The Islamic Republic of Iran holds 1st place for nanotechnology in the region. Iran will enter the 10 leading world countries by 2015, Iranian official representatives said on July 21.

"When the nanotechnology head-quarters (in Iran) were established in 2004, we held 57-th place in the world. Our goal is to enter the 15 leading countries in this scientific sphere in 2015," head of the special organization for the development of nanotechnology, called the Iranian Nanotechnology Initiative, Said Sarkar, said.

Sarkar said that there are 15 Iranian universities which admit students applying for Master degrees in nanotechnology and another other 5 universities - for PhDs.  

He said that the major goal from head-quarters is for Iran to profit and flourish financially with the help of nanotechnology.

"We held 19-th place among world countries in this sphere in 2008. But we hold 16-th place in the world and 1st in the region in 2009," he said.

According to Sarkar, the volume of this market segment will hit a thousand billion dollars in the future. According to plans, Iran will receive 2 percent of this total.

"At present, there are 20 companies already operating and 50 new companies which are developing nanotechnology in Iran," he said.