TEHRAN – The Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation in cooperation with knowledge-based companies will create some 500 job opportunities in deprived areas.

Holding events to attract innovative ideas for job creation is one of the other programs of the Foundation, ISNA reported.

In the past Iranian calendar year (March 2022- March 2023), the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation succeeded in creating some 420,000 job opportunities, Morteza Firouzabadi, an official with the Foundation, said.

About 220 trillion rials (some $440 million) were allocated for job creation projects, which is equivalent to 89 percent of the approved budget, he noted.

Last year, some 113,000 people received skill training services, a 3-fold increase compared to the preceding year, Firouzabadi said, adding that for the first time, a special skill training program for teenagers and students has been launched and eight thousand people benefited from these training services.

“Due to the fact that transportation services are part of high-paying and stable jobs for job seekers, a thousand tractors were handed over to job seekers.”

“Last year, we promised to provide 40,000 solar panels for job seekers, of which 20,000 were provided. This year, we plan to provide them with another 40,000 solar panels in addition to providing the 20,000 solar panels remaining from last year.”

In March, a total of 23,000 apartments were delivered to low-income families across the country.

The Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation has constructed the apartments. President Ebrahim Raisi handed over three apartments, IRNA reported.

A total of 25 trillion rials (nearly $50 million) has been proposed to provide housing for the underprivileged in the budget bill for the current [Iranian calendar] year (started March 21).

The Foundation also plans to build 360,000 houses over the next four years.

The project will start next year and 90,000 houses will be built for the deprived annually, 60,000 of which will be built in cities and 30,000 in villages.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed with the Mostazafan Foundation and Housing Foundation regarding the construction of 10,000 housing units in villages and cities with less than 25,000 populations.

Another memorandum of understanding has been inked with the Basij and Housing Foundation to build 40,000 houses.

October 2022, Morteza Bakhtiari, head of the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, said more than 900,000 job opportunities were created for financially-struggling individuals during the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021).

Knowledge-based companies

The total number of knowledge-based companies in the country reached 8,368 companies in the past Iranian calendar year (ended March 20), showing a 90 percent growth year on year.

"Biotechnology, agriculture, and food industries", "high-tech pharmaceuticals and products for diagnosis and treatment", "advanced materials and products based on chemical technologies", "advanced machinery and equipment", "devices, and medical equipment ", "electricity and electronics", telecommunication", "information technology and computer software", are the fields of activity of the country's knowledge-based companies.

In line with the law enforced on May 24, 2022, knowledge-based production is a priority of the government so the plan for promoting knowledge-based products has progressed well so far.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has emphasized the importance of boosting domestic production, saying the reason he placed so much emphasis on production was “because it boosts economic growth, it creates employment, it reduces inflation, it increases per capita income and it improves public welfare.”

To this end, the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology has executed and supported several projects toward the goal of boosting knowledge-based production.

MT/MG