TEHRAN – The innovation ecosystem would be possible through passing from oil-based economy to knowledge-based economy, Iran’s vice president for science and technology Sourena Sattari has said.

“Unfortunately the government is present in all sectors due to economy based on underground resources and it is considered as a weakness in innovation ecosystem,” he said.

He pointed to total ranking of Iran, which has moved up 48 spots to place 65 in Global Innovation Index (GII) 2018 in comparison with 2013.

As per an annual ranking of countries by their capacity for, and success in, innovation, 2018 released on Wednesday Iran ranks 65 among 126 countries in GII 2018.

He also named Tehran as a city, which has a great potentiality to turn into a smart city in near future.

Tehran houses several leading universities and it already has all infrastructures to be a smart city, which would be possible through improvement of organizations, infrastructures and market, he said.

GII is announced according to two main factors namely innovation input and innovation output, he said.

Unfortunately Iran is not very powerful in innovation input, which includes organization, infrastructure, market and business complexity, he continued.

However, Iran has a good situation in human resources and research as well as some indicators like creative output and science and technology input, he said.

SB/MQ/MG