IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

TEHRAN – President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday opened 58 development projects in northwest, south, center and east of the country.

The projects were inaugurated through a video conference due to the pandemic which has created headaches for holding various events and meetings worldwide.

The development projects with 437-million-euro investment are in Aras Free Zone (northwest), Kish and Qeshm Islands (south), Payam International Airport (north), Shiraz in Fars Province (south), Sarakhs in Khorasan Razavi Province (east) and Yazd (center).

After inauguration of those projects, 4,413 direct job opportunities will be created.

Sarakhs special economic zone enjoying good strategic and geographical situation has attracted attention of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) member-states.

This economic zone is a golden gate to enter Central Asian countries, China and Russia.

It is also a trade bridge between Central Asian markets and Persian Gulf littoral states, Europe, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

President inaugurated two production and industrial units in the “Special Economic Zone and Payam International Airport” in Alborz Province via videoconferencing.

Inauguration ceremony National Development projects in Iran’s Special Economic Zones all across Iran via videoconferencing was underway with President Rouhani in attendance.

The Managing Director of “Payam International Special Economic Zone and Airport” on Wednesday said: “These production and industrial units have been prepared to be set up with an investment of more than seven thousand billion Rials and employment of 722 people.”

During inauguration of some projects in free trade zones, Secretary of Iranian Free Zones High Council Morteza Bank said that according to the developmental policies in the free zones, since January till the end of the Prudence and Hope Government’s term in July 2021, some 598 construction and developmental projects with an investment worth 55,000b tomans ($3.4b euros) and creating 102,000 jobs will come on stream.

Bank who was speaking in the videoconference on the occasion of inaugurating the projects said that today 58 economic projects worth 4,800b tomans (some 438m euros and $4.4m) were inaugurated in the free zones of the country which created 4400 direct jobs whose major source of investment and finance has been provided by the private sectors in free zones of Aras, Qeshm and Kish and special economic zones of Sarakhs, Payam, Shiraz, Kaveh and Yazd which were inaugurated simultaneously by the president.

He further said 12 projects out of those projects are carried out in Aras Free Zone, 11 projects in Kish Free Zone, 14 projects in Qeshm Free Zone, 21 projects in special economic zones of Payam, Sarakhs, Shiraz, Kaveh and Yazd, respectively.

Mr Bank noted that all these projects have been carried out and come on stream due to supports of private sector and investors in order to develop production, trade and exports in line with resistance economy policy of the country.

He then delved into details of the projects inaugurated on Thursday by President Rouhani, saying that Sarakhs Special Economic Zone is the gateway for Iran’s economic exchanges with the Central Asian countries. He reiterate the project of linking Chabahar-Sarakhs railways and the transit roads of these two towns is in the works which is of the main levers of developing eastern part of the country.

Mr Bank also said that job creation in Payam Special Economic Zone has been quintupled and attracting investment has been twentyfold.

Earlier President Rouhani ordered the opening of new oil export terminal with relatively large storage and bunkering facilities near the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

The terminal opened in Qeshm Island, located in the Strait of Hormuz off the Iranian southern coast, would significantly boost Iran’s capacity for export while increasing the capacity for ship bunkering in the region.

“Today an important zone for exports of oil products was opened in Qeshm where ships will be able to dock for bunkering,” said Rouhani of the the Deyrestan oil terminal while using a video conference call to open the facility.

A report on the website of Qeshm Free Economic Zone said that the Qeshm Oil Investment Company had spent some $150 million euros to launch the oil terminal.

The report said the facility would have a final storage capacity of 6.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and condensates once the second and final phase of the project is launched in early 2021.

Deyrestan currently has six storage tanks which are linked to a nearby refinery via a 22-kilometer pipeline, it said.

Meanwhile Rouhani opened the new oil export terminal during a ceremony to launch dozens of construction and development projects in the Iranian special economic zones (SEZ).

His office said the 58 projects opened in eight SEZs across Iran on Thursday had cost more than $650 million, including finances provided by private investors.

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This was announced by Managing Director of Aras Free Zone Organization Mohsen Nariman in a meeting with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Gholamreza Ansari on Monday, IRNA reported.

Nariman said the meeting is aimed at expanding Iran’s interactions as well as economic and trade relations with the countries of the Eurasia and Caucasus regions.

In an address to the same meeting, Ansari said AFZ is Iran’s only gateway to the markets of the members of the EAEU and Commonwealth of Independent States.

He stressed that it is necessary to increase non-oil export-oriented interactions and trade transactions with these countries using AFZ’s capabilities, capacities and potential.

AFZ plays a major role in and has a good geographical position for trade with the EAEU states, Ansari said.

Noting that Armenia is the only EAEU member having common land border with Iran, the deputy minister called for using this opportunity to introduce the route passing through Armenia as the road for transit of Iranian products to the union’s member states.

According to figures by Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), during October 2019-June 2020, trade between Iran and the EAEU members witnessed an increase of 14 percent, compared to what it was in the same period of the preceding year.

The increase was achieved despite the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the drop in global trade.

The first meeting of Iran-EAEU trade taskforce, which was set up to expand trade between the two sides after they inked a preferential trade agreement in October 2019, was held online on July 8.

The meeting was attended by Hamid Zadboum, the TPO’s head, and Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali, as well as other officials from Iran and the EAEU member states.

Speaking at the meeting, Zadboum said, “We are trying to remove the obstacles to boosting bilateral trade through cooperation.”

Having an annual trade of over $800 billion, the EAEU member states play a significant role in the global trade, he noted, adding Iran attaches great importance to the expansion of trade with these countries.

Zadboum said annual trade between Iran and the EAEU member countries currently stands at over $2 billion, which can be increased to $5 billion in the short term and $10 billion in the long run.

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