Tehran Municipality has prepared a list of the capital’s technological needs and called on local startups to help devise innovative solutions for addressing them.
During a Monday conference at Azadi Innovation Factory in the capital, Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi announced that TM has joined the Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology and listed 400 tech needs related to urban management and services on the municipality’s website, Tehran.ir.
Hanachi added that the online platform can help teams active in different tech fields to introduce their problem-solving ideas and help TM remove deficiencies, the government website Dolat.ir reported.
Jointly organized by the vice presidential office and Pardis Tech Park, the event was also attended by Vice President Sorena Sattari and Tehran’s Governor General Anoushiravan Mohseni Bandpey.
Addressing the conference, Tehran’s mayor said, “With over 30% of the country’s financial turnover, 25% of GDP, 2% of total area and 20% of Iran’s population, Tehran is a befitting ground for the expansion of tech-based businesses.”
Hanachi noted that localization of subway trains and promotion of electric bikes were the latest efforts by tech teams, which will deliver desirable results, if supported.
“Although financial resources are limited, creativity and innovation can seal the existing gaps in urban development,” he added.
Confirming the mayor’s words, Sattari said Tehran can be an innovative city, for which municipality could act as an accelerator and pave the way for the commercialization of bright ideas.
“Tehran is a vast market … [and] a great opening for tech units to create opportunities and added value by offering urban services,” he added.
The vice president emphasized that the ground should be prepared for the private sector to help upgrade urban services by employing new technologies.
Stressing that the development of technology ecosystem in the country is a collective move, Sattari said more work needs to be done on the provincial scale.
Also speaking at the event, Bandpey underlined Tehran’s considerable potential for technology development, adding that the establishment of tech centers and innovation factories helps boost domestic production and realize a knowledge-based economy.
Innovative teams and startups present at the conference introduced their tech achievements and put forward recommendations for a more productive technology ecosystem in the city. They emphasized the necessity of TM and the Governorate extending support for the expansion of startup ecosystem.
On the sidelines of the conference, the officials visited accelerators, knowledge-based firms and startups based at the Tehran factory.
Azadi Innovation Factory
A branch of Pardis Technology Park, Azadi innovation factory was launched in August 2018 at an abandoned chemicals factory near Azadi Square, west of Tehran.
The factory is backed by the vice presidential office and managed by Sharif University of Technology.
Highway, the capital's second innovation factory and Pardis’ second branch, is still under construction but partially operational. The factory is being established in an old building near Tehran’s Nobonyad Square.
The space, which is 5,000 square meters wide, was formerly owned by the Iranian Space Agency.
Besides the factories, tech parks have been established throughout the city to offer shared workspaces and other facilities to tech units.
Currently, there are seven tech parks in Tehran Province, most of which are backed by major Iranian universities, including Tarbiat Modares 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.
Tehran is not alone in its push for establishing innovation factories and tech parks. Numerous centers have also been launched across Iran.
The vice presidential office is developing tech centers in Iranian metropolises like Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Tabriz, Arak, Karaj and Yazd to expand the startup and knowledge-based ecosystems.
Technology teams and startups can find technical, legal and commercial consultancy, along with financial facilities, at tech centers to develop their fresh ideas into business plans.
After becoming a fledgling business, the tech teams will have the chance to forge ties with larger enterprises or industrial units, and enter the domestic or even foreign markets.
Iran’s tech ecosystem is believed to be propelling the country’s domestic production to end its oil dependency and help overcome sanctions.
