TEHRAN – Iran’s National Innovation Fund and Russian Venture Company (RVC) agreed to set up a mutual fund for developing IT cooperation between the two countries, ISNA reported on Sunday.

The agreement was signed during the visit of an Iranian delegation to Russia in order to attend the International Industrial Trade Fair (INNOPROM) from July 8 to 11.

RVC is a state fund of funds and a development institute of the Russian Federation, one of Russia's key tools in building its own national innovation system.

Biopharmaceuticals, energy, advanced manufacturing technologies, quantum technologies, and digital technologies are the priorities of cooperation between the two countries.

The Iranian delegation consisted of managing directors of 70 knowledge-based companies. Headed by the vice president for science and technology Sourena Sattari, the delegation was also composed of representatives from ministries of foreign affairs, science, and health, as well as the Trade Promotion Organization and the National Innovation Fund.

Contracts, agreements signed

Ten contracts and agreements were signed between Iranian and Russian companies, Mehr reported.

The agreements aimed to accelerate the export of Iranian knowledge-based production to Russia.

Fortunately, a good platform is being shaped for boosting exports between Iran and Russia especially for knowledge-based companies, Sattari said.

The contracts were in different fields of gas and oil, virtual reality, medicine, vaccine, accelerator centers, robot-assisted surgery, and video games.

In a speech at the INNOPROM 2019, Sattari presented Iran innovation ecosystem saying that Iran has one of the largest e-commerce networks in the Middle East holding over 90 percent of market share with an online retail business.

He said that over 4400 knowledge-based companies are active in the country, providing technologies and services that can be used in international joint venture projects adding robot-assisted surgery, linear particle accelerator, dosimeters, Radiofrequency (RF) wireless medical devices, and medical cyclotron are produced by the Iranian knowledge-based companies.

SB/MG