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/

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/

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/

Iranian director Sonia Haddad’s film “Exam” has received the Grand Jury Award – Live-Action Short at the American Film Institute – AFI FEST, the organizers announced on Friday.

The award was presented to the film for “its bold directorial style, anchored by a stunning lead performance,” the jury said in their statement.

“‘Exam’ stood out from the other films for its bold directorial style, anchored by a stunning lead performance,” the jury said in its statement published by the Organizers.

“The result is a tense portrait that reaches past its specificity into the universal,” the statement added.

“Exam” is about a teenage girl who agrees to deliver a pack of cocaine on the day of an important exam at school.

The grand jury award winners in the live-action and animated short categories will be eligible for the 2020 Best Live Action Short and Best Animated Short Academy Awards.

The Grand Jury Prize of the festival in the animation section went to “Something to Remember” by Niki Lindroth von Bahr.

The film is about the challenges of the lives of some animals who sound and feel all too human.

The AFI FEST was held in Los Angeles, California from November 14 to 21. / T.T/

Iran’s Educational Deputy Minister of Science, Research and Technology called for expansion of scientific cooperation with Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States.

Ali Khaki Seddigh, the Educational Deputy Minister of Science, Research and Technology who attended the 5th Meeting of the Heads of Science and Technology Ministries and Departments of (SCO) Member States outlined the positions of Iran’s science ministry and called for the expansion of scientific cooperation with member states.

The 5th Meeting of the Heads of Science and Technology Ministries and Departments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States was held on 20-21 November in Moscow, Russia.

The representatives of the SCO observer states, including Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia, as well as representatives from the SCO dialogue partners, including the Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey participated at the meeting.

During the meeting, the heads of the delegations exchanged information on the science and technology policies of the SCO member states and were satisfied to note the common and mutually compatible nature of the priorities and formats of science and technological development. They agreed to use this important framework for the purposes of further expanding and intensifying scientific and technological cooperation in the SCO region.

The SCO, which has its headquarters in Beijing, holds summits of heads of states as well as heads of government meetings annually in member countries. /MNA/

Two Iranian companies managed to win the Asian Science Park Association (ASPA) Awards 2019.

The winners were announced during the 23rd ASPA Annual Conference held in Taiwan on November 11-13.

Arya Nanoseez, affiliated to Fars province’s Science and Technology Park, which is the largest biotechnological and nano-technological center in the country, won the ASPA Award.

Behin Ab-e Zendehrood, a knowledge-based company in Isfahan, ranked second in the Asian Science Park Association international competition, IRIB news agency reported on Saturday.

ASPA is an international nongovernmental organization established in Japan in 1997 for the purpose of accomplishing the joint development in the fields of scientific technology, industry and economy in the Asian region.

ASPA has been trying to present a new paradigm for Asian industry and build economic consensus in Asia by bringing innovative organizations, companies and individuals together that make contributions to industrial and economic development in their societies.

Innovative organizations such as research parks, business incubation centers, universities, academic institutions and venture companies in Asian region participate in a competition and outstanding enterprises are nominated by ASPA organization members to be awarded.

The awarded companies have various opportunities to publicize their companies and products through ASPA activities and publications. / T.T/

The second national and the first international conference on Quran’s contribution to humanities and empirical sciences theories will be held at Tehran-based Malek Ashtar University of Technology.

Mostafa Borhani, a faculty member of the Shahid Beheshti University (SBU) from the Quranic Miracles Research Center at the university said that the first international conference and the second national conference of this kind dubbed ‘pioneering role of Quran in development of scientific theories’ will be held at the Tehran-based Malek Ashtar University of Technology on 18-19 December 2019.

Borhani said that in the conference, the Holy Quran’s contribution to scientific theories will be discussed. He added that Quaran’s contribution to different scientific fields in humanities including economics, educational sciences, psychology, sociology, law, management, theology, philosophy, political science, Islamic studies and history.

He also said that in addition, Quran’s contribution to the development of empirical sciences such as biology, geology, and cosmology and astronomy will also be addressed at the international conference.

The SBU faculty member added that there will be panels as well as opening and closing ceremonies during the conference.

In order to get more information on the scientific event, Borhani said that the researchers and Islamic scholars can refer to the website of the conference available at: http://www.iquransa.com/fa/ MNA/

The short film ‘Fault Line’ written, directed and produced by Soheil Amirsharifi represents Iran at the Ajyal Film Festival in Doha, Qatar, November 18-23.

Selected for the short films section of the festival, the movie tells the story of a schoolgirl who must create a new version of the truth after breaking her arm in a motorcycle accident.
The 15-minute-long film will be shown along with 11 more films from 7 countries in the section.
Baran Ehsaei, Khorshid Cheraghipour, Mahoor Mirzanezhad, Siamak Ehsaei, Azade Shahmiri, Paniz Barzali, Baran Cheraghipour and Tabssom Jamalpour are in the cast.
A 2018 production, the film won the Best Short Film Award at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival in October.
The seventh Ajyal Film Festival is presented by the Doha Film Institute. With the theme “Find Film, Find Life”, some 96 films from 39 countries will be shown at the international festival on November 18-24. / MNA/

The 19th International Exhibition of Home Appliances kicked off at Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds on Tue. in the presence of representatives of more than 400 domestic and foreign companies, including Germany, China and Turkey.

Secretary General of Iran Home Appliances Association Habibollah Ansari made the remarks on Tuesday on the sidelines of the exhibition.

He pointed to this year’s motto of the exhibition entitled “markets must cross borders,” and added, “in tandem with meeting domestic demands, export-based markets should be taken into serious consideration.”

The number of exhibitors have exceeded 35 percent as compared to the last year’s corresponding period, he stated.

Identifying domestic companies, developing market of home appliances and also deepening domestic manufacturing of parts are of the main objectives of the exhibition, he stressed.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he pointed to the statistics on the production volume of home appliances in the first half of current year and added, “production of most home appliances registered a significant growth from March 21 to Sept. 22, 2019.”

The 19th International Exhibition of Home Appliances kicked off at Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds today in the presence of Chief Executive of Iran Intl. Exhibitions Company (IIEC) Bahman Hosseinzadeh, Deputy Industry Ministry and Head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) Hamid Zadboum and Acting Head of the Ministry of Industry for Industries Affairs Mehdi Niyaraki.

This exhibition will run until Nov. 22.  / MNA /