TEHRAN - The Secretariat of Iran’s Free Zones High Council has published a notice inviting all legal and natural persons, companies, stock exchange organizations, and entities to partake in establishing Iranian free zones’ first international stock exchange, the Securities and Exchange News Agency (SENA) reported.

As reported, the majority of shares in the mentioned exchange are aimed to be owned by foreign companies and entities.

As the country’s fifth stock exchange, the said stock exchange will be established with an initial capital of 30 million euros.

Iran has four stock exchanges, namely the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME), Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX), and Iran’s over-the-counter (OTC) market, known as Iran Fara Bourse (IFB).

In an exclusive interview conducted by the Tehran Times with Hojatollah Abdolmaleki, the secretary of Iran’s Free Zones High Council, in mid-June, the official answered a question about the establishment of the international stock exchange in the free zones, as below:

We have two goals in these zones. One is to popularize them, so that they will benefit the people of the region and the country and the investors, and two is to globalize them.

In relation to the internationalization of the zones, we say that the free trade and special economic zones are members of the national team of the international economy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they are basically our spearheads for the powerful presence of Iran in the world economy.

In the field of globalization of our zones, we follow five policies, one of which is to complete the software infrastructure of the international economy in these zones; part of this infrastructure is in the financial field, such as the international stock market, international insurance, international financial institutions, and offshore bank.

We received the final approval for the establishment of the international stock exchange from the Supreme Council of the Stock Market a week or two weeks ago, and we are entering the process of appointing partners to establish it.

Some foreign and some domestic partners have voiced their readiness, and the first international stock exchange will be hopefully set up in the Kish Free Zone (in south of Iran) by the end of the present year (March 20, 2024).

EF/MA