Two thousand persons are currently using domestically-made cardiac bioimplants in the country, the chairman of the board of directors of Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) stated. Half of the domestically-made cardiac bioimplants are used in the country and the other half is exported, he added.

The IDRO director, Majid Hedayat, went on to say that Iran is the third country in the world, from among the top five distinguished countries, holding the license to manufacture bioimplants. He added that 120,000 people of the country are using domestically-made bone bioimplants and 200 persons are using biological tendons bioimplants. In this line, we have so far launched two centers, he said.

Hedayat put the value of imported catalysts at around one billion dollars and added: “We managed to establish a catalyst production plant last year with the capacity of 150 tons despite the fact that we had not imported the required technology. The plant is currently operating with the capacity of 400 tons.”

The chairman of the board of directors of IDRO stated that for the time being 3500 tons of catalysts for steel, oil and gas industries are imported per year. So, we must become self-sufficient in this field, he added. This is while that the country needs 8-9 thousand tons of catalysts for 25 purposes and we have a long way ahead to attain self-sufficiency, he noted.

According to Hedayat, the country holds 28,000 cubic meters of gas, apportion of which is recoverable and to reach the OPEC ceiling gas should be liquefied. One of the ways for liquefying gas is designing and producing GTL which can greatly boost the national economy, he said.

 “At present, the country has the capacity to produce 4 million barrels of liquefied gas,” Hedayat said, adding that the amount is equivalent to the country’s total crude oil output. The GTL industry can inject 36 billion dollars to the national economy, he noted.

He referred to the three substantial duties of investing, institutionalizing and supporting industrialists and innovators toward boosting developmental organizations, saying that Industrial Development and Renovation Organization’s major activities include investment in underdeveloped regions and high-tech industries, establishment and renovation of units as well as implementation of contract-based projects.

He added that IDRO is active in ten fields of car, marine, rail, air, oil and gas and petrochemicals, building high-tech, agricultural and advanced industries. The organization has 65 projects in hand at the cost of 180,000 billion rials, including 100,000 billion rials worth of contract-based projects.

Hedayat stated that in the field of high-tech and SBDC industries, 47 units are in operation in universities and research centers with 226 concluded projects and 24 underway plans. He added that 150 R&D plans, costing 246 billion rials are underway. A number of 99 innovative plans with 295 billion rials budget have been approved and 7 projects with 83 billion rials budget are underway, he added.

  He referred to the implementation of 14 plans in line with the commercializing objective as among other activities of IDRO. The head of Industrial Development and Renovation Organization touched on activities of the organization in the field of renovation, saying that the organization took effective measures in renovating production lines at Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro-Industry Complex and boosting the company’s production capacity to 64,000 tons within two years and to 85,000 tons by the next year.

According to him, Ministry of Industries and mines and IDRO have taken steps towards realizing privatization in 2010 as equivalent as the fourth five-year development plan.