The geo-political and strategic importance of Iran is so high that no country can mistake to ignore it. A world superpowers and its allies imposed illegal, unethical and inhumane sanctions against it but the leadership of Iran was so sincere, visionary, strong, dedicated, honest and sincere to Iran that it filled the hearts and minds of Iranian a firm faith in Almighty Allah, sense of high patriotism and resilience that Iran emerged as an important power of the region. It equipped its people with high quality education, skills and hard work and used its own resources so intelligently that Iran is now a country with Knowledge Economy and its advancement in Robot and Drone Technology is astonishing.
Iran fought against sanctions and turned itself on sound economic footings, self-reliance and viable country that despite hindrances and sanctions it made wonderful progress. Its leadership framed Iran’s foreign policy in a way that helped it to come out from isolation. Iran has made significant progress in this direction and has excellent strategic relations with China and Russia. Iran is an important player in global power game and its role cannot be ignored. A recent example is that it got the permanent membership of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a Eurasian political, economic and security organization and is the world’s largest regional organization in terms of geographic scope and population, covering approximately 60% of the area of Eurasia, 40% of the world’s population and more than 30% of world’s GDP.
Members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and their data
Country Population in million Area sqr km GDP US$ billion GDP per capita Exports US$ billion 2021 Imports US$ billion
2021
China 1,411 9,696,961 30,180 21,364 3,363.5 2,069
Russia 145.47 17,098,246 1,829 30,013 388.4 293.4
India 1,407 3,287,263 11,745 8,358 335.44 395.83
Pakistan 242.92 881,913 1,468 6,470 34.57 69.04
Kazakhstan 19.122 2,724,900 569.81 30,178 580.00 380.00
Tajikistan 10.01 143,100 7.82 810 1.359 3.778
Uzbekistan 35.35 448,978 73.49 2,071 11.48 25.42
Kyrgyzstan 6.99 199,951 37.79 5,562 1.84 4.18
Iran 83.18 1,648,195 1,573 18,332 110 65
Iran has the largest proved gas reserves in the world, with 33.6 trillion cubic meters. It also ranks second in world oil reserve with an estimated 153.6 billion barrels. It is OPEC’s second largest oil exporter and is an energy superpower.
Due to unjustified, inhumane barbaric sanctions against Iran it accepted its challenges and with the help of its honest, dedicated, competent, leadership accepted this challenge and converted Iran from oil based to innovation and knowledge based economy. It has 12,900 km installed railways, 21st largest in the world and is highly suitable for regional connectivity. It has a network of roads about 215,000 km 26th largest in the world. It has 739 commercial ships, 30th largest in the world. It produces large quantity of steel 18 times more than world’s average. It is 10th biggest steel producer of the world. It produced 68.3 million MT cement in 2021 while has the capacity to produce 80 MT. It is also 18th largest automobile producer and produced 880,997 vehicles in a year. It has a plan to produce 1.6 million vehicles in a year. Iran has 737 innovative and creative companies. It has 118 innovative centers, 5,222 knowledge based companies. It has 49 Technology accelerators which are the main driving force for the development of new technologies in Iran. It is worth noting that 321 companies are active in Nano Technology which developed 834 Nano products. UNESCO indicated that Iran is the most advanced country in the Middle East and in the Muslim world with regard to Nano Technology.
It is also worth mentioning that 84% of Iranian women are literate while 97% of Iranian girls have access to education system. More than 20,000 Iranian women are University professors. Iran has 23 cultural heritage sites and is one of the 10 countries with the most cultural heritage.
Iran’s higher education sector has undergone tremendous growth in recent years. The country has seen a rapid expansion of the private sector and is now home to two of the ten largest universities in the world. Iran has a high literacy rate by regional standards, and in comparison to many other countries at similar levels of development, is a very educated society. The net enrollment rate at the elementary level (percentage of pupils in official school age group) was again high by regional standards is almost 100%.
Iran is the 9th country to put a domestically-built satellite into orbit using its own launcher and the sixth to send animals in space. Each year 20% of government and 5% of GDP goes to education, a higher rate than most other developing countries. 50% of education spending is allocated to secondary education and 21% of the annual state education budget is devoted to the provision of tertiary education. Iran has made considerable advances in science and technology through education and training, despite international sanctions in almost all aspects of research during in the past 30 years. Iran's university population swelled from 100,000 in 1979 to about 7 million in 2021.In recent years, the growth in Iran's scientific output is reported to be the fastest in the world. Throughout history, Iran was always a cradle of science, contributing to medicine, mathematics, astronomy and philosophy. Trying to revive the golden time of Iranian science, Iran's scientists now are cautiously reaching out to the world. Many individual Iranian scientists, along with the Iranian Academy of Medical Sciences and Academy of Sciences of Iran, are involved in this revival. The 9th century mathematician Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi created the logarithm table, developed algebra and expanded upon Persian and Indian arithmetic systems. His writings were translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona under the title: “The Jabro Muqabla” Robert of Chester also translated it under the title Liber algebras Al Moqabla. The works of Kharazmi "exercised a profound influence on the development of mathematical thought in the medieval West".
Sooner or later western world would realize its mistake that imposing sanctions on Iran and now on Russia has jeopardized the world’s peace and economy. Negotiation, sharing world resources with equality and justice is the viable solution. World can be run properly by democratic norms and not by dictation by few world powers. Whenever the sanctions would be lifted Iran would become a world power and sooner it is better to build good relations with Iran and benefit from its talent as Russia and China are doing.