Iranian VP: Winning medal in Technology Olympics marks beginning of moving towards innovation

Iranian Vice President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy Hossein Afshin said in the ecosystem of technology and innovation, “movement in the path of growth and development” should be supported. 

Afshain was speaking at the closing ceremony of the Technology Olympics, which was attended by First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, Government Spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani and Governor of Tehran Mohammad Sadeq Motamedian as well as a group of other officials in the International Innovation Zone of Iran (Pardis Technological Park). 

“When the lion wakes up in the morning, it looks for a game, and when the deer wakes up, it seeks to escape from being a game, that is, both are running”, Afshin stated. 

He noted that his office neither supports the lion nor the deer, but it supports running. 

The vice president added that he is actually for efforts aimed at moving forward. 

While stressing that the development of technology and the creation of innovations require support and incentives, he noted that one of these efforts is the Technology Olympics so that “we can create a transformation in these six areas, which are all emerging technologies”. 

The head of the National Foundation of Elites described winning a medal in the Technology Olympics as the beginning of the top people’s movement toward creating innovation, adding that unlike the sports Olympics, where getting a medal is the result of years of effort by the athlete, when a top student reaches this position, he is at the beginning of the road and he must try to translate an idea into a product and technology. 

Afshin underlined that the government has many executive bodies, with some doing the work of the past or the current plans, but what the office of the Vice President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based economy does is for the future.