Iranian, Iraqi Universities to Establish Joint Science, Technology Park
This specialized meeting was held at the University of Euphrates in Kufa in the presence of high-ranking Iraqi government officials, university presidents, vice presidents, and professors.
The meeting was attended by high-ranking Iraqi government officials, university presidents, and faculty members, and chaired by Haidar Abdul Dhahad, the deputy minister of Higher Education of Iraq. The main areas agreed upon in the cooperation between a consortium of the top 5 technical universities include establishment of a Science and Technology Park through cooperation between Amir Kabir University of Technology in Iran and Baghdad University of Technology.
On the first day of the meeting, Iraqi officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Hamed Khalaf and President of Euphrates Al-Awsat University Hassan Kazem Al-Zubaidi, emphasized the need for universities to move towards a knowledge-based economy and strengthen the relationship between industry, government, and universities.
They considered amending the laws for establishing science and technology parks, creating incentives for the private sector, and modeling on Iran’s self-sufficiency experience as requirements for this path. Also, a proposal was made to hold joint skill courses for students and professors of the two countries.
Representatives of Iranian universities also introduced their capacities and experiences in launching and managing science and technology parks and educating successful students at the national and international levels, emphasizing that the formation of such structures requires a gradual transition from educational, research, and technological stages.
In a relevant development in June, officials of Razi University in Iran’s Western city of Kermanshah and Al-Iraqia University in Baghdad in a meeting had also underlined the development of mutual cooperation.
“Based on the latest ranking of the Islamic World Science Citation Database (ISC), Razi University has ranked 8th among 64 comprehensive universities in Iran. This database evaluates universities based on 183 performance indicators,” said Jamal Fat'hollahi, the president of Razi University.
He expressed the hope that scientific and research cooperation between the two universities would expand and these interactions would also help strengthen relations between the two nations of Iran and Iraq.
Ali Saleh Hossein, the president of Al-Iraqia University, for his part, expressed the hope that the memorandum of understanding with Razi University would be implemented quickly and joint cooperation between the two universities would expand.
“Al-Iraqia University is already ready to advance scientific and research cooperation with Razi University,” he added.
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