Equipping and Setting up of the First Innovation Center for Producing “Digital Content” at ICT Park’s Mashhad Branch

During this visit, which took place on Sunday, February 26th, the president of ICT Park, had a close inspection of the process of establishing technical teams, equipping the recording, and shooting studios.

Commenting on the importance of the operation of this center, Dr. Mohammad Jafar Sadigh Damghanizadeh said: “this center will be launched with the support and approval of the Minister of Communications and Information Technology and its main purpose is to empower the private sector, development of the digital business and production of Iranian content, particularly for  non - Iranians.”

“A driving project is a project with security, economic capacity and status at the National level”, said Dr. Sadigh Damghanizadeh, pointing out the fact that the launching of the Digital Content Production Center is one of the most important driving projects of ICT Park.

Regarding the center’s most important mission, he remarked that the center 's main mission is to support a wide range of private sectors, including the tasks of the country 's Innovation Center for Digital Content Production. This is done with the aim of development  and advancement of technology and creation of a competitive space for companies.

“ICT Park is a state - owned institution that listens to  the voice of the private sector and makes them heard by those in charge and by doing so it leads to economic growth and technology development. And finally, our aim is to gain the capability of exporting the cultural contents through Park and hence to enhance the economy of the country ” Dr. Sadigh added.

“At First, our main reason for choosing Mashhad is our special devotion to the 8th Imam,” Dr. Sadigh stated with regards to the reason behind the  of  establishment  of the Center and  Branch of ICT Park in Mashhad.

He added, “We have always witnessed the training of experts in Tehran who were then deployed to different cities." But today, Mashhad has been seen to have the capacity of acting as a specialist training center by itself. Also, a very strong private sector that exists in the city played a key role in the in the selection of Mashhad.

In the end, the President of ICT affirmed: “the strategic position of Mashhad is due to its proximity to Persian speaking countries such as Afghanistan and Tajikistan, which can help us in terms of trade”.

In the continuation of this visit, the director of the Innovation Center for Digital Content Production, Hamidreza Bahraini, also stated: “the field of digital content production is one of the most profitable and productive industries for investment with a very rapid efficiency. This type of content can yield the most output with the least cost of production”.

He further added: “our group’s media experiences in producing digital and TV contents through creating and launching two specialized accelerators in the field of the content production in Tehran proved to us the need for an ecosystem to produce digital contents. The process was planned and implemented in three parts: creating the " Centre of Innovation in the field of content production, " building " the National Market of digital contents “, and " Online Trading " services which its trend is the subject of supply and content production at the International Level.”

This Innovation Centre has four main sections. The first part of which is the Academy, which includes the process of attracting and talent management, training, empowerment, and team making, said Bahraini. The second part of the accelerator will be the Innovation Centre, which will provide support for the teams and startups of the content production field. The third part is the creation of market for the individual teams and content producers, and the fourth part is the conversion of this center into a center for cultural exchange. This exchange is currently planned with Afghanistan, so that Afghan teams can use the infrastructure for producing the contents.

“One of the main parts of the center is devoted to online trade with the name of OBS, which will operate in two areas of dealership of the content product sales and receiving the international projects that are possible to produce their contents in the country,” Bahraini said, because of the center’s special view on selling and marketing content products abroad.

In the end, he expressed hope that the establishment of the center would enable the development of the digital domain businesses, preparing the production space for supplying this content.

It should be noted that during the visit of the president of from the stages of construction, deployment, and equipment of the first center for production of the digital contents, the Head of Post Office of Khorasan Razavi province, ICT Park deputies, the Heads of Techno Companies located at the Mashhad Branch of ICT Park, and media professionals were also present.