Head of Academic Jihad Organization: Brain Drain of Academics Has Extended to Migration of Knowledge-Based Companies
The head of the Academic Jihad Organization warned on Monday, July 18, that due to the production of technologies that have no customers in Iran, the brain drain of academic elites has extended to the migration of knowledge-based companies.
According to IRNA, Rouhollah Dehghani Firoozabadi criticized the growing trend of brain drain and said: “This practice, in light of the support given to knowledge-based companies in other countries, particularly neighboring and Arab countries, and in the neglect of officials, has led to mass migration of elites in the form of knowledge-based companies.”
Mr. Dehghani described the prerequisite for the activity of knowledge-based companies as “defining the cycle of value and wealth creation” and said: “Some people, without paying attention to the value and wealth creation chain in society, claim that the number of knowledge-based companies should be increased.”
The increase in knowledge-based companies in recent years has occurred following repeated recommendations from the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic and the passage of supportive laws and regulations by parliament and the government, to the extent that their number has risen from approximately 4,600 companies in 2019 to about seven thousand in the current year.
The head of the Academic Jihad Organization identified the most important challenge facing these companies as “the disconnection of technologies in Iran from innovation” and said: “With an increase in knowledge-based companies, we will only have an increase in technologies that have not been converted into innovation or consumer products and do not reach the market.”
According to this academic official, if the puzzle of the value creation chain is not completely addressed, “we will face other forms of migration and certainly a disaster.”
The phenomenon of “real” migration of knowledge-based companies has formed while some time ago Iran’s Tax Administration Organization also reported “a rush and eagerness” of companies to introduce themselves as knowledge-based to benefit from tax exemptions.
Saeid Totoonchi, Deputy Head of the Tax Administration Organization, on Monday, July 4, referring to companies unrelated to knowledge-based production that have been classified in this category, also said: “We faced a case where a producer of gaz (traditional Iranian candy) in Isfahan had presented itself as a knowledge-based company.”
According to Article 3 of the Law on Support for Knowledge-Based Companies, which was approved by parliament in 2010, these companies are exempt from paying taxes, duties, customs fees, commercial profits, and export duties for a period of fifteen years.
Furthermore, based on Article 11 of the Law on the Leap in Knowledge-Based Production, which came into effect from April 2022 following parliamentary approval, the equivalent cost of research and development activities of these companies is calculated as their tax credit.
The head of the Academic Jihad Organization also referred to the issue of non-genuine knowledge-based companies in his critical remarks and said: “Currently, our country is filled with nominal and non-genuine knowledge-based companies.”
Supportive laws for foundation companies have been enacted following repeated recommendations by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, regarding knowledge-based activities and companies.
Mr. Dehghani, the newly appointed head of the Academic Jihad Organization, in another part of his remarks, referring to special facilities that some countries, including the UAE and Turkey, provide to technologists, added: “The fact that a knowledge-based company is now migrating to Turkey or the UAE deserves much reflection, as it may encourage other knowledge-based companies to migrate.”
This academic official attributed the cause of this problem to the production of technologies that have no customers in Iran and added that until the “empty house of technology connection to innovation” is filled, “if we pressure to increase and develop knowledge-based companies, we are actually pouring water on the enemy’s mill.”
Based on statistics published by the Khabar Online website in April of this year by examining data from the Passport Office of the Islamic Republic from 2001 to August 2020, Iran ranked 19th in “sending students” to other countries, and the population of Iranian emigrants has doubled over the past thirty years.
Source: Radio Farda
