The President of Park described the development process of a hundred new technology companies across Iran

Referring to the efficiency of creating sustainable technology companies by a progressive society despite the existing challenges, Dr. Sadigh Damghanizadeh said: "The retention rate of technology companies at the national level is less than ten percent; nevertheless, the highest rate in this regard belongs to Isfahan Science and Technology Town (ISTT) with a retention rate of nearly fifty percent.”

"Simultaneous provision of the three main elements required for developing a technology company, including the power for research conduction, development, and engineering a technology product with a potential market, besides the company's access to the market (operational possibility of entering the market) and also a proper access to management supports while the company is developing, are necessary for developing a sustainable technology company," he continued. 

"In this year, the plan for developing one hundred new companies was on the agenda in three axes", continued Dr. Sadigh Damghanizadeh while mentioning the measures taken and in progress to the end of this year regarding the development of one hundred new technology companies. "First, creating new companies in cooperation with provincial science and technology parks, regarding which, some measures have been taken and are on the agenda," he added. "These measures include the full design of the necessary mechanisms, including the acceptance method, providing financial support for research and development, suggesting ways of cooperation with the provincial parks, dividing the different tasks for designing financial and workflow management apps, providing the required legal documents, and designing suitable training system for the cooperating science and technology park experts," he explained. 

"Additionally, giving a trial call in two provinces, including Zanjan and Semnan, in which a total of 29 companies went through the initial stages of admission, besides extending the first call to eight other provinces and extending the second call to fifteen other provinces are among other measures taken in line with the first axis. We have estimated that between fifty to one hundred companies will develop during the two phases of this call," he added. 

While explaining the second axis of developing new technology companies, the advisor to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology pointed out the development of spin-off companies (development of innovation clusters): "In this way, the development of new companies will be done with the participation of the park's already active companies; hence, every developed company that is a member of the park can develop a spin-off company based on a new technology  idea by attracting new technology cores (a maximum of three cores for each company)," he said. 

Dr. Sadigh Damghanizadeh mentioned the most important measures that have been taken and are being implemented for the second axis: "the full design of the necessary mechanism (same as the previous axis), conducting a phase of the trial call, and reconstructing the processes and instructions accordingly, conducting the first phase of the call that has started from October 22nd, 2022 and will continue till December 30th, 2022, when companies will be selected. Additionally, the call for the second phase will start on November 21st for the developed companies member in DEDN network (Digital Economy Development Network ) and by announcing the results on January 29th, 2023, these spin-off companies can be established in the park or in the parent companies," he added. 

"Our initial estimation is that between 15 to 20 spinoff companies will be established in this way," he clarified. 

The President of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Park stated that the third axis of ICT Park's conducts includes developing new companies in cooperation with university parks: "This task is exactly the same as the first task, with the distinction that the new companies will develop relying on university professors and their locations will be in university parks. The first phase of this task will start in the universities that have techno parks and are capable of developing the established companies," he said. 

"The first call for this task was issued on 01/08/1401 and on October 23rd, 2022, and the accepted companies will start working after the announcement of the results on December 22nd, 2022. The initial estimations indicate that between 20 to 50 companies will develop in this way," he added. 

"Additionally, in all the cases, the companies will develop based on the mentioned axes and as technology priorities for the associated ministry; software and hardware required for the implementation and operation of the National Information Network, basic application software required in the National Information Network, software and hardware required in the civil aerospace industry, software for providing network services, including medical, industrial and network-based reproduction services, network services regarding energy distribution and control, buying and selling in national networks, employing remote sensing information for reducing the effects of natural disasters," Dr. Sedigh Damghanizadeh continued.

"Besides, the software and hardware required for the development of mobile network, the basic software for producing and presenting digital contents in the internet environment, and the software and hardware required for the intelligent logistics network management are also included in the above mentioned tasks," he added. 

In the end, Dr. Mohammad Jafar Sedigh Damghanizadeh mentioned two important points: "The Park's main plan for this year was to develop two hundred new companies; however, unfortunately, it was reduced to one hundred companies since providing the required resources seemed impossible. Additionally, the financial support for this project will be based on the risk credits from the Park's inclusive incomes and cost budget besides the facilities from its managed funds, and except for the cost budget, all the resources are indicated in the budget plan for this year," he concluded.