TEHRAN - Iran's vice presidency for science and technology announced that 35 local knowledge-based companies have been recently listed on the country’s stock market and the number is expected to increase in the future.

According to the reports by the vice presidency office, the value of the shares of the mentioned companies is estimated at 1.5 quadrillion rials (over $35.7 billion).

The figure stood at 280 trillion rials (about $6.66 billion) in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19) which shows a significant growth in this field, so the vice presidency is trying to bring five to 10 new knowledge-based companies into the capital market this year.

Also in the current year, a new index called Knowledge-Based Index is going to be introduced in the Iranian Stock Exchange, for which initial measures have been taken.

This action makes the activities of knowledge-based companies in the stock market more tangible.

The Vice President for Science and Technology is following several programs to help funding knowledge-based companies by utilizing the capacities of the capital market since currently offering company shares at the stock exchange is one of the best financing methods in the world with high stability.

Collective financing is another measure pursued by the said vice presidency to finance the knowledge-based projects.

In this regard, a platform is going to be established to direct small investments toward knowledge-based projects.

Many people have small amounts of money that they cannot invest directly in large projects. It is possible to set up platforms that collect these micro-assets and direct them toward investing in specific knowledge-based projects through collective funding, the vice president stated.

As reported, so far, licenses have been issued for six companies, and four platforms will be unveiled soon and begin attracting investments.

EF/MA