Holding a technical committee to evaluate the technical and technological capability in the presence of the foreign investor and the applicant organization

Step 7: Holding the economic committee to determine the contribution of partners and their shares

Step 8: Signing an agreement with the foreign investor

The marketing and operation management of the economic deputy is responsible for formulating and implementing marketing strategies and real estate of Mashhad Municipality. Encompassing two complementary areas, the department carries out ongoing monitoring of the housing market and the processing exploiting joint investments.

Exploitation Department

Some of the key responsibilities of the exploitation department include:

1. Formulating exploitation strategies and processes of the properties of Mashhad Municipality

2. Conveying strategies for developing market share regarding delivery projects consistent with organizational macro policies

3. Employing a strategy for exploiting and monitoring the performance of contractors operating on CNG sites owned by the Mashhad Municipality

4. Evaluating the economic studies of projects and using corrective suggestions on project design plans in terms of infrastructural issues of exploitation to increase the municipality efficiency

5. Negotiating on exploiting the municipal properties with applicants and investors

6. Marketing and attracting investors and applicants for exploitation

7. Assessing the applicants for investment in the municipal properties in terms of the quality of exploitation and economic packages of joint exploitation of the properties

Regarding municipal commercial projects, the following issues have been defined in the work area of the department:

1. Attending the board of directors of the complexes, a share of which belongs to the municipality, as a municipality representative in compliance with the law of possessing apartments

2. Investigating the financial issues related to the service charge of buildings, in which the municipality representative is a board member, and providing flourishing projects in municipal properties

3. Assessing and investigating the municipal duties in terms of paying the service charge of apartments owned by this area

Another responsibility of this department includes cooperation with other administrative areas in the economic and planning department in order to exploit the capacities of the private sector to optimally carry out the tasks of the exploitation area.

The Marketing and Sales Department

One of the most important tasks of this department is participating in the formulation of goals and strategies of marketing and selling real estate, creating short and long-term plans, and monitoring their implementation processes. 

Considering the relationship between marketing and identification of market needs, preparing the database of potential customers of municipal real estate, categorizing and organizing the information in this regard, and explaining how to meet expectations and needs of this field are among the other responsibilities of the department. The ongoing monitoring of the housing and construction market in the sales area is also carried out by this department. Effective and continuous communication with organizations and institutions, and presenting reports and analyses to sell or operate in any economic cycle is the other duty of the department.

Moreover, with regard to the ongoing changes in the real estate and properties of the municipality, counting and identifying all real estate belonging to the municipality, preparing and updating the real estate database, visiting and monitoring the current performance, and formulating an optimal marketing or exploiting strategy are other responsibilities of the department. In addition, the department describes policies for pricing projects and providing proper discounts at the desired time in the target market. 

The department is also responsible for marketing and selling the large municipal real estate and defined lands and licenses and presenting strategies of bartering with investors for municipal real estate to improve the municipal economy and pay the bank debt and deal with financial issues in other necessary fields.

Urban marketing through urban branding development in order to improve investment and enhance the economic rank of the city, monitoring the implementation of marketing studies by consultants and contractors in various fields, obtaining the necessary permits and approvals of the council to sell the municipal real estate, and planning for the development of media and nonmedia advertising for client groups based on the organization’s policies are among the other duties of the marketing and sales department. Another activity of the department is planning to employ the private sector and maximum use of the capacity of specialist advisers to perform missions and other activities related to the type of communication with the municipality. 

The Planning and Economic Studies Management attempts to develop a theoretical plan and supportive model of urban management in investment development and economic boom of the city by formulating the objectives, missions and strategies of Mashhad Municipality in the field of urban investment and coordinating these issues, as well as planning to promote investment and participation in urban projects. Accordingly, this department has two groups.

The Planning and Development Group

The planning and development group is responsible for explaining the Municipality’s macro perspective and formulating a roadmap in line with the economy of resistance to produce wealth and urban development, and to formulate objectives, missions, and strategies of the Mashhad Municipality in the field of investment and participation.

Another duty of the group is planning for promotion of investment and participation in urban projects and methods to create and develop sustainable incomes in Mashhad and the financing (public and governmental) required for investment and participation. In order to accelerate achieving the municipality’s goals and policies, the planning and development group is responsible for formulating, following up and preparing medium-term plans and annual budgets and controlling their realization up to the liquidation phase, obtaining the necessary city council resolutions to ameliorate the structure and improve the methods and processes, preparing and scheduling the Islamic finance bill projects, and timely attracting the allocated resources.

Other measures taken by the group are implementation of the comprehensive suggestion system to increase productivity and intra-organizational efficiency and maximum application of private sector capacities and expert advisers to carry out the assigned missions.

Studies and Evaluation of Economic Plans Group

By defining the theoretical plan and urban management support model, the group of studies and evaluation of economic plans plays an efficient role in the development and boom of the city’s economy. Some of the responsibilities of this group include performing socio-economic studies in order to formulate the goals and macro strategies, providing short, medium and long-term plans for correct and proper management of lands in legal and city areas, and assessing and proposing sustainable financing methods and reviewing the current methods in this field. 

Following up the realization of municipal economic goals and strategies from the deputies, organizations, and regions and following up the comprehensive economic plan of the Mashhad Municipality, which complies with the 2025 vision plan of the country, are among the most important duties of the group in this area.

The responsibility of investigating and proposing appropriate solutions to finance the administrative managements and financing the urban development projects from added value created by the neighboring real estate to advance the objectives lies with the group.

Other activities of this group include studies on the market and cultural attachments for investment projects and participation in order to plan and organize the city economy and conduct participatory project studies, investment and Islamic financing including the provision of investment packages, technical and financial justification, creation of special databases in relevant and key and active areas in the economy of the city and participating in reviewing and updating economic packages with the specialized field.

The administrative, financial and support management has been established aiming at planning for the required funding, attracting credits approved in the budget of the economic area in a timely manner, managing non-cash municipal resources, and preparing contracts based on the regulations of economic transactions. Other responsibilities of this department include constant improvement of administrative, financial, supportive and contract processes, monitoring the proper implementation of all affairs related to the personnel of the vice-chancellor, carrying out maximum outsourcing, and using the private sector services in financial, accounting and administrative areas. 

Department of Finance 

The department of finance is responsible for monitoring and coordinating the implementation of laws and regulations, performing financial operations and safeguarding the financial records, recording and keeping the accounting for Islamic financial bills in the municipality, handling and monitoring all financial records of peace treaties and payments and reports to the relevant authorities, and ensuring the accuracy of the issuance of documents. Other duties of this department are performing affairs related to identifying and determining the account headings, the preparation of the operation balance, and preparing and adjusting the monthly account in due time.

Moreover, the department is responsible for supporting the accounting system of accounting for Islamic financial bills and facilities in the municipality, final settling with the banking system, supporting and deploying new financing techniques and coordinating with the financial field, and supporting the municipality and investment management, marketing and exploitation partnerships, planning and economic studies and land and housing organization in order to implement the guidelines and issued communiqué.  

Department of Administrative and Support Affairs

The financial and administrative support of vice-chancellor management, outsourcing, and the maximum use of private sector services in financial, accounting and administrative services are among the missions of the department.

The main responsibilities of the department of administrative and support affairs are, as follows:

Performing formal procedures for concluding contracts based on the regulations of contracts in the economic field of Mashhad Municipality

Preparing and arranging the contracts

Following up the agreements with the coordination of specialized management and full coordination with the legal department

Creating an electronic database of all vice-chancellor contracts including joint and sale contracts, corporate bonds, and investments

Collecting and archiving companies’ resumes and information and completing the assessment forms of contractors and consultants

Providing documents and holding calls, tenders, and auctions related to the economic area

Registering and controlling the attendance and overtime and preparing management reports

Issuing all personnel sentences and recruitment of corporal staff and monitoring the proper implementation of all affairs

As the name implies, the main responsibility of this department is providing the financial properties of Mashhad Municipality in the field of economics and investment. Other duties of the department include:

– Operationally realizing the new financing models for urban and infrastructural projects in urban development and application of new financing tools

– Following up the municipal demands from the government

– Coordinating and performing studies on corporate bonds, Sukuk bonds and similar projects, and preparing economic packages with technical and financial justification

– Planning to distribute the corporate and Sukuk bonds, and attracting bank facilities predicted in the annual budget of the municipality

– Controlling and monitoring the timely attraction of financial resources for corporate bonds in projects and observing the timing

– Properly managing the arrangements for the financing required to pay municipality commitments to counterparties, in particular, the payment and repayment of coupon profits and the principal bonds on the due date 

– Following up and providing the financial resources required by the municipality from the National Development Fund of Iran, as well as internal and external financing pathways

– Using the legal capacity of the Sixth Development Plan and the annual state budget law

The land and housing organization has been established with the goal of formulating objectives and strategies for the purchase, possession, and acquisition of lands and properties in Mashhad. Some of the responsibilities of the organization include implementing formulated and issued short and medium-term programs and designing annual property list (with and without priority) based on the issued budget. 

In addition, the organization is responsible for the management and monitoring of method of using the qualified brokers and official experts of the judiciary in the municipality in accordance with the policies of the organization. Moreover, acquiring lands resulting from the implementation of Article 101 of the Municipal Law and obtaining benefits through entering the area of non-governmental lands are other actions performed by the department.

Other duties of the land and housing organization are formulating objectives and strategies for acquiring properties and lands based on the rules and policies of the upstream authorities, implementing the Article 101 of the Municipal Law, and obtaining the benefits through entering the area as well as managing and planning to conduct identification, technical, and municipal studies on large-scale lands and estates. 

Other programs of this organization are making efforts to organize and optimize the use of lands and estates in the legal and city region of Mashhad and participating and cooperating with governmental and non-governmental owners in the proper exploitation of lands and estates located in the legal and urban area of the city.

In order to accelerate the goals and policies of the municipality, the responsibilities of establishing an acquisition bank using financial, informational, human and equipment resources, coordinating and managing the executive projects and technically assessing and controlling the reports of municipal plans have been assigned to the land and housing organization.

On the other hand, the organization is responsible for formulating the goals and strategies of purchasing and possessing real estate and lands in accordance with the laws and policies of the upstream authorities and bartering the money of creditors and debtors of municipality, so that it serves the city and the municipality by following up and proposing annual possession budget and preparing and formulating the microprogram of annual possession priorities based on the issued budget, continuously monitoring the implementation of possession priorities and without priority in the areas of specialized deputies, following up the agreements and usual cases regarding the commitment of real and legal persons to municipal adjudication, managing the recruitment of qualified authorities in the areas under tenure, referring and delivering the projects and monitoring the performance, planning for proper use of the services of officials of the judiciary in accordance with municipal policies, obtaining of the land and real estate documents belonging to the municipality, accumulative and separate documents and government documents in the name of the municipality and concluding a purchase and possession security contract with the management of municipality’s especial plans.

As the name implies, all legal affairs in the field of economy and investment are carried out by this department, some of which are:

– Investigating and responding to legal inquiries of managements and different units of the vice-chancellor for referential adaptation and paperwork

– Defending the lawsuit against the vice-chancellor regarding contractual or non-contractual obligations and other lawsuits and disputes brought to the judicial and administrative authorities as required by referring to the mayor’s economic deputy or administrative, financial and support management

– Proposing legal or criminal lawsuits in order to pay the municipal rights by referring to the mayor’s economic deputy or administrative, financial and support management

– Providing legal formats and frameworks for contracts and providing legal techniques regarding all activities of the organization in the case of administrative referrals

– Following up the legal affairs of the organization in relation to third parties (whether actual or legal), and pursuing affairs related to the government and judicial organizations, such as: Real Estate Registration Organization of Iran, Social Security Organization, Organization of Endowments and Charity and Astan Quds Razavi with the cooperation and stewardship of the related directors, and by referring to the mayor’s economic deputy.

– Maximally using the capacity of the private sector and expert advisers to carry out the assigned missions

The duties of the department of public relations are diverse with media and advertising approaches in the structure of the economic-investments vice-chancellor and popular partnerships, some of which include:

– Strengthening the brand of Mashhad in the field of investment and economics

– Providing a Media position for Municipality of Mashhad’s logo in the public opinion and the addressed society of the organization

– Applying various news media for widespread and effective introduction of investment capacities in Mashhad

– Formulating and conducting advertising campaigns to introduce the investment opportunities of the Mashhad Municipality

– Designing information campaigns for auctions, tenders, and invitations to the organization to increase transparency and benefit from more financial gain

– Attending exhibitions and conferences related to the organization’s goals in an effective and targeted manner

– Holding events, meetings, and conferences in the form of issued policies

– Documenting the actions of the vice-chancellor managers