Call for Supporting Tech Firms’ Increasing Contribution to GDP

The share of tech firms in Iran’s GDP has been increasing exponentially and is expected to hit 10% in the coming years, an official with Iran’s National Innovation Fund said.
Mohammad Sadeq Khayyatian added that the government must continue to support startups, accelerators and innovation centers to increase this contribution, INIF’s website reported.
“Iran’s technology ecosystem is growing fast and so will its share in GDP. In the 2000s, there were only 52 knowledge-based companies in Iran, which figure today stands at 5,700. For that matter, Iran’s first science and technology park was launched 10 years ago in Isfahan Province. Today, 46 tech parks are operating nationwide,” he said.
Because of Iran’s dependence on oil revenues, the government did not seek to generate income from the knowledge-based sector in the past. 
Khayyatian noted that the policies have been changed, such that Iran is increasingly counting on the technology ecosystem for wealth production and the state is extending more support to knowledge-based companies.