An Iranian delegation headed by Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi visited Stockholm this week.
Vaezi and representatives of several ICT companies are on a European tour that aims to deliver contracts for Iranian telecoms and technology companies.
During his stay in Stockholm, Vaezi said the ICT sector is expanding exponentially in Middle East and with assistance of European states and companies, Iran can claim a significant share in this promising market, ICTNA reported on September 17.
The minister said joint investment and production constitute the ideal strategy for expansion of collaboration.
“Technology transfer and investment in the domestic telecoms industry are of upmost importance to the Iranian administration,” he said.
During the visit, Vaezi met with Sweden’s first Swedish-Iranian Minister for Public Administration Ardalan Shekarabi.
Shekarabi said the Swedish government is willing to assist Iran in advancing its e-government project.
According to the Swedish minister, investing in e-governance will greatly reduce the administration’s costs.
Shekarabi also said Sweden is ready to transfer the technologies needed by Iran.
During his stay, Vaezi also met with the CEO of Ericsson Group, Jan Frykhammar.
The Stockholm-based company is a multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company that, according to Frykhammar, has been active in Iran for more than a century.
“Ericsson is willing to collaborate with Iran’s ICT Ministry and mobile operators in the fields of mobile network, Internet services and data transfer,” he said.
Vaezi appreciated the proposals made by Shekarabi and the CEO of Ericsson and said, “Although Iran has taken significant steps in the ICT sector, Iran needs the assistance of its allies to keep pace with the market demands.”
Prime Minister of Sweden Stefan Lofven, who is to visit Tehran soon, will likely sign several deals with Iran.
The new development follows Vaezi’s visit to Finland last week, during which the Iranian minister met with Finland’s Minister of Transport and Communications Anne Berner.
According to previous reports, the Finnish officials announced their country’s interest in working in the Iranian telecoms field.
During his stay in Helsinki, Vaezi and the Iranian delegation met with Nokia’s CEO Rajeev Suri.
Nokia Corp. and the representative of Iranian LTE-TDD (4G) service providers’ consortium have signed a memorandum of understanding for optimizing the use of LTE-TDD technology in Iran.
