The illegitimate Pahlavi regime destroyed all the roots and foundations of the Iranian economy and left a consumer, dependent society behind. Moreover, the animosities of the arrogant leaders diverted the valuable opportunities of this nation for achieving economic independence towards repelling such plots as the eight-year imposed war. Nevertheless considerable achievements have been made in the field of economy, though there is a long way ahead.
"The Islamic Republic did not limit itself to the establishment of a government independent of the big powers it was the first step. The first step of the countries that achieve independence is the establishment of their system. That is, a system, independent of the alien influence. The Islamic Republic did not even limit itself to move towards achieving economic independence. Economic independence is more difficult and far-reaching than political independence. You observe that it is not easy to cut off the ties of influence and economic domination of alien powers and governments. If a country decides to move towards economic independence, it will need efficient workforce, income-generating resources, ample facilities, knowledge, expertise, international scientific and technical cooperation and a number of other things. The revolutionary countries and those newly-independent ones, face lots of problems in acquiring the said factors and instruments for economic independence. Our country moved towards achieving economic independence from the very early hours of the victory of the Islamic Revolution. Although it was a difficult task before the revolution, we tried to cut off the ties of dependence and could move towards economic independence."[51]