President described the Iranian nation the promoters of civilisation and pioneers of democracy in the region and said: "We can create a great civilisation with good planning and hard work".

Speaking at the closing ceremony of 31st Kharazmi International Award on Saturday, Dr Hassan Rouhani said: "Our great Iran has been the origin of civilisation, science and knowledge throughout the history.
"University has always had a pivotal role in political and social development," added the President.

The president added: “Today, some Asian countries are making a good progress in the field of science and even compete with Western countries in some areas, and many say that the end of this century will coincide with the scientific superiority of Asian countries in the field of science”.

Dr Rouhani stated: "God has given this power to us Iranians to develop civilisation and raise it on the path to growth. Iran is the first country in the region to enjoy democracy and is leading in holding elections and has presented a model of religious democracy to the world”.

The president said: "The Islamic Republic of Iran has made good progress over the past 40 years, and has taken good steps in human resource development. The universities of this country have never been like today, and now we have 12 million university graduates and 4 million students. These are great numbers and figures that will have good effects on political, social and other important issues of the country”.

"At the time when science was not a privilege, Islam gave science advantage," said Rouhani adding: "Islam taught its followers that science does not have any borders".

Stating that classifying science into religious and anti-religious, traditional and modern is not correct, the President added: "The Prophet advised people to learn science in all conditions".

He continued: "Science based on material viewpoint is a tool to gain power and domination, but science based on Islamic viewpoint is at people"s service".

"Any science that leads to understanding of the world and serving the people is in line with religion," continued the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Stating that the privilege of human being is learning, he said: "University has always had a pivotal role in political and social developments".

In some modern technologies, the Islamic Republic of Iran is able to compete with advanced countries, said the President adding: "We will not achieve our desired scientific growth with isolation and not having interaction with the world".

Dr Rouhani also went on to say: "Our imperfect industry has stolen healthy air from us," adding: "Air pollution and traffic are the problems that many metropolises around the world are facing and in dealing with these problems, knowledge and industry must find solutions".