290 Million Dollars Fund for Iranian Knowledge-Based Companies

Iran’s Head of the Innovation and Development Fund announced that over 290 million dollars has been allocated to Knowledge-based companies.

In an interview with ISNA news agency, Behzad Soltani, Head of Iran’s Innovation and Development Fund announced that so far, more than 1,100 knowledge-based companies in the country have benefited from the facilities of the Fund since the Persian year 1391. He noted that from the 1,500 billion Tomans (430 million dollars) which was placed in the fund, over 1,028 billion Tomans (290 million dollars) was transferred to Knowledge-based companies in forms of facilities. “Currently, we have a 1,500 billion Tomans request for loan from Knowledge-based companies, which the fund’s capital is not enough to pay these companies,” said Soltani. According to the Head of the Fund, the government will help them with this matter by the end of the year, but they predict that there will be more requests from these knowledge-based companies and the capital won’t be enough.

“This amount of loan for knowledge-based companies has created a good number of jobs and has made a good movement in some fields such as Biotechnology, Advanced Medicine, ICT and Computer Games,” stated Soltani. Currently, the fund’s interest rate for this loam is 11%. “The interest rate dropped from 14% to 11% and if the bank’s interest rate continues to decline, the loan’s interest rate will also drop,” added Soltani. Last year Iran’s Central Bank dropped the interest rate of the interbank market from 29% to 17% in March 2016.

According to Soltani, currently 169 companies have successfully completed their projects and there were only a small number of them which did not succeed. He noted that over 90% of these companies would reach the expected technology advancement since they evaluate the activities and the market of these knowledge-based companies in advance.

The Head of the Innovation and Development Fund also mentioned the 53 active knowledge-based companies only in Kermanshah Province, saying that: “This number is only 2.2% of the country’s knowledge based companies, while Kermanshah has 2.5% of the country’s population, so the number of these companies should reach to a greater number.”