All posts by islam

Iran, Japan sign MOU on medical services improvement

Iranian Ministry of Health and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to improve medical services on the basis of medical management models in Japan, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

The agreement was signed by Mohsen Asadi Lari, director for international cooperation at the Ministry of Health, and Yukiharu Kubayashi, JICA representative to Iran.

Under the MOU, Iranian managers in health sector will benefit from Japan’s experience through training courses in five areas of hospital management, hospital design and construction, elderly care systems, non-communicable disease management and cancer management and control.

Jalal Naeli, an official with the Ministry of Health, said that in order to empower health sector managers, coordination is being made to send 60 managers to learn about Japan’s latest achievements in medical service management. /T.T/

Domestic production to save Iran $10b in 2 years

Iranian Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani said that relying on domestic production will save $10 billion for the country in the next two years, IRIB reported.

Speaking in a ceremony on indigenizing production of telecommunications equipment on Tuesday, the minister said that of the mentioned $10 billion, some $500 million is predicted to be earned through domestic production of telecommunications equipment, and $400 million via indigenizing production of car parts, of which $300 million has been already achieved.

“Today, all available potentials and capacities in the country are being used to materialize the target of domestic production and the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade will spare no effort in this due”, Rahmani further emphasized.

He said the country aims to produce electrical, automobile and telecommunications goods and double exports to 15 neighboring countries in order to reach a target value of $48 billion.

Last month, Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said government officials should ban the import of goods that are also produced domestically.

Since the U.S. re-imposed sanctions on Iran to pressure the country’s economy, Iran has been taking all necessary measures to mitigate the impact of the sanctions and counter the U.S. actions.

Improving and boosting domestic production has been one of the major strategies that Iran has been following in the past two years in order to increase its independence.

To this end, Iranian government has put supporting domestic producers atop agenda in the current year.

Providing the required working capital for the production units and offering them facilities is one of the major measures being pursued by the government to support these units.

/ T.T/

Iranian teams emerge victorious in IWBF Asia Oceania Championships

Iran’s men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams defeated their rivals at the 2019 International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) Asia Oceania Championships in Thai city Pattaya on Saturday.

Iran’s men team beat China 64-60 at the Eastern National Sports Centre. Iran’s Morteza Abedi scored a match-high 27 and Lin Yinhai led the Chinese team with 18 points.

Team Melli will meet Japan on Sunday.

Earlier on the day, the Iranian women beat Cambodia 40-22. Roghayyeh Amiri scored 14 points for Iran and Sinet An led the Cambodians with 13 points.

Iran will meet India on Monday.

The IWBF Asia Oceania zone has four spots available for men and three for women at Tokyo 2020, with one spot in each already allocated to Japan as the host nation.

Fourteen men’s teams and an event-record eight women’s teams will compete at the competitions, taking place at the Eastern National Sports Centre and are scheduled to conclude on December 7.

In the men’s competition, the six top-ranked teams – Australia, China, Iran, Japan, South Korea and Thailand – will play in Division A, which will be a single round-robin to determine first to sixth place in the ranking.

The other eight teams – Afghanistan, Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia – are drawn into two pools of four in Division B.

The top two teams in Division B will become the seventh- and eighth-ranked teams in Division A to make up the quarter-final pairings. / T.T/

Iranian knowledge-based firms to hire experts from developing countries

According to the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, Iranian knowledge-based firms will hire experts and graduates from developing countries.

Experts and graduates from developing countries including Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries from the African Union will be hired by Iranian knowledge-based firms on the way to boost the firms’ level of exports.

The foreign experts will be introduced to the Iranian firms to get hired, after passing a year of internship offered.

Vice-President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari said on October 15 that knowledge-based companies have targeted manufacturing sanctioned goods and products.

According to him, there are as many as 4,600 knowledge-based companies active n the country, exporting $1 billion worth of products annually. /MNA/

Iran’s renewable output exceeds 4.4. billion kWh

Latest data released by the Energy Ministry shows that Iran has produced over 4.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from renewable sources since the bid to shift focus from fossil fuels to greener energies started in mid-2009.

This volume of clean energy was produced from July 2009 to late November 2019, which has cut the consumption of 1.25 billion cubic meters of fossil fuels. It has also saved 969 million liters of water.

Moreover, harnessing clean energy in the past nine years has helped the country curb the emission of about 3 million tons of greenhouse gases.

Renewable ventures are gaining popularity in the country; with more than 300 sunny days throughout the year, Iran has huge potential to expand solar energy infrastructure and attract foreign investments.

The country meets more than 80% of its electricity demand from thermal power plants that run on fossil fuels. Of the total 82,000 MW production capacity, only a meager amount of 680 MW goes to renewables.

Figures on Iran’s power sector show that 42% of the country’s renewable energies come from solar power, 41% from wind farms, 13% small from hydroelectric plants, 2% from heat recovery and 2% is constituted by biomass. / MNA/

Iran to participate in Alrosa cup with two wrestlers

Two freestyle wrestlers will represent Iran in the 2019 edition of Grand Prix Moscow Alrosa in Russia.

The competition is slated to be held on November 29-30 in Olympics weight categories of both freestyle and Greco-Roman disciplines.

Ahmad Bazri and Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian will represent Iran at the event in 86kg and 97kg categories of freestyle discipline. Gholamreza Mohammadi, the national wrestling team’s coach, also accompanies the team. /MNA/

‘Funfair’ wins awards at two European film festivals

Kaveh Mazaheri’s short film ‘Funfair’, an Iran/Canada co-production, has won two awards at ‘Court en Scène’ Film Festival in France and Winchester Film Festival in the UK.

‘Funfair’ is a short film about members of a family who risk their lives to earn more money in order to escape a life of destitution.

The short film has received a Special Mention for Best Screenplay at ‘Court en Scène’ Film Festival in France, and a Special Mention for Best Foreign Film at Winchester Film Festival in the UK.

Mazaheri’s successful film has also recently won the best short film award at the 32nd edition of Oscar-qualifying Foyle Film Festival in Derry, Northern Ireland, having a chance now to be introduced to the 92nd Academy Awards. /MNA/

Iran sink Kyrgyz Republic at CAFA U23 Women’s Championship

Iran earned their third successive win at the CAFA U23 Women’s Championship on Monday.

The Iranian team defeated Kyrgyz Republic 6-0, thanks to goals from Fatemeh Shaban (two goals), Hajar Dabaghi (two goals) and Fatemeh Ghasemi (two goals).

Iran started the campaign with a 4-0 win over Tajikistan and then beat Turkmenistan 5-0.

Maryam Azmoun’s team will play Uzbekistan in title decider on Tuesday.

All six Central Asian Football Association members Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz Republic and Afghanistan compete on a round-robin basis in Dushanbe and Hisor.

The winners will be determined following the final day of competition on Thursday. / T.T/

Exports by SMEs up $450m in 6.5 months yr/yr

Iranian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) exported $1.49 billion worth of commodities since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21) up to October 7, $450 million more than the figure for last year’s same period.

Iranian SMEs exported $1.04 billion in the last year’s 6.5-month period, the Deputy Director of Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO) Asghar Mosaheb told IRNA on Monday.

According to the official, the mentioned exports have been made by 900 SMEs active in various industrial parks across the country.

He noted that although due to the problems pertain to the U.S. sanctions, the number of the exporting units has decreased compared to the previous year, but the value of exports has increased.

Mosaheb further noted that the value of exports by the country’s SMEs in the first six months of the current calendar year (March 21-September 22) also reached $1.03 billion to witness a 30 percent rise compared to the last year’s H1.

Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan were the top three export destinations in the period with $320 million, $216 million, and $51 million worth of imports respectively.
The United Arab Emirates and Turkmenistan were the next in the line, according to Mosaheb.

Back in August, head of ISIPO announced that over 33,000 SMEs are currently active in Iran of which 1,100 are exporting their products and services to foreign destinations.

According to Mohsen Salehinia, currently 43,650 SMEs are based in over 800 industrial parks across the country, of which nearly 78 percent or 33,800 are active.
One of the major programs that ISIPO is following regarding the SMEs is reviving idle units and helping them to get back into business to increase the country’s domestic production and to boost exports to the neighboring countries.

Holding training courses, supporting SMEs participation in international exhibitions, supporting SMEs research and study projects, and supporting knowledge-based SMEs are some other programs which ISIPO is following to help SMEs expand their activities, according to Salehinia. / T.T/

Iran’s rank of entrepreneurship index climbs 13 steps

The Minister of Labor, Cooperatives and Social Welfare Mohammad Shariatmadari said that Iran promoted its rank by 13 steps in terms of entrepreneurship index in the past Iranian calendar year (ended March 20, 2019) according to the report of Global Entrepreneurship Center.

He made the remarks on Tue. at the closing ceremony of International Entrepreneurship Week, held at the venue of the Ministry of Labor from Nov. 18-24, and said, “Iran’s rank of entrepreneurship index in the past year (ended Mar. 20, 2019) registered a 13-step rise in a way that this rank has been ameliorated and improved in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.”

He put the number of consultation centers launched for entrepreneurs in the country at 309 and added, “some 4,335 entrepreneurship companies used the consultation services of these centers last year (ended March 20, 2019).”

Recently, Digital Content Production Foundation has been launched by the private sector, he said, adding, “also, an entrepreneurship company was set up for the development of new technologies in the field of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and Block Chain.” / MNA/