Iran, Venezuela Sign MOUs to Expand Technological Co-Op

Iranian and Venezuelan businesses signed 60 memorandums of understanding on the sidelines of the exhibition of Iranian technological products. The four-day event opened in the Venezuelan capital Caracas on Wednesday. More than 200 business roundtables were held between Iranian and Venezuelan companies with the aim of signing agreements and strengthening cooperation, Venezuelan Minister of Science and Technology Gabriela Servilia Jimenez said. Emphasizing the importance of strengthening relations with Iran, Jimenez cited "mutual understanding, creating complementary links, strategic alliances, technology exchange, and transfer, trade, and cooperation" as examples. Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, also attended the exhibition and visited the booths of Iranian automobile companies, and announced that Venezuela will assemble four Iranian cars that are sold in this Latin American country for between US$12,000 and US$16,000.
Today, Iran is an exemplary country and a country of progress, production, knowledge, and production of products, he added.

The largest and most strategic Iranian companies in the fields of the automobile industry, agriculture, medicine, medical equipment, ICT, and creative industries displayed their achievements.
The exhibition started with the presence of 82 Iranian companies and 50 Venezuelan technology groups, which showcased 500 high-quality products to enter the Venezuelan market.
In August, Jimenez met in Tehran with Former Iranian Vice President for Science and Technology Sourena Sattari, discussing ways to enhance technological cooperation in the field of agriculture, medicine, and medical equipment.

During the meeting, Jimenez said that medical equipment, animal husbandry technologies, cultivation of medicinal plants, animal medicine, agriculture, advanced materials, and the environment are among the areas where Venezuela is interested in using Iran's capabilities. Iran can provide significant help to Venezuela’s health sector, the pharmaceutical sector has faced the most damage due to sanctions, and we need raw materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients.

These materials are included in the field of all medicines, including recombinant bio-chemicals and specifically, anti-cancer drugs, linear accelerators, and equipment, she explained. Stem cells are one of the areas where we are interested in sharing our experiences with Iran and using Iran's achievements, she highlighted. She went on to say that “Venezuela is the ninth country in the world in terms of biodiversity and we are ready to cooperate in the field of medicinal plants, which can be a beneficial capacity for technological development.” One of the challenges of technological interactions is the mechanism of financial exchanges between the two countries, for which a solution must be prepared with two-way interactions, Sattari stated, noting that many knowledge-based companies use innovative tools to deal with sanctions. For Iran-made products to enter the Venezuelan market, especially in the pharmaceutical and medical fields, a specific mechanism for approvals and standards should be defined and introduced to the firms, he stated. - Tehran Times