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.