It is internationally accepted that measuring and monitoring information society has an important role in supporting and guiding policy makers and in determining progress as well as gaps and areas for further development and investment. A well-formed set of ICT indicators can assess the current and potential impact of ICTs on development and promotes capacity building in this domain. In Islamic Republic of Iran, policy makers have recognized the importance of measuring and monitoring ICTs and they have considered a specific article in the Fifth Socio-Economic and Cultural Development Plan of Iran (2011-2015) that instructs ICT ministry to develop a system for ICT measurement in the country till the end of second year of the plan. According to the plan, ICT ministry is responsible for measuring, monitoring and providing analytical reports and feedbacks for the decision makers.
ICT ministry has assigned one of its subsidiaries named Iran Information Technology Organization (ITO) to develop the ICT measurement system for Iran. This organization performed this assignment in the Fourth development plan and based on its previous experiences, this organization that acts as national coordinator for ICT measurement in Iran, has started this task with the help of Information Technology Research Center of Tarbiat Moddares University and Iran University of Science and Technology and Data Processing company (Parvaresh Dadeha). This initiative is an excellent successful working example of cooperation among government, academic and research bodies and private sector in Iran for achieving the country goals and objectives. In this proposal, a summary of the initiative and its related activities is described. ITO is ready to provide this experience and related best practices to the member countries in the region.

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• Iran (Islamic Republic of)