(CNN) -- Iran is in possession of the building blocks to construct a promising, fast growing, developing economy. The basics are all there -- a sizable population of 78 million people, with a median age of just 27. A highly cultured and educated society, and by its own geological surveys the country is blessed with 9% of the world's oil reserves. Utilizing a conservative IMF calculation of $75 a barrel, that means Iran sits on $10 trillion of oil reserves and another $3.5 trillion of gas reserves. Iran, minus the intense sanctions put forward by the West starting in mid-2010, would warrant a slot in the N-11 group of countries -- this is the next wave of the most promising economies within the emerging market sphere of Jim O'Neill at Goldman Sachs.
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Iran is in possession of the building blocks to construct a promising, fast growing economy
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But CNN's John Defterios says the reality today with its devalued rial is the polar opposite
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With rising import prices due to a plummeting currency, Iran Inc. is also no longer able to compete
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Defterios: Iranians must be asking the question: What if we joined the global economic community?
In 2010, Iran began removing subsidies for fuel, from heating oil to engine petrol, which amounted to $4,000 per year for the average family of four according to the @placeholder.