Tehran, Iran, Jan. 11
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iranian government and private sector consider a plan to invest $19.89 billion (600,000 billion rials converted to dollar according to official rate on Jan. 11) in information and communication technologies as part of the country's sixth five-year development plan, said the country's ICT minister.
Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi said that one third of the mentioned amount will be provided by the government and the rest by private sector, IRNA news agency reported Jan. 11.
The sixth development plan will start March 21 when the fifth development plan, which has been implemented since March 2011, will be finished at the end of the current Iranian calendar year. Each plan lasts for five years to be implemented.
The minister added that the plan is aimed at providing the country's banking system with cyber security, optical cables, as well as radio and satellite technologies.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology estimates that software exports share only 0.7 percent of the country's GDP.
However, the figure was projected to reach two percent by the end of the fifth economic development plan.
A report by the Iranian parliament's Research Center suggests that the share of software exports from total industrial exports has been in decline in recent years.
The figure stood at 1.5 percent in 2005, but declined to 0.73 percent in 2013 and stood at some 0.56 percent in 2014.
