TEHRAN – The Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran (OIETAI) has approved a plan to attract foreign investment for building a freeway in the northwest of the country.

The Tabriz-Marand-Bazargan freeway is projected to be built using foreign source of finance over the course of five years, the IRNA news agency reported on Monday.

The project will significantly boost job creation in the region and will expand transport infrastructures which will lead to a surge in the transit of goods and the export of products.

Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Abbas Akhoundi has said that the total length of freeways across the country is about 2,360 kilometers, which will be extended to 5,200 kilometers by the next four years.

Currently, a number of freeways, namely the Tabriz-Marand, the Mashhad-Neishabour, the Boroujerd-Khorramabad, and the Hamedan-Kermanshah, are under construction, the minister said.

The Iranian deputy transport minister for planning affairs, Amir Amini, said in April that the country invites foreign investors to do investment in the housing and road construction projects in Iran.

The ministry is doing its best to adopt harmonized and unified stands with other organizations affiliated to the ministry to provide a comprehensive plan of action for foreign investors. 

The presence of foreign investors in Iran is growing, the director general for foreign investment at OIETAI, Abolfazl Koudeie, said.

The value of foreign investment in Iran during Iranian calendar year 1392 (March 2013-March 2014) reached $16 billion, showing more than 100 percent growth as compared with the year before, which was $7.5 billion.