Page 44 - IRANRptOct19

markets. TANAP connects to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that is to make landfall in southern Italy via Albania and a subsea route under the Adriatic Sea.
9.1.5 ​TMT sector news
Iran’s Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology and the Iran National Innovation Fund plan to send an Iranian team of tech companies, startups and experts to Baku from October 15 to 18, to expand technology ties, Tehran’s Financial Tribune reported on September 29.
According to the office’s website, Isti.ir, the trip is aimed at observing the latest technological achievements in the host country, meeting heads of local tech companies and laying on visits to Baku's science and technology parks.
The trip could help Iranian tech firms forge ties with counterparts, take on investments and access specialised training, among other things, the report said.
Iranian officials said the visit to the Azerbaijani capital would raise motivation for progress among fledgling startups and knowledge-based companies.
The Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said Iran’s ‘intranet’, the National Information Network (NIN), now covers more than 30,000 villages, CITNA reported.
NIN was initially launched in 2016 to enable e-government services alongside regular internet connectivity. The network is only available inside Iran. It is spearheaded by bodies such as the Iranian Tax Authority and local municipalities.
Jahromi reportedly said 17,000 businesses based in homes were delivering their products through NIN, meaning the network was helping to reduce rural unemployment. Jahromi was speaking on the sidelines of the “Achievements in Rural Infrastructure Development Event.”
Villages were being connected to NIN at a rate of 4,900 per year, with the connectivity established along with the provision of new broadband landline connections.
In August, it was announced that more than 108,000 schools in Iran were also now connected to NIN. Centralised lessons and streamed lessons were said to be reaching rural regions on the network.
NIN is not without its critics. The wider plan for the network has been mocked by Iranian expatriates and foreign media because of its supposed “Halal” nature, with content deemed unwholesome removed.
Though it has a relatively high rate of ‘non-connectivity’, Iran is one of the most tech-savvy countries in West Asia, with some two-thirds of the population now avid internet users.
Recent statistics from the Society for Measuring Information (SMI) suggested more than 65% of Iranian internet users were now active on both local and international social media.
Comms MEA lately estimated that there were now some 53.2mn mobile phone users in Iran, a country with a population of more than 80mn.
Iran has developed an indigenous version of the popular Android operating mobile system in response to Google’s policies against the country, Iran Press reported on July 8.
Iran, which during the previous round of sanctions in 2013 developed local app
44​ IRAN Country Report​ October 2019 www.intellinews.com