TEHRAN, Dec. 20 (Shana) � The vice-president for science and technology has said that less oil revenue is a "valuable opportunity" for realization of knowledge-based economy in Iran.

Sorena Sattari said on Saturday that the unprecedented downfall in the price of oil in international markets is an opportunity for Iran to move its economy from being petroleum-based to becoming knowledge-based.

He also said the country is moving fast towards realization of knowledge-based economy, adding that a $200m budget has been earmarked for the Innovation and Prosperity Fund during the next calendar year which is just a part of the finances allocated to the fund.

The fund is still in its incipience and efforts must be made to gain more speed in moving towards the knowledge-based economy.
"When the economy becomes knowledge-based, the country will act more wisely when faced with price downfalls in the oil market," he added.

Iran expects to slash its dependency on oil revenues to all-time lows, Sattari said in January.
The official said oil dependency in the new draft budget proposed for the next Iranian calendar year (which starts on March 21) would be around 30 percent.

The figure represents the lowest ever dependency of Iran's budget on oil revenues.
Sattari said that development could create a �golden opportunity� for Iran to move from the current oil-based economy to a knowledge-based one.

Iran is faced with an unprecedented downfall in the prices of oil at the international markets which, accompanied by West�s sanctions on Iran's oil exports, could further shrink the country�s actual earnings.
Iran's annual budget in 2013 also saw a 40-percent decrease in the projected oil incomes, a move described by the administration as making the budget extremely contradictory to respond to Western sanctions.

By SHANA