TEHRAN (Iran News) – Transit of goods through Iran rose 70 percent in the first 11 months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2021-February 19, 2022), as compared to the same period in the past year, according to the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA).
Speaking at the 32nd meeting of the TCCIMA board of representatives, Masoud Khansari put the value of the goods transited via Iran in the said 11 months at $12 billion, Mehr News Agency reported on Tuesday.
According to the official, the country’s total non-oil trade stood at $90 billion in the mentioned period which was also 38 percent more than the figure for the previous year.
Khansari said Iran can become a maritime and aviation transport hub in the region considering the country’s huge capacities in this regard.
“Iran can be both a maritime and an aviation transportation hub [in the region] and a bridge between east and west as well as north and south,” he said.
Iran is one of the countries that have a special status in trade and transit relations due to its strategic location and special geography, as the country is the passage of several important international corridors.
In the south of Iran is the Persian Gulf, which is home to the world’s major oil-producing countries. This region is considered the energy bottleneck of the world.
In the north of Iran is the Caspian Sea, which is the best bridge between Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan and can play an important role in trade between these countries.
The country, on the other hand, borders Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to the west and east.
In other words, it can be said that Iran communicates with 15 countries through land and water borders, and at the same time it can act as a bridge between these countries (with each other and other parts of the world).
However, the geopolitical potentials of the country have not been recognized fully when it comes to transit.
Back in February, Head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) Alireza Moghadasi said: “Based on the policies of the resistance economy and the fifth and sixth national development plans of the country, every year we should have witnessed a 10-percent growth in transit via the country, which unfortunately in recent years, after proper growth, we had a decreasing trend in transit.”
“In the Iranian year 1393 (March 2014-March 2015), the transit of goods via Iran reached more than 13 million tons, after which not only we did not have growth in this due, but in 1398 and 1399, this amount fell to 7.5 million tons”, he added.
“Fortunately, transit has returned to its growth path in 1400 [the present Iranian year], and is expected to reach 12.4 million tons by the end of this year”, Moghadasi further stated.
