TEHRAN – Head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) Ali-Akbar Safaei has said that investment in maritime projects across the country is going to be increased to one quadrillion rials (about $2.01 billion) in order to realize maritime economy goals.

So far 189 trillion rials (about $381.2 million) have been invested in various maritime projects across the country, Safaei said on Thursday in a televised interview with IRIB.

Mentioning the remarks of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei regarding the significance of the maritime economy, the official said the PMO has been named as the body in charge of realizing the country’s maritime economy goals.

In this regard, the parliament has also prepared the necessary legal basis in the maritime sector to increase the share of the sea economy in the country's economic growth, he said.

He pointed to the oil industry, marine food sector, and tourism as some major axes of the maritime economy, noting that in the offshore sector, the main issue is to form economic poles on the coastal regions.

Back in May, Safaei said that over $800 million of maritime and port projects were underway in the country.

In November 2022, PMO announced that the organization has modified its investment charter in order to facilitate foreign investment in the country’s ports.

“Since economic diplomacy is a major policy of the 13th government, the charter of investment in ports has been facilitated with the aim of attracting foreign investors,” IRNA quoted PMO Deputy Head Jalil Eslami as saying.

Speaking in a gathering of PMO managers with oil and petrochemical industry representatives, Eslami said: “We live in a period when ports infrastructure development is very important and over the past few decades positive efforts have been made to increase the capacity of ports in the south and north of the country.”

According to the official, the capacity of the country’s ports is going to be increased to 280 million tons per annum in the near future.

Later in March this year, Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash inaugurated 10 major maritime projects worth 42.951 trillion rials (about $81.1 million) in southern Hormozgan province.

EF/MA