Iran ready to cooperate with Venezuela in tech fields: VP

Tehran, IRNA – The Islamic Republic of Iran is keen on expanding all-out cooperation with Venezuela in various technological areas, an Iranian vice president said. Vice President for Science And Technology Sorena Sattari made the remarks in a meeting with Venezuelan Minister of Science Gabriela Jiménez on Monday, noting that development of knowledge enterprises has paved the ground for expansion of innovative and technological collaborations with friendly countries. Pointing to the role of innovative and knowledge-based companies in medical partnerships with other countries, Sattari said that Iran has reached remarkable progress in developing vaccines for humans and animals, calling for creation of a mechanism to export Iran-made medicine to the Venezuelan market. One of the main challenges of technological interactions is financial transactions, which should be solved by authorities from both nations to provide knowledge enterprises with the opportunity to expand coordination. As to the preparedness of Iranian knowledge enterprises to take part in an upcoming Venezuelan exhibition, the vice president mentioned that more than 75 companies have expressed readiness to participate in the event, so Caracas is expected to determine its own enterprises to pave the way for kicking off joint ventures. For her part, Jiménez referred to Iran's capabilities in medicine as a good field for mutual exchanges, noting that areas of medical equipment and healthcare, livestock breeding technologies, herbs plantation, agriculture, and environment are among the fields that Venezuela is interested in utilizing Iranians' capacities. Iran can significantly help the Venezuelan healthcare sector because the medical sector has severely been affected by sanctions, so Caracas requires medical raw materials, she argued. Some Venezuelan researchers are scheduled to visit Iran in order to exchange views with scientists of Royan Institute, the science minister said, adding that stem cells are among the fields that Venezuela is keen on collaborating with Iran and using Iranians' achievements in this regard. The Venezuelan official further said that Venezuela is the ninth country in the world in terms of biodiversity and that the country is prepared to collaborate with Iran in the field of medicinal plants. She also invited the Iranian vice president to visit Venezuela in order to inspect the technological capabilities of the Latin American country and discuss ways to expand cooperation in scientific and technological sphere. Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish