A Public Private Partnership Approach to Support SMEs in ICT Sector in Iran

Information and communication technology is one of the emerging technologies that have a great impact\non all of the economy infrastructures. This technology changes the viewpoint of policy makers toward a\nknowledge based economy.\nIn order to promote this technology in Iran, and according to fourth development plan, we need to\nempower the private sector in this field by commercializing R&D activities, and so we should leverage the\nSMEs in ICT sector.\nIn order to reach these objective, in this paper we discuss the design and operation of a special program\nto increase the number of new products/services in the market, to enhance the quality of existing\nproducts/services, and to upgrade ICT companies such that they can propose better services to their\ncustomers. This program is indeed an incubation program for ICT outreach companies and is the first step\ntoward without-wall incubators in Iran.\nIn this paper we also mention some other key points, such as the program role to establish new spin off\nenterprises, defining specific rules to achieve a competitive environment, how to hold Intellectual property\nissues, and how to monitor the activities of the companies doing the projects.