TEHRAN – Deputy Head of Qeshm Free Zone Organization Mansour Azimzadeh Ardebili held a meeting with Chinese investors and entrepreneurs active in Iran’s southern Qeshm Island on Saturday to introduce the zone’s business opportunities and potentials.

According to the news portal of Iranian free and special economic zones (FREENA), during the mentioned meeting some issues and problems faced by Chinese manufacturers active in the Qeshm Free Zone were also raised and plans were made to resolve them.

“Reviewing and preparing investment packages in Qeshm Free Zone and effective presence in China's international exhibitions were also among other subjects discussed in this meeting, Azimzadeh Ardebili said.

The secretary of Iran’s Free Zones High Council has announced that 850 packages for investment in the country’s free zones are 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 on August 27.

“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.”

“We gave the title of “Safe haven for Investment” to Iran's free trade and special economic zones because, first of all, the cost of production in these areas is very low, the cost of land, the cost of manpower, the cost of energy and the cost of access to raw materials are very low, and there is appropriate infrastructure in these areas, and they mostly have good access to global markets, in addition to domestic markets. And in these areas, very special discounts and exemptions are offered as well”, the secretary of Iran’s Free Zones High Council further highlighted.

“Profitability in these areas is very high and our goal with these packages is to make the work of the investor easy”, he underlined.

EF/MA