Tehran, March 2, IRNA – Iranian Vice-President for Science and Technology Affairs Sourena Sattari in a meeting with the Syrian minister of industry stressed further expansion of technological cooperation between Iran and Syria.

In the meeting with Ziyad Sabbagh in Damascus, Sattari said that Iran is among the biggest producers of petroleum and natural gas but has focused on a knowledge-based economy in the past seven years to avoid the oil economy.

He invited Sabbagh to visit Iran to see the technology and innovations in Iran.

Welcoming using Iranian technology in Syria, Sabbagh hoped that Iranian innovative youth's advances would be used in Syria.

In a separate meeting with another Syrian official (Higher Education Minister Bassam Bashir Ibrahim), Sattari said that the biggest start-ups of the region in nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, communications, and aerospace are Iranian, whose sales have passed $12 billion a year.   

He noted that 50 science and technology parks, 10,000 start-ups, and more than 50,000 knowledge-based companies, adding that Iran has indigenized laboratory and medical equipment, as well as 98 percent of medicines.

Iran is to open its third innovations and export house in Syria after China and Kenya.

Ibrahim thanked Iran for having stood by Syria in the 10-year war, adding first Iran, and then Russia, stood by Syrians for normalizing living and economic conditions.

He went on to say that cooperation can be in exchange for professors and students.

Earlier on Tuesday in the inauguration ceremony of the 2nd meeting of 40 Iranian companies and Syrian technological centers, Sattari had said that Iran has no limits for expanding trade and technology with Syria.

The first face-to-face meeting between 40 Iranian companies and Syrian technological centers was held in early summer.

Iranian Vice-President for Science and Technology Affairs Sourena Sattari accompanied by heads of 40 knowledge-based companies traveled to Syria on Monday.

Parviz Karami, an advisor to the vice-president for scientific and technological affairs, announced Sattari's trip to Syria on Monday, saying that during the trip, 40 knowledge-based and creative companies accompany him.

Regarding the plans for this trip, Karami said that Iran's third innovation and export house will be launched after China and Kenya in Syria so that Iran's technological, knowledge-based and creative products can be exported to Syria's market.

The signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the development of scientific, technological, and political relations between the two countries is another plan of this trip, he noted.

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