TEHRAN – Iranian Agriculture Minister Mohammad-Ali Nikbakht has said his ministry will take all the necessary measures for increasing investment in the country’s free and special economic zones, Freena reported.

Speaking in a meeting with Secretary of the Free Zones High Council Hojatollah Abdolmaleki on Tuesday, Nikbakht referred to the appropriate strategy of the Free Zones High Council in internationalization and jump in investment and export in the country’s free zones, and announced the complete readiness of his ministry to solve the issues related to the Agriculture Ministry in such zones.

Abdolmaleki for his part mentioned some of the potentials and capacities of the free and special economic zones, saying: “These zones play a key role in the country's economy by accounting for more than 70 percent of the country's sea transit and more than 30 percent of non-oil exports.”

In late August, Abdolmaleki had announced that 850 packages for investment in the country’s free zones were ready to be presented to the investors.

“We have launched a movement to jumpstart investment in the free zones, with 850 investment packages worth about 15 billion euros ready to be presented to investors”, Hojatollah Abdolmaleki reiterated.

“We have already presented these investment packages in exhibitions in Tehran, Mashhad, Sulaymaniyah of Iraq, and Armenia, and hundreds of new investors have been identified from different regions who have expressed interest in this regard”, the official added.

As announced by Abdolmaleki, the growth of investment-making has doubled in the country’s free trade and special economic zones during the current government’s incumbency.

The official said that the implementation of development projects has also doubled.

In an interview conducted by the Tehran Times in mid-June, Abdolmaleki said: “In the past, the amount of foreign investment made in the zones was very limited and the reason was that the investment opportunities and capacities in these areas were not well introduced. This year, we started a program that, thank God, is working very well, and that is preparing investment packages and introducing them to domestic and foreign investors.”

These packages are in fact a preliminary feasibility study plan that shows the profitability of that plan, the amount of capital required, the required raw materials, technical and technological issues, consumer and market, which is actually the feasibility studies of that project and it shows whether the project is profitable or not, he added.

EF/MA

Photo: Agriculture Minister Mohammad-Ali Nikbakht (R) meet Secretary of Free Zones High Council Hojatollah Abdolmaleki on Tuesday.