Iran's Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology plans to establish technology hubs in four states by the end of the current fiscal year (March 2022), in order to boost the country's tech exports.
According to the office’s website, Isti.ir, centers for promoting innovation and technology exports will be established in Russia, Iraq, Malaysia and Afghanistan.
The initiative aims to strengthen Iran's scientific and economic ties with the target countries, allowing local knowledge-based businesses to market and sell their products.
The centers will offer shared workspace and space for a permanent exhibition to knowledge-based enterprises.
Iranian tech enterprises, according to officials, can utilize the facility to boost cooperation with overseas peers, in addition to marketing their products and finding production partners.
The tech centers will also undertake market research, advertisement, sales and product registration.
Iran's most recent experience with building a technology export hub was in Syria in March, following projects in China and Kenya.
The project was implemented in Damascus Free Zone, spreading over 620 square meters to facilitate the export of Iranian high-tech products and innovative services to Syria.
The tech house project was jointly funded by the vice presidential office and private investors.
According to the office, the establishment of new tech centers in other countries necessitates more government and private sector investment and support.
Since President Hassan Rouhani took office in 2013, governmental initiatives have tried to support the technology ecosystem and contribute to the development of budding tech teams.
The government hopes the support will help reduce Iran’s dependency on foreign suppliers and transform the oil-based economy to a knowledge-based one.
Export Promotion
Tech experts and officials believe that to materialize a self-reliant economy, financial support should be extended to boost knowledge-based exports and develop domestic tech industries.
The state-backed Iran National Innovation Fund is planning to achieve the goal by designing a scheme that offers tech firms four kinds of support, namely loans, warranties, investments and empowerment services.
Siavash Malekifar, a deputy at INIF, said tech firms undertaking international trade can receive financial support, foreign leasing and other services to expand their export market.
“Offering grants worth 800 million rials [$3,490] to firms for attending foreign expos is one of the services offered by the fund to help tech firms develop foreign business ties,” he said.
According to the official, export centers established in foreign countries showed high capacity for introducing Iranian high-tech products in foreign markets.
“Officials are negotiating to open similar centers in Qatar, Oman and hopefully Bosnia,” he added.
Malekifar said export centers provide tech firms with shared working space, the opportunity to employ local professionals for marketing their products in small-scale exhibitions, market analysis and sales consultancy, in addition to deploying commercial teams for publicizing the firms and attracting customers.
Improving Sales
Efforts for expanding exports have partially paid off, as domestic tech data show 2020 was a fruitful year for Iran's technology ecosystem.
According to INIF, tech firms earned about $1 billion in exports during the year.
“The revenue was earned by 450 well-developed tech firms,” said Marzieh Shavardi, the head of the fund's Empowerment Office.
“With about 7,000 talented startups and 6,000 knowledge-based businesses, the export value will embark on an upward trajectory,” the fund’s website quoted her as saying.
In mid-March, Esmaeil Qaderifar, a senior official with the Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology, said the overall sales of Iranian startups and knowledge-based companies in domestic and foreign markets reached 1.8 quadrillion rials ($7.86 billion) in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2021).
Qaderifar added that tech firms' earnings have been rising over the past few years, reaching 1.2 quadrillion rials ($5.24 billion) in the year ending March 2019 and 1.5 quadrillion rials ($6.55 billion) in the fiscal 2019-20 from 600 trillion rials ($2.62 billion) in the fiscal 2017-18.
The official noted that the number will continue to grow in the current Iranian year.
“The growth has been achieved despite hurdles. The reimposition of US sanctions against Iran in the summer of 2018 and the Covid outbreak in February 2020 have been blessings in disguise for the technology ecosystem,” he said.
Tech firms spearheaded localization efforts while profiting from extensive state support and zero foreign competition.
According to Qaderifar, startups and tech companies, primarily engaged in nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and communications technologies, and aerospace, are increasingly gaining a larger share of Iran's economy.
“In addition to tech achievements in transportation, auto manufacturing, mining and steel industries, a large portion of medical and laboratory equipment have been indigenized, and 98% of medicines on the domestic market are produced in Iran,” he said.
“This is the outcome of putting faith in the young, talented generation. We expect the ecosystem to become a game-changer in the domestic economy, reducing Iran's reliance on foreign resources.”
Iran has over five million university students who are a vital element in its development efforts.
Qaderifar said the public and private sectors should take advantage of this opportunity to invest in the young generation to maximize their potential and achieve long-term benefits.
Share of GDP
Mohammad Sadeq Khayyatian, an official with INIF, earlier said the share of tech firms in Iran’s GDP has been growing exponentially and is projected to reach 10% in the coming years.
“Funding should be extended to accelerators and innovation centers to help expand tech units,” he said, calling on officials and private investors to boost the contribution of tech ecosystem in the country's revenue.
The INIF official noted that 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 6,000. In fact, Iran’s first science and technology park was launched 10 years ago in Isfahan Province. Today, 46 tech parks are operating nationwide,” he added.
Because of Iran’s dependence on oil revenues, the government did not bank on the knowledge-based sector to generate revenues in the past.
Khayyatian stressed that the government’s policies have changed, such that Iran is increasingly counting on the technology ecosystem for wealth production and extending more support to knowledge-based companies.
“The government is planning to provide tech firms with tax and customs exemption, ease commercial license issuance, cut social security fee, reduce military service (for the men involved] and extend business empowerment consultancy,” he said.
