TEHRAN- The 25th Conference of Coordinating Marine Organizations of Iran is scheduled to be held in Chabahar Free Zone (southeastern Iran) on January 30 and 31.

The motto of this year’s edition of the event is “Developing Marine Transportation with Resistance Economy Approach”. And its pivots are:

1- Protecting marine environment, the basis for sustainable development 
2- Port logistics and private sector’s role in marine development of the country
3- Marine transportation development: Maritime safety and security

Tidewater Middle East, a major port operator in Iran, is the organizer of the event.

In a press conference on Sunday, the company’s CEO Mehdi Etesam said that the conference is aimed at resolving the problems of marine organizations of the country and removing the barriers in the way of their activity through an operating and applied approach.

“We urge that the conference should be fruitful in removing the problems of marine organizations”, he emphasized.

Specialized panels will be held on the sidelines of the conference, Etesam announced and mentioned Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO), National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), and the active companies as the major bodies present in the secretariat of the conference.

The conference will be held in the conference hall of Chabahar Free Zone, he said and added that First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri, some ministers and members of parliament (Majlis) have been invited to participate in the inaugural ceremony.

Tidewater Middle East has previously organized the 17th edition of the event in Iranian calendar year 1388 (March 2009-March 2010), the CEO said.

“We organize this conference, as we consider ourselves a specialized and operating arm of the PMO”, he underlined.

Conference to highlight significance of Chabahar

Elsewhere in his remarks, Etesam said: “Given the emphasis put by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei on the advantages of marine sector and also the necessity of developing Chabahar Port, all state-run organizations and also the private sector should act for development of that region. In this due this conference is decided to be held there in order to highlight the significance of Chabahar.”

He went on to say that the government doubled its efforts for implementing the first phase of Chabahar development, which was inaugurated last month. High investment has been made for this phase. Now it berths very large vessels.

It is hoped that this development will be all-out and such conferences will encourage and attract the private sector and investors to more development of the region, he noted.

“We should take more and more measures for developing Chabahar, because the regional countries including Pakistan, Oman, the UAE and Kuwait are already developing their ports”, Etesam opined.

“Given our proper geographical location and also our short distance to the Commonwealth of Independence States (CIS), we should bring development of Chabahar under the spotlight and it should be a top priority among development projects of both government and private sector”, he also commented.

Such conferences can help a lot to this end, Tidewater CEO asserted.

MA