Tehran to Host “Made in Iran” Festival

The national, cultural and artistic festival called “Iran-Sakht” (Made in Iran) will be held from January 5-7 in Tehran.

Parviz Karimi, secretary of the festival, said the event aims to create trends and focuses on content creation while promoting knowledge-based economy in cyberspace and relevant media.

“A knowledge-based economy, with cultural and artistic content, is needed to develop this area,” Mehr News Agency quoted Karimi as saying on November 1.

Karimoi, who also heads the committee for developing scientific culture, technologies and knowledge-based economy, made the statements at a press conference while announcing the event.

He added that the festival seeks to promote Iranian products.

The festival will help sort out imports while giving a more central role to high-quality Iranian-made content and products. It will endeavor to correct the culture that does not pay much attention to knowledge-based products.

“Iranian technology and businesses are our main motto and strategy,” he said, adding that the festival intends to create a discourse to help local firms promote knowledge-based economy.

The official explained that the science and technology deputy focuses on supporting research and commercialization, while working to provide the grounds for cultural development in the area of knowledge-based economy.

“Aside from commercializing knowledge-based products, the event looks to market the products and stimulate demand for innovative ideas,” he said.

Karimi noted that although Iran has made several technological achievements, a considerable part of the society is unfamiliar with them and the same goes for innovative ideas that have been marketed and attained high levels of added value.

“What we intend to do is to familiarize the public with the major concepts in the area of knowledge-based economy as well as the importance of having a technological ecosystem and its necessity,” he said.

“To do so, we are seeking the help of artists in various fields that could contribute to improving content,” he explained, while inviting the media and related organizations to play a more central role to help materialize these goals.

The festival will feature five categories: literature, fine arts, media and broadcasting, digital media and an idea bazaar.

The audiovisual segment will feature films, documentaries, short films, TV programs, teasers and radio programs.

Mahmoud Sheikh Zeinoddin, the deputy for commercializing and innovation at the Presidential Office’s Science and Technology Vice Presidency, said the goal of the festival is to publicize knowledge-based economy through the media as well as “attractive cultural and artistic content.”

“There have been notable achievements in the technological realm, but they are only known to the scientific circle. We intend to broaden this circle as knowledge-based economy is a cultural-economic subject,” he said.