Secretary of Iranian Free Zones High Council Morteza Bank said that special economic zones (SEZs) and free trade zones (FTZs) had also sent some $5 billion worth of their goods and products to mainland Iran over the past Iranian year (ending March 19), reported Press TV.

Bank said that manufacturing and business schemes were thriving in special and free zones like never before, adding that the number of new jobs created in those regions exceeded 36,000 in the year ending late March.

He said the government aims to finish a total of 310 key projects in SEZs and FTZs till March 2021 to add between 40,000 to 45,000 new jobs in those areas.

Bank said a bulk of new investment injected into free and special zones normally come from private Iranian investors, adding a total of nearly $1 billion worth of new investment had been carried out in those regions over the past calendar year to set up various manufacturing and business schemes.

He said, however, that foreign direct investment into Iranian SEZs and FTZs had decreased last year to stand at $140 million with American sanctions being a main reason.

Iran’s High Council of Free Trade and Industrial and Special Economic Zones has been in charge of efforts and government plans to increase manufacturing output in those regions where firms and businesses enjoy lower tariffs and duties.

Interest in Iranian SEZs and FTZs has grown substantially over the past years as the country has been shifting away from oil revenues to boost manufacturing and trade, especially in areas more favorable to investors.

The country aims to reach a target of nearly $40 billion worth of exports for non-oil goods and services in the next two years.

The Parliament allowed the government to pave the ground for developing two major FTZs in Sarakhs and Dogharoun, areas on the border with Afghanistan, Press TV reported.

Dogharoun, the gateway for official trade between Iran and Afghanistan for more than a century, will be developed as Iran’s largest FTZ in an area of around 8,700 hectares, said reports in the local media.

Establishing the zones in the eastern province of Khorasan Razavi is expected to help the local economy in the normally underdeveloped regions across the border between Iran and Afghanistan as more investment will be attracted to the FTZs due to eased restrictions governing such areas.

According to the parliamentary bill passed on Monday, the Iranian government will also launch three FTZs in the northern province of Mazandaran, a hub for agriculture where exports of farming products to countries to the north of Iran have increased over the past years.

The three new FTZs will be developed in port cities on the Caspian Sea, namely Amirabad, Fereydunkenar, and Noshahr, said the media reports.

Some of the five Iranian locations approved to become FTZs had already served as special economic zones (SEZ).

Iran’s Guardian Council, which vets legislation by Parliament, must endorse the bill passed on new FTZs before it can become law.

Announcing the new economic and trade zones in Iran come as the country seeks to boost trade with neighboring countries in a bid to access new sources of foreign currency and offset the impacts of a series of American sanctions that have hampered its oil sales.