TEHRAN - Erfan Khosrovian, the president of the Technical and Vocational University of Iran, and Amadou Keita, the Malian Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, discussed ways to expand technical and vocational cooperation.

In a meeting in Tehran on Thursday, due to the importance of international cooperation in the development of educational, research, and technology activities of Technical and Vocational University, the parties signed a memorandum of understanding on university scientific cooperation.

Holding joint training courses and workshops for students and teachers, exchange of faculty members for study opportunities, holding joint international conferences, carrying out joint research projects, participation in competitions and scientific events in the technical and professional field, sharing new technical and professional fields agreed upon in the memorandum of understanding.

Holding joint training courses and workshops for students and teachers, exchange of faculty members, and holding joint international conferences, were agreed upon.

Khosravian expressed eagerness to share our scientific and skill training experiences internationally.

Keita also stated that it is planned to establish a new university in Mali, which will have different faculties and departments in the fields of traditional arts and business education.

In terms of the quality of technical and professional education indicators, the future of cooperation with the Iranian university is very bright, and we hope that with this approach and the creation of cooperation areas, education in our country will be properly guided and strengthened, he further emphasized.

In a meeting with Iran’s Minister of Science, Research, and Technology Mohammad-Ali Zolfigol on Tuesday, the Malian official said, “We are aware of Iran’s scientific abilities and capacities, and based on this, scientific cooperation with Iran is important for us.”

He further expressed hope to use Iran's experiences in all scientific fields, including the creation of universities and technology centers.

He also requested granting 20 scholarships to Malian students to attend Iranian universities.

Zolfigol also for his part said that the strengthening of science diplomacy as a complement to public diplomacy is important to us, and it is planned to increase scientific and research cooperation with other countries, especially interaction with countries that seek independence.

Iran has one percent of the world's population, but it owns more than 2 percent of the world's scientific productions and is ranked the world’s top in many scientific fields such as nuclear science, defense industry, nanotechnology, biotechnology, chemistry, as well as achieving great progress in medicine and health, he explained.

“We are ready to help Mali in establishing universities, science and technology parks, and accelerators,” he noted.

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