The Iranian Minister of Information and Communication Technology Seyed Sattar Hashemi has concluded an intensive three-day visit to the southwest province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad.
The minister kicked off his second provincial trip on
Wednesday to inaugurate communication projects and meet local officials and
people.
After arriving in the provincial capital Yasuj, Hashemi
visited the nomadic girls' dormitory to review the communication status of the
dormitory during which he distributed university entrance exam educational packages
as well as LED monitors among the students.
He met the
representative of the Supreme Leader and the Friday Prayers Imam of Yasuj Ayatollah
Seyed Nasir Hosseini in which he expressed the government’s readiness to
advance the telecommunication infrastructure in the province.
The minister also met businessmen and representative of the knowledge-based
companies in the field of information and communication technology, as well as
the representative of the province's people in the Assembly of Experts Ayatollah
Seyed Sharafaddin Malekhosseini.
The high-ranking clergy expressed his support to the
government’s policy of easing internet restrictions and urged advancement of
communication infrastructure projects in the province.
Hashemi paid his first provincial visit to the holy city of
Mashhad, capital of the Razavi Khorasan Province last November, after
he was approved as the ICT minister in August 2024 by the Iranian
parliament.
During the visit to Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad province,
Hashemi inaugurated mobile network projects in Sadrollah village visited
ongoing projects of the Dehdasht Infrastructure Communication Center. He also
held informal and cordial meetings with the nomads of the region.
The minister took part in the meeting of the provincial
Administrative Council to exchange views with the governors, officials, and
directors. Hashemi said communication infrastructure is a prelude to digital
economy and welfare of the people. Prior to the meeting, he met local people of
Yasuj in Saheb al-Zaman mosque.
The provincial visits by government officials in Iran have
been in practice as means of face-to-face meeting with the people and to hear
their voices. During election campaigning and in public meetings, President
Masoud Pezeshkian who took office last year promised to lift Internet curbs.
In the first step to ease Internet restriction, he fulfilled
his promise by lifting filtering of WhatsApp messaging service and Google Play
digital distribution service last December.