Our biggest concern is laying the foundation for studying of students abroad and their return to the country to be active in an ecosystem that turns their ideas and knowledge into innovative businesses. An environment must be created to have this scientific and technological rotation.

Sorena Sattari, the vice president for science and technology affairs, participated in this morning’s “Salam Sobh Bekheir” program broadcasted on Channel Three.

During the program, Sattari talked about the formation of an ecosystem for return of elites to the country from top universities of the world, adding: an ecosystem has now been created that has motivated many of our country's elite and top graduates to return and stay in the country. In this regard, knowledge-based companies and startups have laid the foundation for return of elites to the country. In addition, the provide an opportunity for creative activity of individuals and establishing new businesses for elites.

Emphasizing the latest statements of the president of Iran among the Iranians residing in Malaysia in terms of return of elites to the country every two-three days, the vice president for science and technology affairs stated: our biggest priority is to provide students with the opportunity to travel abroad, study and acquire knowledge, return to their home country and work in an environment where they can transform their ideas and knowledge into innovative businesses. We need to provide an environment where this scientific and technological turnaround exists.

According to the vice president for science and technology affairs, “when we place the origin of the nation's movement, including the economy, on literate and educated people, we must create the conditions for this scientific and technological turn; this pattern has also been experienced in successful countries in terms of technology and economics.”

Sattari marked: the composition of the countries where Iranian students have traveled to has changed, and the science department has provided the opportunity for more than 1,400 students to return from the top 100 universities in the world to the country.

According to the president of the national elites foundation, the number of f1 US visas has reached below 1300, and j1 visas has reached 300 people in the last year and will be much less this year.

Sattari affirmed: in the past three-four years, the number of Iranian students studying abroad has been between 50-53 thousand people, and less than 1.5% of Iranian students live abroad.

Boosting the Ecosystem of Knowledge-based Businesses and Startups

The president of the knowledge-based economy and culture-building technologies development headquarter pointed out the cultural boost in the country’s environment owing to the boosting of the innovation ecosystem, declaring: we are experiencing a new environment in the country's economy. Of course, in the early stages of this transformation, universities and economics were not in the same direction, but fortunately, today there is a dynamic and efficient ecosystem for knowledge-based companies and startups.

The vice president for science and technology affairs marked: currently there are over 6,000 startups in the country and around 4,700 knowledge-based companies have sold over 90,000,000 Tomans in 2018 sales. We have witnessed that the ecosystem is becoming a significant number in the country's economy.

The Boom of Life with the Boom of Biomass

Sattari stated: we are now seeing professors at universities and colleges easily run their own companies and strange orientation has taken place, and this is moving up and down every day.

He continued: observing the impact of knowledge on their daily lives and receiving a new and efficient service every day is something that eco-innovation activists have done well, and this is being welcomed by the young and creative generation.

Emphasizing the necessity of cooperation between all parts of the country and the innovation ecosystem, Sattari affirmed: the lack of ability of traditional businesses to compete with startups has been proven, and they must be ensured that they will lose to the youth. The only way to survive is to invest on the youth.

According to Sattari, a new generation of entrepreneurs are emerging in the form of creative, innovative and startup companies, and this generation will be the future generation of economy in the country and will soon be turned into large companies in the country. In the future, they will take the place of many wealth-creating groups, such as automobile, metal and petrochemical industries.

Sattari mentioned: Iran is the best in the field of fintech or online sales, and has the third and fourth place in some platforms in Asia.

He also reminded: the Farsi language is the ninth language on the Internet, which is a high number considering the population of our country.

Sattari also mentioned the importance of separation of economy from oil and using human resources as the basis in this field, adding: Iran's position in the human resources index is excellent and we rank second and third in this field. The huge investment that the country has made in educating this capital has to go into the economy.

He added: Iran also has a high rank in the global innovation index report (Gii). In the Vice-Presidency, extensive efforts have been dedicated to attaining a valuable place in terms of economy and wealth creation.