TEHRAN – A marine science and technology tower is slated to be built in Qeshm Island of the Persian Gulf, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

Vice president for science and technology Sourena Sattari attended the ground breaking ceremony of the project on Tuesday.

The vice presidency has several plans to develop marine biotechnology with a special focus on algae, he said.

Algae is an untapped market with a great profitability, he added.

Sattari paid visits to several knowledge-based companies including the one producing macroalgae-derived ingredients for cosmetic industry and a shrimp farm.

For the knowledge-based companies the motivation is the first priority and the financial issues come next, he said.

He said that the venture capitals would be a great help to introduce the knowledge-based companies in the future.

In mid-April, Sattari announced that the Iranian knowledge-based companies exported $450 million of products in the previous Iranian calendar year 1397,

He said that the knowledge-based companies sold 900 trillion rials (about $21 billion) of products during the past year. This is while the figure was 600 trillion rials (about $14 billion) during the Iranian calendar year 1396 (March 2017-March 2018).

Last week, Seyyed Mohammad Sahebkar Khorasani, an official with the vice presidency for science and technology, announced that Iranian knowledge-based companies have created job opportunities for 140,000 applicants until the end of the Iranian calendar year 1397 (March 2019).

SB/MQ/MG