Iranian officials have been making efforts to develop the technology ecosystem by setting up tech parks and innovation factories, providing equipped working spaces to talented, young experts and tapping their potentials for realizing a knowledge-based economy.
These endeavors are in line with government policies on giving maximum support to startups and knowledge-based firms to bypass US sanctions against Iran and curb the country’s dependency on oil revenues.
Tehran, the Iranian capital city, leads other metropolises with two innovation factories and several knowledge-based tech parks.
The first innovation factory in the metropolis, dubbed Azadi Innovation Factory, was launched in August 2018 at an abandoned chemical factory near Azadi Square, west of Tehran. The center is backed by the Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology and is managed by Sharif University of Technology.
Highway, the capital's second innovation factory, is under construction. The factory is being established in an old building near Nobonyad Square in northeastern Tehran.
The newest tech park project in the metropolis, planned by Tehran University of Medical Sciences, is to be established in District 9, southwest of the city.
“In collaboration with the vice presidential office, the tech park will be implemented over 8 hectares in Tehran’s Yaftabad neighborhood,” Abbasali Karimi, dean of the university, told the media in June 2019.
Karimi announced that preliminary studies are underway to design the tech park.
According to the dean, the planned tech park will provide fledgling startups and knowledge-based companies with working space and laboratory facilities, along which legal and technical support from mentors and law specialists.
Tehran Province is home to seven tech parks, most of which are backed by major Iranian universities, including Tarbiat Modarres University, University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University and Islamic Azad University.
These tech parks carry the name of universities backing them.
Provincial Projects
Following Tehran’s footsteps, other Iranian metropolises like Mashhad, Tabriz, Karaj and Yazd also set up tech parks and innovation centers.
The list of provincial tech centers expanded with Mashhad announcing an inauguration last week.
Called Khayyam, the center is already hosting several startups and knowledge-based firms before its official launch and has already focused on developing natural perfumes and eco-friendly pesticides, as well as anti-narcotic and stem cell technologies.
According to the officials, the center can house up to 250 tech units and create job opportunities for over 1,000 people.
The shrine city of Mashhad, for instance, is rapidly widening local facilities for tech-based groups and taking steps for materializing a knowledge-based economy.
Besides a tech park and several small-scale innovation centers, a former soft drinks factory is also to be repurposed into a tech center.
According to Esmaeil Qaderifar, an official with the vice presidential office, innovation factory projects in East Azarbaijan Province is almost complete and will become operational in the coming months.
“Tabriz in East Azarbaijan will get its third innovation factory when a construction project is completed,” he added.
In Karaj, the provincial center of Alborz, a decade-old building is to be revamped into an innovation factory.
According to Karaj Mayor Ali Kamalizadeh, the building was designated for a firefighting school, but because of a change in plans, the project manager abandoned the project.
"The construction of the building is over 90% complete and has classrooms, a restaurant and a dormitory," Kamalizadeh said.
Derakhshan Textile Company in Yazd is the other would-be innovation factory with an area of 10,000 square meters.
Tech-Based Revenue
According to Sorena Sattari, the vice president for science and technology, the government has put support for the tech ecosystem high on its agenda since President Hassan Rouhani took office during his first term in 2013. Since then, numerous startups and knowledge-based firms have been able to flourish and promote their businesses, not only in the domestic but also in foreign markets.
Sattari said Iranian knowledge-based companies and tech firms have earned 1 quadrillion rials ($6.6 billion) from the export of technological products in the first half of the current Iranian year (started March 2019).
He noted that revenues have been on an upward trajectory over the past several years, increasing from 600 trillion rials ($4 billion) in the year ending March 2018 to 900 trillion rials ($6 billion) last year.
"Given the domestic potential and the enthusiasm of tech teams, exports will soon reach 5 quadrillion rials [$33.3 billion] and it is not a farfetched goal," he added.
Sattare said these figures prove that the solution to economic hardships facing Iran today can be found inside and not outside the country.
The vice presidential office reports that more than 4,700 knowledge-based companies are operating in the country.
