The Importance of Infrastructure Development and Systemic Interaction Among Institutions

Iran’s Challenges on the Path to Achieving Smart Governance
The founder of the Smart Governance Think Tank emphasized that e-government represents the most basic level of progress in governance, stating that effective governance depends on infrastructure and the systemic interaction between law enforcement agencies and the public.

According to a report by the economic news group of the Student News Agency, on the occasion of Research Week, the Vice Presidency for Research and Technology at Iran University of Science and Technology organized a series of specialized lectures at the university. Among the most notable panels were speeches by the legal advisor to the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, the Vice President of Research and Technology at the MAPNA Group, the Deputy of Transportation at Tehran Municipality, the Deputy of Digital Solutions and Smartization at MCI, the founder of the Smart Governance Think Tank at Iran University of Science and Technology, and several other senior managers and deputies from both the public and private sectors active in research fields.

On the final day of these lectures (Research Day), Iran University of Science and Technology hosted Dr. Zarepour (Minister of Information and Communications Technology), Engineer Mokhberian (Minister of Energy), Dr. Soleimani (Deputy Minister of Science), Dr. Kheiruddin (Vice President for Technology and Innovation at the Ministry of Science), Dr. Salehi (Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development and CEO of Iran Railways), Dr. Ghadirifar (Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Central Organization of Rural Cooperatives of Iran), Dr. Taghavi (Director General of the Research and Technology Development Office at Tavanir), Dr. Nouri (Director General of the Research, Development, and Information Technology Office at Iran Water Resources Management Company), the Scientific and Cultural Counselor of Iraq, the President of the University of Baghdad, and others.

In one of these sessions, the founder of the Smart Governance Think Tank, in a planned specialized lecture, first defined governance and then elaborated on good governance and its scientific literature. He stated: “Although the largest law enforcement entity or governor in our country is the government, it must be noted that governance depends more on infrastructure and the systemic interaction between law enforcement agencies and the public, rather than the relationship between a specific government and the people.”

In the continuation of his specialized lecture, he identified the most important goal of achieving good governance as the successful and optimal management of economic, political, executive, and other resources by governments.

Sayyed Taha Hussain Madani, in another part of his lecture, highlighted some of the challenges in achieving good governance, stating: “On the path to realizing and institutionalizing good governance, we face two main categories of challenges: software and hardware challenges. Software challenges primarily pertain to cultural issues, which relevant institutions must address. As for hardware challenges, such as infrastructural, legal, and other systemic issues, these are matters that must be seriously pursued within the Smart Governance Think Tank.”

He added: “The lack of accurate, clean, and sufficient big data, the absence of a data analysis infrastructure worthy of the country, and the inadequate integration between platforms are among the most serious challenges to fully achieving good governance in our country.”

The founder of the Smart Governance Think Tank pointed to the advantages achievable through the use of managerial assistants such as media and regulatory bodies on one hand, and software platforms and AI-based development tools on the other.

He further explained the fundamental differences between key terms such as e-government, digital government, and smart government, adding: “E-government is the most basic and initial level of progress in governance, as it merely involves the exchange of data between the public and the government using information technology. In a digital government, we move one step further, and the country’s executive processes are reformed. In the next step, which marks the beginning of a smart government, in addition to moving beyond the previous two levels, issues such as preventing the repetition of past mistakes, proactive and preventive approaches to challenges, forward-looking development and progress in optimizing processes and structures, and more are addressed through the collaboration of smart tools like AI.”

Madani, regarding the key features of smart governance, stated: “Preserving and disseminating expert knowledge, enhancing the level of knowledge, preventing the repetition of mistakes, preventing corruption, self-development, balanced growth across all dimensions of governance, accelerating the process of reforming procedures and structures, and providing proactive solutions for unforeseen weaknesses are among the most important issues that will be achieved in a smart government.”

In the final part of the specialized session, the founder of the think tank discussed the current status of over 30 countries and their achievements in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Smart Governance. Referring to international sources, he mentioned China’s $1 trillion investment by 2030 to achieve a smart governance system and India’s implementation of a 12-digit biometric-based identification system for 1.3 billion people.

Madani, outlining the primary goal and first executive step of the think tank, said: “The Smart Governance Think Tank considers itself responsible for the full implementation and realization of e-government, given the availability of big data, as the first step toward smart governance.”