The Minister of Information and Communication Technology Seyed Sattar Hashemi said that the development of rural communication is the key to overcoming the disparities between the cities and villages.
Hashemi made the statement in a meeting
on Sunday with the Vice President for Rural Development Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh
during which he stressed reducing the digital gap between cities and villages.
Communication Equity
"Our entire focus is to ensure
that every step we take is in line with achieving justice,” Hashemi said.
“All plans at the ICT Ministry are outlined
with the objective of achieving communication equity, educational justice, and
economic justice,” he added referring to the Ministry’s mission to develop the
country’s communication infrastructure.
"Educational equity is achieved
by creating fair access to communication in the remote rural areas. Likewise, economic
justice is achieved by providing the opportunity to offer products of villagers
through the communication networks."
The ICT Minister also reiterated plans
on bridging the digital divide across the country and said: We are firm on reducing
the gap between the cities and villages in terms of the access to communication
services.
“As a matter of fact, the ICT
Ministry during the term of office of President Masoud Pezeshkian has been seriously
pursuing the development of rural communication,” he stated.
Hashemi referred to the ICT
assessment review at the onset of President Pezeshkian’s government in 2024 and
said, “We emphasized that a new and precise monitoring of villages with
communication access should be carried out, with an emphasis on the quality of
services.”
“Villages that had access but lacked
the required quality were removed from the list of connected villages and
re-included in the rural communications development plan,” he added, “We reminded
the executive bodies that the statistics provided should be in line with
reality and based on the desired quality of access."
The ICT Minister further stated that the
development of quality communication infrastructure is as an effective factor
in reducing rural migration.
"We believe that a developed ICT
infrastructure reduces the need for rural people to migrate to big
cities."
ICT Ministry lauded
For his part, the Vice President for
Rural Development Hosseinzadeh praised the ICT Ministry for its dedication to
the development of rural areas and overcoming their disparities with the urban
areas.
He also appreciated ICT Minister Hashemi’s
plans to remove Internet access restriction.
"The continuation of restrictions
has caused dissatisfaction in the society and disrupted people's lives,
especially their business activities,” he said.