According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, Sorena Sattari considered the development of culture of innovation and entrepreneurship a value and necessity for creating added-value and flourishing of businesses during the administrative council meeting of Kurdistan Province, expressing: general belief in entrepreneurship and innovation has led to the creation of added value and transformation of occupations. In addition, this belief is required to create the scientific infrastructures and pay attention to the abilities of creative, young and academic human resources.

The vice president for science and technology affairs pointed out the number of graduated Iranian engineers from universities of the country and the number of their peers in the United States, regarding them as a valuable capacity for transformation of the country with the help of the knowledge-based economy, adding: currently, we are ranked fifth in the world in terms of the number of students, which shows the capacity of human resources in Iran.

The president of the knowledge-based economy and culture-building technologies development headquarter regarded the presence of investors of the private sector as the most important necessity for flourishing of this field and revealing the role of research in economic development of the country, continuing: the budget of the private sector must be injected into the field of research, science and technology since the state budget must be spent on infrastructural affairs and the private sector must be the moving engine required by studies in the society.

Ecosystem Formation

The president of the national elites foundation regarded increased production quality, booming of the domestic industries, reverse immigration of elites, and maintaining of creative and educated youth in their province as a necessity for creating the proper environment for innovative and knowledge-based businesses, adding: we must create the proper ecosystem in the province so that maintaining provincial resources, young and creative human resources could be carried out and these individuals could be able to create added value.

Sattari reminded the necessity of passing the resource-based economy and moving toward innovative and creative industry, affirming: in oil-based economy, we can only rely on the revenue created by selling underground resources. Despite public opinion, this revenue is not efficient in the development process since it is entrepreneurship and use of natural capacities that can be associated with a transformation in the economy.

Facilitating Role

The vice president for science and technology affairs reminded the facilitating role of the government, claiming: the most important role of the government in development of the ecosystem of entrepreneurship and facilitation of business environment is creating the infrastructures. Therefore, we have aimed in the past few years to support the formation of relevant infrastructures to establish and develop science and technology in the area of knowledge-based businesses.

Sattari pointed out the change of the attitude of the government in this area, declaring: by providing the entrepreneurship environment and understanding the universities of the importance of entrepreneurship, now with the emergence of a new generation of creative and young entrepreneurs, a new culture has emerged in the universities, industry and public attitudes, that have paved the way for the development and prosperity of the knowledge economy.

Emergence of a New Generation

The president of the national elites foundation announced the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs in the country, stating: more than three thousand and 700 knowledge-based companies exist in the country which produced 60 thousand billion IRT worth of products and services in the last year. This shows the entrepreneurship of this generation in the economy and an increase in this field in the current year.

Sattari also pointed out the significant capacities of Kurdistan Province for innovative entrepreneurship, affirming: the capacity of this province is high in areas of tourism, agriculture, and medical plants and is intertwined with the creativity of the talented youth of the country. Specifically, significant changes can be obtained in the area of information technology by emergence of wealth-creating and job-creating businesses. However, this will realized by relying on the abilities of the creative youth and rich culture of this province.

Visit of Technological Units of Sanandaj

On the second part of his travel to Kurdistan, Sattari visited some knowledge-based companies and units based on the industrial town of Sanandaj. These companies are active in various areas, including production of advanced anti-corrosion materials, antifreeze additives, industrial simulators and computer games, and production and processing of medicinal plants, pesticides and organic pesticides.