Eleven projects, worth 500 billion rials ($14.8 million) and aimed at mobilizing Hamedan Province’s tourism potential, will be completed by March 2017, according to President Hassan Rouhani.
During his visit to the province on Tuesday, President Rouhani pointed to Hamedan’s rich history and said many important people hailed from the region, such as famed Iranian polymath Avicenna, renowned poet Baba Taher and eminent Muslim scholar Mir Seyyed Ali Hamedani, IRNA reported.
President Rouhani said Bu Ali Sina Scientific and Cultural Foundation will continue to expand its cultural activities with the allocation of a new budget.
Reyhan Soroush, the head of the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department of Hamedan, said last week his department has devised plans for tourism development in the province, as well as restoration of historical and cultural heritage.
Masound Soltanifar, head ICHHTO who is accompanying the president on his trip to Hamedan, said the private sector’s help is essential to restoring cultural and historical heritage.
“The organization has to spend 100 billion rials ($3 million) yearly on every historical and cultural heritage, but its annual budget does not allow that,” he said.
Soltanifar said ICHHTO is cooperating with the private sector to secure funding to restore and preserve Iran’s heritage sites.
There are 31,300 sites inscribed on the National Heritage List, of which 1,000 are in Hamedan Province.
