Iran Exports 600 Million Dollars of Creative Industries' Products
“Various fields, including toys and entertainment, handicrafts and musical instruments, have been defined as sub-categories of creative industries, and in order to be effectively present in the global market, private sector organizations must have official correspondence with the specialized trade office in the Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) of Iran,” said Mohammad Hossein Habibnejad.
“Handicraft exports amounted to $224 million last (Persian calendar) year (started on March 21) , and the total volume of the country's creative industries exports is estimated at about $600 million,” he added.
“At present, several different agencies, including the Presidency, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, are in charge of parts of the creative industries,” Habibnejad said.
In a relevant development in October, an Iranian technological company in the Central province of Isfahan had managed to turn the waste of cutting stones into beautiful and valuable handicrafts for exports.
“A large volume of stone is turned into waste in mines and stone-cutting factories every year, which we turn into export handicrafts," said Amirhossein Shahpouri, the managing director of the company.
Noting that there are more than two thousand stone cutting factories active in Isfahan province, and a significant volume of stone is processed in these units, he said, “Based on figures, over 80 percent of the stone is turned into waste in the extraction process, and even in factories, over 50 percent of the incoming stone is turned into waste. This shows that a large part of the country's natural resources is lost in the processing cycle.”
“Iranian stones, especially from Isfahan, are of high quality and are even exported to neighboring countries. However, stone waste, which had no use, had become an environmental problem. For this reason, our main goal in establishing the company was to utilize this waste and turn it into value-added products,” Shahpouri said.
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