TEHRAN - Iran’s vice president for science and technology Sorena Sattari says more than 700 private sector companies are now active in the field of defense in Iran and many others are ready to join in.
Sattari said in the third science and research congress of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran that innovation is a key issue in the defense sector.
“Our achievements in the field of defense are especially rooted in our innovations. We also invest much in the field of education but there is little outcome. That’s because products in today’s world are the outcome of investments by the private sector. But we have neglected this,” he said.
Sattari added that innovation and manufacturing produce results faster when the private sector is involved and called for more reliance on the knowledge-based companies in the field of defense.
The vice president also underlined the significance of individuals as a factor in innovation for manufacturing.
“The defense sector is very significant for the knowledge-based economy. The defense sector can draw out a plan to demand output from the private sector and guarantee that it buys the products of these companies. The more the defense sector attracts money from the private sector, the greater it can promote innovation and this can be used to reduce the gap with the modern technology of the world,” he said.
He also proposed the creation of a technological park and technology accelerators in the field of defense to get the goal of attracting knowledge-based companies to the defense sector.