Iranian Knowledge-Based Firms' Exports Rise by Fivefold in 3 Years

According to a report by the Iranian Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy citing from the statistics provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA),  between the years 1399( started on March 21, 2020) to 1401(started on March 21, 2022), the export of knowledge-based companies increased by about 100% each year and it went up from $296 million to $1.132 million. Meanwhile, the import of knowledge-based companies also increased by 50% from $1,633 billion to $3.855 billion in that three-year period.

Innovative companies with a share of about 20% of the overall number of knowledge-based companies, registered 67% of total revenues and more than 75% of exports and imports. Meanwhile, technological companies that account for less than 7% of all knowledge-based companies, have about 30% of knowledge-based revenues and more than 20% of their overall foreign trade.

In these years, the chemical technology has had the largest share of exports with at least 50%, and this rate has increased continoulsly every year. The only technology area that has a positive trade balance is the advanced chemical field.

The knowledge-based exports recorded 13% increase in weight while their imports weight decreased by 10%; This means that in addition to the increase in the volume of knowledge-based exports, the depth of domestic production of knowledge-based products for export has also increased.

According to Vice-Presidency’s report, the data related to the export destination of knowledge-based companies showed that about 80% of the exports of knowledge-based companies were to Asian countries. In the meantime, about 90% of the imports of knowledge-based companies were from Asian countries. The 36% of imports and 22% of exports of knowledge-based companies were in the UAE from where they were re-exported and re-imported to and from other destinations.

Interestingly, knowledge-based commodities accounted for about half of the exports of knowledge-based companies in those three years.

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