Quoting IRNA, our Public Relation Center reports that Dr. Vaezi added: “Before this, there were only 3 million people that had access to internet services, but today we are facing 9 million internet users in the country.”
He added: “Before the office of the 11th government, only 200 thousand individuals had the opportunity to benefit from mobile telephone services, but today more than 11 million people around the country are users of this service.”
The ICT Minister expressed that: “Providing Internet services even for villages of more than 15 households are on the agenda of this ministry, to the extent that more than 8000 villages in every part of I.R. of Iran are now benefitting from these services and another 25000 villages will join this service by the end of this year.”
He emphasized that: “The transfer capacity of the inter-network lines have doubled since the 11th government took office, in such a manner that the capacity of transit line connecting Europe and Asia has increased by 213 percent.”
Vaezi reminded that: “Last year, the 3G mobile network was connected to 220 cities in Iran, and this year, transmitting the 4G mobile network is on the ICT Ministry’s agenda.”
He included: “Through the efforts of our staff, the Internet bandwidth which was 700 mb/s at the beginning of our term of office has now reached 2400 mb/s; and in this direction, the needs and requirements of the internet retail provider companies have also been considered.”
Dr. Vaezi continued by saying: “Before the government of ‘wisdom and hope’, 10 percent of the content was provided locally and the other 90 percent was provided from outside the country, but since the onset of the 11th government, local provision has increased up to 35 percent and this ministry is paying special attention to the production of the required applications.”
Stating that from the onset of the government of ‘wisdom and hope’ a credit equaling 80.000 billion Rials has been spent on various programs and projects of the ICT Ministry, he added: “Out of this amount, 25.000 billion Rials has been funded by the government and the rest have been put up by the private sector.”
Vaezi included: “Investing in the IT sector has not been a priority in the previous government, but the 11th government intends to fully address this topic.”
He reminded that: “The government intends to advance IT services as the driving force of development, strengthening other sectors, and facilitating everyday life and business in the society.”
The ICT Minister included that: “This is a major objective that cannot be realized without the collaboration and participation of universities and researchers; and it is our Ministry’s agenda that we only provide the required groundwork and leave most of the investment activities to the private sector.”
He emphasized that: “For us, always helping the private sector is considered a duty, but we also expect the researchers and individuals, plus the private sector, to show their resolve in taking the first steps, then ask for our help and support as a patron or sponsor.”
Vaezi underlined the fact that the government does not like to be in charge of everything, or be competing with the private sector, and said: “We must utilize the existing potentials and capacities in our country to be able to provide the groundworks for growth and development of activities, resulting in making an environment for job-creation and business growth.”
Vaezi included: “Today ICT must take its rightful place as the foundation for development of any country, in order to provide the possibility of strengthening other sections of the society and the business environment.”
He stated that: “The ICT’s main strategy is to help the economic prosperity of the country through research and strengthening of local production, with the help of the people and the knowledge-oriented companies.”
In another part of his speech, he said: “Since the separation of Iran Space Agency (ISA) from the President’s Office and its affiliation to ICT Ministry, various programs have been devised for development of this sector.”
He expressed that: “Sending an Iranian satellite to space to provide for different requirements of the country, is one of the projects under implementation in this agency.”
Vaezi mentioned the subject of social networks currently used in mobile phones, reminding that: “If these networks show the slightest sign of unethical and immoral activities, or advertise illegal relationships, they shall not be tolerated.”