TEHRAN - The governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has announced the opening of a $500-million credit line for providing foreign currency to knowledge-based companies in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21), IRIB reported.

Speaking in a meeting with representatives of some of the country’s major knowledge-based companies on Thursday, Mohammadreza Farzin referred to the formation of a currency supply and allocation committee in the central bank with the presence of the ministries of Industry, Mining and Trade, Health and Agriculture, saying: “In this committee, the annual foreign currency needs of different sectors is determined based on resources and a special credit line will be opened for each sector.”

“CBI places great importance on the knowledge-based sector and in order to accelerate the process of meeting the foreign currency needs of such companies, this year, apart from the quota of this sector, the central bank has allocated a new credit line of $500 million for them,” Farzin said.

According to the official, the conditions for receiving facilities from this credit line will be determined in collaboration with the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology and the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry.

“Of course, the representatives of the mentioned companies can also have an active presence in the meetings of the committees that are formed for determining the conditions,” he added.

Farzin further noted that the ceiling of this credit line can be increased in the coming years.

Over the past couple of years, the concept of ‘knowledge-based company’ in the world has changed to ‘knowledge-based society’, meaning that supporting knowledge-based companies will lead to many social and economic advantages for the public.

In this regard, supporting knowledge-based companies has become one of the Iran’s new priorities in setting foreign trade policies in recent years.

The law for promoting and supporting knowledge-based companies was approved by the Majlis (Iranian parliament) in 2010, paving the way for a jumpstart in the march toward scientific progress.

Currently, many knowledge-based companies are active in different fields across the Islamic Republic, ranging from information and communication technology to health, agriculture, and energy.

Various knowledge-based companies have made advancements in different fields, however, the level of progress in the fields of health, ICT, agriculture, and energy has been more noticeable. Of course, other sectors such as the automotive industry have removed many bottlenecks so far.

EF/MA