Every week we’ll be bringing you the highlights of Iran’s tech scene in the past week. In this week, we covered President’s Rouhani’s comments on Internet censorship, government’s support of knowledge-based companies, Central Bank of Iran’s interference to stop USSD payments and Samsung’s dilemma in Iran.

Rouhani: Filtering Era Has Ended

According to ITMEN, Iran’s President in his last week’s press conference stated that the era of filtering, censorship and throwing satellite dishes off the roof has passed. “The government is determined to empower local messengers, however restriction on others is not meaningful. Our presence in both local and foreign networks is important.”

He also mentioned: “focusing on the cyberspace, and its effects on the government which is moving towards an E-government is extremely vital.” According to the Minister of Information and Communications Technology, 200 thousand mobile-based jobs have been created in the past two years. Therefore, the government is determined to develop the infrastructures, content and platforms of the cyberspace.

Developing Knowledge-Based Companies in Free Zones

According to IRNA, the Vice President for Science and Technology Affairs, Sorena Sattari, has stated that establishing and developing knowledge-based companies in the free zones is a serious movement and we are determined to make it happen. He mentioned that their most important goal for this action is avoiding previous mistakes and also polluting the environment of these places. He also emphasized that the country’s job issue is not related to loans, but actually is the ecosystems that they have to create for entrepreneurs and creative people in different fields.

Related:

Iran Swiftly Moving Towards a Knowledge-Based Economy – Part 1

Growth of Knowledge-Based Companies in Iran

USSD Payments to Be Removed

Last week the Central Bank of Iran, decided to stop all USSD services because of its security issues. The CBI’s concern was that by using USSD payment, there might be a chance of hacking the information of the user’s credit card. However, with the minister of ICT’s interference, the CBI has temporally delayed this action. For further reading on this news, you can read the article from this link.

Iran Ready to Boycott Samsung

After Samsung, the official sponsor of 2018 Olympic winter games excluded Iranian athletes alongside North-Koreans from handing out their smartphones because of the trading sanctions, Iranian officials were aggravated and Multiple Iranian reactions were immediately seen.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned South Korea’s ambassador in Tehran and warned this company: “If Samsung doesn’t apologize for this unwise measure, this issue will leave strong impacts on trade relations between Samsung and the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Also, Mr. Zarif, Iran’s Foreign Minister, said that, if the apology isn’t made, he will replace his Samsung smart-phone. At last, though Samsung put the blame on the International Olympic Committee, apologies were made and the phones were given to Iranian athletes.