TEHRAN – Iran's trade and technology delegation signed a technological cooperation agreement with the public and private sectors of Uzbekistan worth $5.5 million.

The Iranian delegation has traveled to Uzbekistan to participate in the International Week of Innovative Ideas “InnoWeek 2022” held on October 17-21, where 30 Iranian knowledge-based companies presented their products to Uzbek officials and investors from 18 countries.

On the sidelines of the event, 15 technological cooperation memorandums worth $6.5 million were inked between knowledge-based companies of the two countries.

In this meeting, Marzieh Shaverdi, empowerment manager of the Innovation and Prosperity Fund proposed the establishment of a joint fund to finance innovative projects of the two countries.

Also, it was decided that the two sides would present their proposals in the two areas of financing projects and establishing a joint fund for their implementation.

Also, before this meeting, Shaverdi met Roman Shaikhutdinov, Uzbek Minister of Innovative Development.

Shaikhutdinov also thanked the Iran Innovation Fund for supporting the presence of Iranian knowledge-based companies in the Uzbekistan Innovation Week exhibition and proposed the creation of a joint credit line to facilitate the entry of Iranian knowledge-based companies into the Uzbek market.

According to the Global Innovation Index (GII 2022) report, Iran ranks second and Uzbekistan ranks third in the Central and South Asian region.

Innovation development in 5 years

Knowledge-based companies and creative startups have grown over the past five years, and Iran has risen 45 places in the Global Innovation Index, according to the UNESCO 2021 Report.

Knowledge-based companies of the two countries inked 15 technological cooperation memorandums worth $6.5 million.The Global Innovation Index in Iran from 2015 to 2019 has risen from 106 to 61 with continuous improvement, showing 45 steps of growth.

The development of accelerators and innovation centers over the last five years has led to a rapid increase in startups and knowledge-based companies.

Between 2014 and 2017, exports of knowledge-based goods grew by a factor of five, before slumping in 2018 after the U.S. withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (2015), commonly referred to as the nuclear deal, and re-imposed sanctions.

The report states that innovation in Iran has developed rapidly over the past five years, and by the end of last year, 49 accelerators and 113 innovation centers had provided services to start-ups with the participation of the private sector.

Over the few past years, with the support of the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, the Iranian house of innovation has been set up in several countries to develop the global market for knowledge-based products.

These centers have already been set up in countries such as Russia, Turkey, China, Syria, Kenya, Iraq, and Armenia.

Mehdi Ghalehnoei, an official with the vice presidency for science and technology, said in February that in the past Iranian calendar year which ended on March 20, knowledge-based companies gained about $800 million in revenue from export, and in the current year, the figure seems to reach up to $2 billion.

Africa, neighboring countries, Southeast Asia and Eurasia are our export target priorities, and we hope to create Iranian innovation and technology in all these areas, he added.

FB/MG