The parks studied in this research are the parks that have reported an income of more than 24 Million dollar.
The Parliament Research Center has published a report entitled “Presentation of the preliminary model for the classification of science and technology parks in the country based on evaluation and performance indicators” and in it, while providing a definition of science and technology parks, it has proposed headings for their classification in Iran, which are The most important ones are the average employment generation, the ratio of research and development people to the total number of employed people, and the ratio of exports from the total income of science and technology parks.
According to Iran digital economy annotation, at the global level, there are several indicators for evaluating science and technology parks based on knowledge and technological outputs. According to the report of the Parliament Research Center, the most important indicators in our country are: the number of knowledge-based companies and technological units located in the park, the amount of employment and total income, as well as the amount of exports.
But the issue is that due to the difference in functions and the nature of science and technology parks, the current evaluations cannot accurately show the effectiveness of the parks’ activity and enable a correct and fair comparison between them.
For example, as stated in this report, Science and Technology Parks of Tehran University and East Azarbaijan have no export productivity even though at least 30% of established companies have a developed technical knowledge. Besides, their total income is not much. At the same time, Pardis Science and Technology Park, despite its success in generating income and employment, does not have much export productivity in terms of average commercialized technical knowledge.
There are few companies in science and technology parks that are engaged in the production of a necessary or technological product, but the lack of proper support and the lack of accumulation and practical use prevent them from having a significant impact on the country’s economy and society’s well-being.
Of course, it should be mentioned that perhaps the issue of job creation is an important issue and one can express satisfaction with the level of job creation of companies active in science and technology parks and growth centers with an optimistic view and imagine its economic and infrastructure efficiency for the future, but with the path that this companies have taken, there is not much hope and this level of employment in these centers will probably become a big challenge in the near future.
Therefore, these companies will be forced to change direction and retrench in the near future, after growing up for no reason and without rational profitability, in order to earn more income by using intelligent systems and lighter service activities, with less force.
History of technology parks
As stated in the report published by the Parliament Research Center about the history of technology parks, there is still no comprehensive definition of science and technology parks, and they are also named university research parks, science parks, and science and technology parks in the world.
Also, placing several science and technology parks, innovation centers, growth centers and accelerators together with the development and combination of a set of infrastructural, institutional, scientific, technological, educational and social assets also leads to the creation of innovation areas or research and technology towns.
These parks have goals such as helping to increase wealth in society through the development of a knowledge-based economy, helping to attract technical knowledge and international and domestic capital, increasing the competitiveness and growth of knowledge-based companies and commercializing the results of academic research and realizing the connection between research and production and service sectors. They follow the community.
Iran’s selected science and technology parks
According to what is stated in the research center report, the existing indicators are mainly focused on axes such as the number of established companies, the number of employment and total income and exports, and the issue of productivity or the development of leading technologies in parks and its share of the income so far in the official reports that It is not reported that an evaluation is prepared by the parks or the institutions in charge of them.
Some of the indicators that are reported at the international level include the income of products and services related to specific activities, venture investments, research and development costs, the separation of income from the sale of technology or products with higher than average technology, the separation of cost and capital credits. The number of registered patents, the amount of foreign investment attraction, the number of international partners, contracts with the industry and so on.
In this report, an attempt has been made to provide indicators based on productivity and according to the global indicators that exist in this field, based on the availability of information and data, some of which have been received through the Ministry and some of which have been received directly through correspondence from science and technology parks. has been selected and the condition of the selected parks should be evaluated in these indicators.
A look at the overall performance of science and technology parks
The reports of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology show that the number of employees located in all science and technology parks is more than 73 thousand people and the total income of the parks in 2021 was about 23 thousand billion Toman. It should be noted that this data does not distinguish between the sales of products with superior technologies and products with medium and low technologies of these companies and only expresses the company’s total income.
The highest total income was declared by Pardis Technology Park (about 20 thousand billion Toman) (of course, this number is different from the amount of 427 billion Tomans reported to the Ministry), followed by Isfahan Scientific-Research Town with about 5.5 thousand billion Toman.
Next, the parks of Semnan, Alborz, East Azarbaijan, Tehran University and Fars provinces are located with an income base of at least one hemat higher. The total income from the export of science and technology parks in 2021 was 123 million dollars, of which about 90% belongs to science and technology parks with an income of more than one thousand billion Toman.
According to the data of the Parliament Research Center report, in our country until the end of 2021, 58 science and technology parks were reported in the statistics of the trustee institutions, a significant number of which were under the supervision of the Ministry or received the necessary permits from this ministry.
This ministry has also prepared periodical reports on the performance of science and technology parks and provides them to regulatory bodies.
The most important evaluation indicators of science and technology parks
The most important indicators evaluated by the Parliament Research Center in its report are: the number of knowledge-based companies and technological units located in the park, the amount of employment, total income and exports.
Recently, it has carried out measures in the field of introducing its evaluation indicators, and during that classification of science and technology parks based on different growth periods of the parks, deprived or developed area, proximity to industries, obstacles and capital costs and access to basic infrastructure and made coefficients. for these components (between 0.8 and 1.2 percent) in the evaluation of parks.
The total number of established companies and employment in Iran’s selected science and technology parks
According to the Parliament Research Center, the graph below shows the number of companies located in science and technology parks investigated in this study and the number of their employees. According to the graph, it is clear that in most of the selected parks, the number of employees is proportional to the number of established companies and units. In other words, the more the number of companies located in the parks, the more the number of employees; Of course, this fit does not exist in the campus technology park.
Total income of companies located in selected science and technology parks
The second indicator mentioned in this report is the examination of the total income of the companies located in the selected science and technology parks. Indeed, the difference between the incomes of the parks is very high and the campus technology park had the most income by a long distance. In its direct reports to the Parliament Research Center, Pardis Park mentioned the income of 15.5 thousand billion tomans in 2019 and 20.1 thousand billion tomans in 2020; However, in the report sent by the Ministry of Science, this income for the year 2020 is a little more than 400 billion tomans, which seems unacceptable.
Income from exports of companies based in Iran’s science and technology parks
According to the reports of the Ministry, the income from the total export of science and technology parks in 2013 and 2014 was 140 and 123 million dollars, respectively, which is approximately equivalent to 17% of the total export of knowledge-based companies in 2014 (about 800 million dollars). It is important to mention that in this context, the announced figures show the export of technological products or medium and ordinary products of these companies and do not necessarily reflect the amount of products with a high technology level.
Number of commercialized know-how/technology
According to a report published by the Parliament Research Center, most science and technology parks usually do not provide an official report on the number of commercialized know-how and technologies, and since it seems that most of them do not measure this data regularly and annually and separately In response to the information request of the Parliament Research Center, they have not sent complete statistics in this regard.
According to the reports of the Ministry the cumulative statistics of the number of technical and commercialized knowledge of all science and technology parks in 2020 was about 3188.
Average employment
The definition of this title is given in the mentioned report. According to this definition, average employment means the average number of employed people for all companies located in the park (E/C), which is measured in order to investigate the growth, size and development of park companies.
It is clear that the average job creation in Pardis Technology Park, Semnan University, Alborz University and Tehran University is higher than other selected parks.
The ratio of R&D people to total employed people
The number of research and development people equivalent to post-graduate researchers with master’s degree and doctorate or post-doctorate working in companies based in the park has been included. On average, about 25% of the employees of the selected parks in this report are considered to be employees of research and development.
It is worth mentioning that in the overall review of all science and technology parks, Tarbiat Modares Science and Technology Park has the highest percentage of research and development workers (about 55% of people working in this park), which is due to the affiliation of this park to Tarbiat Modares University as a university of education. Completion and graduates with degrees higher than master’s are expected.
The ratio of exports to the total income of science and technology parks
According to this report, this index is calculated as the income from exports to the total income of companies in science and technology parks and shows how many percent of a park’s income is from exports.
Isfahan science and research town has the largest share in the export of products and services among science and technology parks, so that nearly 40% of the park’s income is from exports.
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