TEHRAN – The Iranian deputy health minister, Mohammad Hossein Niknam, and the Syrian ambassador to Tehran, Shafiq Dayoub, discussed ways to expand cooperation between the two countries in the field of health.

During a meeting on Tuesday in Tehran, Niknam said that Iran is ready to hold training courses in the field of start-ups, empowerment of Syrian youth in the field of business development and knowledge-based institutions, design, and establishment of innovation centers, science and technology parks.

Iran has created centers in six Asian countries, namely China, India, Indonesia, Syria, Turkey, and Iraq, for exporting nanotechnology products. Enumerating the problems facing pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies in exporting drugs and medical equipment, he said that holding a virtual meeting between the officials of the Ministry of Health and the companies exporting Iranian medicine to Syria in the presence of the Syrian ambassador can help solve the problems.

Dayoub also for his part expressed hope that the relations between the two countries will increase, especially in the field of health, and the existing problems will eliminate.

Syria has suffered a lot in the field of health, treatment, and academia in the fight against terrorism and needs to cooperate with the Islamic Republic to compensate for the losses, he emphasized.

The expansion of export programs by the Nanotechnology Innovation Council in recent years has led to the entry of Iranian goods, equipment, and services into global markets.

However, in recent years, due to currency fluctuations and export barriers related to sanctions, Iran's exports of nano-products to other countries have decreased.

According to the Nanotechnology Innovation Council, the three countries of Iraq, Turkey, and Afghanistan are the most important export destinations for Iranian nano products.

Iran has created centers in six Asian countries, namely China, India, Indonesia, Syria, Turkey, and Iraq, for exporting nanotechnology products.

Health tech development

Based on innovative indicators of health technology development in 2021, Iran was ranked 60th among 132 countries, which shows an improvement of 60 steps compared to 2014, the deputy health minister for research and technology, has announced.

A total of 1,670 knowledge-based firms are operating in the health sector, ISNA quoted Younes Panahi as saying on Thursday.

He added that there are 13 science and technology parks and 95 technology growth centers in the field of health, while 343 technological products have so far been licensed, and 335 inventions in medical sciences have been patented.

The health technology development is evaluated by the Global Innovation Index with seven indicators, including institutional structure, human capital and research, infrastructure, market and business complexity, technological knowledge, and creativity, he explained.

Indicators of innovation in higher education, graduation, access to information and communication technology, indigenous infrastructure, gross capital formation, production of knowledge and inventions, scientific and citational articles, gross domestic product, and national industrial projects, are Iran’s strengths in the 2021 evaluation.

FB/MG