On the occasion of 39th anniversary of the glorious victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran (National Day) Iran Cultural Centre, Dhaka arranged a discussion meeting on ‘Independence, National Ability and Development of the Islamic Republic of Iran’ inauguration of 6 days long Iranian Film Show (jointly organized by Iran Cultural Centre, Dhaka and Bangladesh National Museum) at the main auditorium of Bangladesh National Museum on Friday, 9th February, 2018 at 3.30 p.m.

The program chaired by Mr. Faizul Latif Chowdhury, Director General, Bangladesh National Museum, Dr. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque MP, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Finance was present as Chief Guest.

Dr. Abbas Vaezi Dehnavi, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Bangladesh, Prof. Dr. Yusuf Mahbubul Islam, Vice Chancellor, Daffodil International University and Dr. Enamul Haque, Former Professor, Dept. of Chemistry, BUET & eminent actor were present as special guests.

Dr. Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman Khan, Professor, Dept. of Islamic History & Culture, University of Dhaka presented the keynote paper. Inaugural speech was given by Mr. Seyed Mousa Hosseini, the Cultural Counsellor of Iran Cultural Centre.

The program was followed by screening of the famous Iranian film ‘Body Guard’, directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia.

Iranian Films scheduled to be screened everyday at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. from 10 to 14th February, 2018 at the main auditorium of Bangladesh National Museum.

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Some 5301 water and electricity projects are due to be inaugurated in Iran on the occasion of Ten-Day Dawn (February 1-10, marking the victory anniversary of the Islamic Revolution), IRIB reported citing energy ministry’s news portal.

Some 5119 electricity transmission and distribution projects worth 27.23 trillion rials (near $602.5 million), over 183 megawatts capacity of renewable projects, seven power plants projects worth $2.09 billion, 100 water projects worth 101.419 trillion rials (about $2.24 billion) and 32 water resources management projects worth 3.278 trillion rials ($72.5 million) are among the projects which are going to be implemented or inaugurated.

/ Tehran times/

D efending champion Iran underlined its title credentials with a comprehensive 14-0 victory over Myanmar in their Group C opener at the 2018 AFC Futsal Championships on Friday in Taipei, Taiwan.

Iran wasted little time asserting its authority with two goals inside the first minute to immediately take control of the match.

According to The-afc.com, the first came within seconds of kick off when Iran forced a turnover and AFC Futsal Player of the Year Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh slid the ball across for a simple tap in for Mahdi Javid.

No less than 30 seconds later and the team had its second of the evening courtesy of Hassanzadeh, who added Iran’s third and his second a further three minutes later.

Iran then proceeded to go on a scoring spree, adding five goals in the space of three minutes, which included a run of three goals in a minute, to more than put the match beyond doubt half way through the first half.

Myanmar’s defense solidified in the final 10 minutes of the first half, with Yan Paing Hein making some wonderful saves, to restrict Iran to just one further goal for the half, which saw them head in at half time with a commanding 9-0 lead.

In the opening 10 minutes of the second half Myanmar’s defense held firm again, with Iran scoring only once in the 22nd minute when Javid scored his third for the evening.

But a flurry of late goals – a further four in the final 10 minutes – added some extra icing onthe cake for Iran.

In the end, Hassanzadeh and Javid ended with four goals apiece, while Hossein Tayebi tallied a hat-trick highlighting their dominance across the evening.

After the game, Myanmar head coach Htay Myint said, “Iran is a world class team, so we told our players to take this match as an experience. We will try to fix our defensive tactics, and that’s what we will improve on for our next match. We already have a plan for Iraq, and that’s a final game for us if we want to go to the next round”.

On his side’s decisive victory, Mohammmad Nazem Alsharie, Iran head coach said, “this was a game that we expected. Myanmar is a good team which is fast. The only problem it had was experience.”

Iran will next play China on Sunday, while Myanmar will play Iraq, which enjoyed a confidence-boosting win over China in the earlier Group C match on Friday.

/ Financial Tribune /

Iranian speed climber Reza Alipour has been crowned the 2017 International World Games Association (IWGA) Athlete of the Year.

Alipour, nicknamed the ‘Persian Cheetah’, received 90,790 votes in the contest with second place going to Ukrainian powerlifter Larysa Soloviova, who scored 90,036.

Speed skater Fabriana Arias from Colombia finished third with 48,014 votes.

Reza Alipour did not only win The World Games title in Speed Climbing in July 2017, he also holds the World Record in this discipline.

The 23-year-old faced his final race at the Games alone – his competitor had a false start – but was able to keep himself together and finish with the fastest time, 5.57.

His medal was the first ever gold medal for Iran at The World Games.

A total of 21 athletes, all of whom competed at The World Games last summer, were nominated for the Athlete of the Year vote.

Last year, Muaythai fighter Sofia Olofsson (Sweden) won the title Athlete of the Year with 15,816 votes. She received her award in an award ceremony at the SportAccord Convention.

/ Tehran times /

C lose to 22,000 tons of milk powder worth $77 million were exported from Iran during the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Nov. 21, 2017), registering a 144% and 140% growth in weight and value respectively compared with the corresponding period of last year.

Milk powder exports accounted for 14% of Iran’s overall dairy exports during the period, ISNA reported.

About 1,000 tons of infant formula worth $11 million were exported during the eight months to register a 33% and 8% decline year-on-year.  / Financial Tribune /

A bout 4.2 million tons of agricultural products worth $4.005 billion were exported from Iran during the nine months to Dec. 22, 2017, a deputy agriculture minister said.

“Agricultural products made up 12.7% of Iran’s total non-oil exports in terms of value and 4.74% in terms of tonnage during the nine-month period,” IRNA also quoted Abdolmehdi Bakhshandeh as saying.

Horticultural products topped the list of Iran’s agro exports value-wise, as 906,000 tons worth $1.92 billion were shipped during the period.

Iran’s agriculture sector expanded by 4.2% in the last Iranian year (March 2016-17) compared to the preceding year, the Central Bank of Iran said.

Iran exported about 1.37 million tons of processed food products worth more than $2.07 billion during the same period under review to register a 13% and 0.5% growth in weight and value respectively compared with the similar period of last year.

Chocolate with around $188 million, cheese and dry whey with $154 million and yoghurt with $141 million were the main processed food shipped exported, together accounting for 23% of the export value in this sector. / Financial Tribune /

The organizers of the 36th Fajr Film Festival announced the jury for the official competition on Friday.

The jury is composed of filmmakers Kamal Tabrizi and Rasul Sadr-Ameli, cinematographer Bahram Badakhshani and film expert Hassan Khojasteh.

Film critic Khosro Dehqan, producer Fereshteh Taerpur, and actor Mohammadreza Forutan are other members of the jury.

The 36th Fajr Film Festival will be held in Tehran from February 1 to 11. /  Tehran times /

Prof. Barch a senior German banking expert official has underlined that the Islamic Republic of Iran enjoys high capability to be turned into a financial technology hub in the region.

Barch made the remarks at the 7th Annual Conference on Electronic Banking and Payment Systems and said, “thanks to its scientific capacities, Iran can be a leader in the field of Fintech in the Middle East region.”

Turning to the concept of technical integration, he reiterated, “this concept is related to the longevity of banks, so that banks should be able to meet customers’ demand in the best form possible.”

Also, banks should be able to provide several options for their customers in order to encourage them [customers] using pertinent services optimally, he opined.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the professor added, “the issues on the digitization of channels, mobiles and banking based on data have been taken into serious consideration in today’s banking system.”

Banks always think that all products should have been produced by them but actually banks should focus on expanding and developing production chain, he said, adding, “presently, the number of bank branches are no long determinant, rather, information technology (IT) system and prediction of clients’ behavior are decisive.”

In Europe, banks are moving towards digitization process, so that an account can be opened within eight minutes and in the shortest time possible using an application, he emphasized.

In general, speed and flexibility of digitization will be so sophisticated that other traditional banks will no longer be able to compete with the modern banks, he said, adding, “intermediary banks may disappear in the near future. Under such circumstances, business models should be changed and integrity should be accelerated in the banking system.”

However, Iranian banks should take advantage of fruitful experiences of European banks in line with moviring towards a regional technology hub in the ME region.

In conclusion, Prof. Barch called on responsible officials to create an attractive digital channel with high safety and security for clients in order to offer high-quality banking services to these customers optimally. / Mehr news/

United World Wrestling (UWW) has selected Iran as the host country for the U23 freestyle world wrestling championships in 2020.

According to a proposal presented by Iran on a collaborative holding of the U23 world wrestling championships of combined events, Iran will hold the championships in the freestyle category and Finland will host competitions in the Greco-Roman and women’s wrestling categories in 2020.

Iran had been unable to host the events since 2002, due to the requirement for holding the world wrestling championships concurrently in the three categories of freestyle, Greco-Roman and women’s wrestling.

The country has made a lot of efforts since then to be able to host the championships once more, and to that end, offered a proposal to the UWW on a collaborative holding of the events, which was approved during a session in 2016 in Hungary and later in 2017 in Paris.

At the Paris session, Iran’s representative noted the reducing number of applicants for hosting the international wrestling competitions due to financial and executive difficulties, and made the proposal for a collaborative holding of the championships with another country.

The members of the UWW board of directors approved the plan and agreed on selecting Iran for the freestyle category of the events in 2020, while Finland would hold the other two categories.

/ Mehr News /

Researchers in a knowledge based company managed to produce soundproofing insulation to be installed between floors in the buildings.

Director General of a knowledge based company Mohammadreza Montazeri said that the company has managed to produce acoustic percussion insulation that is used to reduce the transmission of noise between the different levels of buildings.

“The produced insulation is flexible with high durability and resistance, and prevents the spread of extra noise between floors,” he added.

Montazeri said that the company carries out research to find out solutions to noise pollution in buildings and added that the company has built an acoustic laboratory where acoustic experiments can be carried out on walls, the floor, doors, windows, etc.

“In our research, we have been able to identify the best material and investigate their acoustic characteristics which led to the production of cheap, high-quality insulation for buildings,” he added. / Mehr News /