According to the Communication and Information Center in the Vice Presidency of Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, Ruhollah Dehghani, the Vice President of Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, during the signing ceremony of this agreement, which was held this evening at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, pointing out that many of the knowledge-based products that exist in the country's market and economy and supply the needs of industries are the result of the role played by research and technology funds, he continued: With the support of the Vice Presidency of Science and the good assistance provided by the Ministry of Economy, financing for increasing the government's share of research and technology funds was made, and with the signing of this agreement, the ability to issue guarantees by 25 selected research and technology funds will be increased by nearly 9 thousand billion Tomans.

Referring to the active role of the Ministry of Economy in supporting the flow of financing, valuing and granting facilities to knowledge-based companies, he added: If three or four organizations can be named that are diligently working towards the development of the knowledge-based economy, the Ministry of Economy is definitely one of them. It is the most advanced of them, and the Vice Presidency of Science cooperates and interacts continuously and seriously with this ministry to help facilitate and realize innovative solutions for asset valuation, financing and facilitating support for knowledge-based companies.

The head of the National Elites Foundation stated: The process of creating knowledge-based companies and turning knowledge and technology into wealth has started in the country for almost two decades. The supplier, guarantor, driver and helper of this flow can be considered as the Technology Research Funds, which were sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Research and Technology Fund.

Dehghani continued: In these two decades, companies reached a maturity and evolution so that they became a knowledge-based industry. In accordance with this maturity, their needs also increased and now in the technology, innovation and knowledge-based economy of the country, there are three types of companies, including startup knowledge-based companies, technology-based knowledge-based companies, and innovative knowledge-based companies, each of which, according to its nature, mission, is playing a role. and their size, they require special solutions and types of support or financing methods.

The Vice President of Science stressed that the only area where we can witness small works but great added value is the knowledge-based area, and continued: the only area that can turn a few grams of steel into a product with an added value of several hundred It is the same field to reach a dollar. Based on this, the industries that became knowledge-based were able to achieve good added value and, in fact, form a knowledge-based industry. Now, large companies that have become a knowledge-based industry, need specific types of support and facilities according to their characteristics and needs.

Emphasizing that the support should be appropriate to the needs and size of each of the three mentioned types of knowledge-based companies, Dehghani said: In this environment, startups and fledgling knowledge-based companies need greenhouse and empowering support so that they can mature. The type of support provided by technology research funds is appropriate and specific to this type of knowledge-based companies.

He stated that we need a significant part of the research and development costs of the companies with the help of research and technology funds to provide new blood in the veins of the knowledge-based companies, and said: we need at least 20 to 60 thousand billion Tomans from the resources. The need for research and development should come from research and technology funds. This issue requires special support and the institutions to fulfill their obligations.

Pointing out that larger companies need support in the form of tax credit and preferential support, Dehghani added: To finance medium and large companies, we allocate resources from the support provided in Note 18, and the Vice Presidency of Science is part of the system and has been the leader in allocating these resources.

He added: "Fortunately, about two months ago, the system of evaluating the intangible assets of knowledge-based companies was implemented in the interaction of the Vice Presidency of Science and the Ministry of Economy, which is a valuable step in increasing the capital of these companies."

Referring to the formation of a special market for knowledge-based companies in the capital market, the Vice President of Science said: Initial supply and issuance of debt securities of knowledge-based companies are other events that can be a step forward in providing capital for these companies.

The prominent role of the government in leveraging facilities for the development of knowledge-based companies and the growth of production

In this ceremony, Ehsan Khandozi, Minister of Economy and Finance, also pointed to the new approaches in line with supporting knowledge-based companies since the beginning of the 13th government's activities and stated: supporting employment and economic growth in this government has been pursued with a very serious approach; In previous governments, resources were allocated to banks and limited resources were allocated to companies in this way, but this process has undergone transformation and metamorphosis in five stages since the beginning of 2021 until now.

Referring to the first stage of this transformation in 2021, he said: for the first time in the 13th government, support resources were used as a lever and it was decided to allocate resources from the banks to the amount of resources that were allocated. The government used the resources that had the capacity of institutional monitoring and investigated the use and effectiveness of the resources in other regions including the less privileged provinces and its role in employment. The next development was that instead of the simple method of granting technical assistance, it moved towards leveraging these same resources in the form of capital increase and evaluating the effectiveness.

Khandozi added: In the next stage, the government used these resources in the form of guarantees and resources that should be placed in the form of research and technology funds. After this stage, the production and infrastructure financing law, which is in the Expediency Council, gave powers to the Ministry of Economy so that, in total, the weight of the support reaches a figure much larger than 10 thousand billion Tomans and helps companies to Knowledge-based companies should be presented as a stable institutional actor for the future of Iran's economy.

The Minister of Economy expressed his hope that the maturity and evolution of this institutional experience will help to allocate a fixed and increasing share to technology research funds in the coming years so that they are strengthened in the form of a specialized financial institution that plays a development role for knowledge-based companies.

In the framework of this agreement, the capital increase of the research and technology funds was done with the follow-up and participation of the Vice Presidency of Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy. Based on this, a total of 300 billion Tomans of capital was increased for 25 selected research and technology funds so that their capacity to issue credit guarantees would increase by more than 9 thousand billion Tomans.

Abdul Majid Morshedi, Director General of the Office for Financing and Investment in the Vice Presidency of Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, while explaining the programs related to the increase in the capital of research and technology funds, said: This capital increase is from the sources of Part 11, Clause A, Note 18 of the budget law of the year 2021.

Morshedi mentioned the lack of financial resources of the funds as one of the challenges and said: With the support of the Vice Presidency of Science and the Ministry of Economy, under this agreement, a serious development took place in this area. The priority of the Vice Presidency of Science is to facilitate the use of the country's money and capital market, and the approach of the Vice Presidency of Science in ranking the funds was to evaluate each fund according to its wealth and performance.

He added: In this regard, with the help of Sepas system, which records the information of all the funds, the funds that had less than 45% unused capacity were identified. Also, the funds located in less privileged areas were also identified for the allocation of this amount in the form of this program. By allocating 300 billion Tomans to increase the capital of 25 selected funds, the capital of the funds will increase to more than 832 billion Tomans. Currently, more than 70 research and technology funds are operating in the country with a capital of more than 2500 billion Tomans. Guarantees of research and technology funds have so far exceeded 13,500 billion Tomans. This increase in capital increases the capacity of issuing credit guarantees of funds by 9,600 billion Tomans.