Iran moving from industrial dependence to national industry: Veep
Iranian first vice president stated that the country is transitioning from dependency to national industry and is pursuing a strategy of self-reliance in all industrial fields.
Speaking at a ceremony commemorating National Skills Week on Tuesday, Mohammad Reza Aref emphasized that the country is transitioning from dependency to national industry, underscoring the pursuit of “a strategy to achieve self-sufficiency in all industrial fields and meet the country's needs,” IRNA reported.
The vice president stressed that, of course, close ties must be maintained with global scientific, technological, and academic centers and institutions along this path.
Aref stated, “today, in technological advancements, the share of Iranian scientists is greater than their proportion relative to the population,” adding that the necessities of the human resource development chain impose the strengthening of this link upon the country.
He asserted that Iran must hold a superior position in advanced technologies, particularly emerging ones, within the region.
Aref noted that specialists and university graduates cannot lead this path, as progress in this field rests with technologists. Globally, he pointed out, the share of scientists is less than that of technologists and is incomparable.
The vice president added that Iran must move “at high speed in the competitive arena of technological advancements alongside world countries.” This raises the question, he posed, of whether this path can be traversed relying solely on university researchers and theoretical graduates, to which the answer is negative. Consequently, he stated, the pursuit is for collaboration between the scientific and technological sectors.
Aref declared that Iran must have no lag behind any advanced country in emerging and prominent technologies. He stated that highly motivated youths mean technologists should lead the way, and given that “we are in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the role of technologists is more specific than that of scientists.”
Aref stated that science must keep pace with technology and moderate its behavior; otherwise, it could exhibit harsh and inhuman behavior.