TEHRAN – The head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) said the organization is going to sign 30 investment deals worth 450 trillion rials (about $900 million) with domestic private sector active in the maritime sector, the PMO portal reported on Monday.

“These investments are made by the private sector and are separate from the investments made since the beginning of the 13th government administration until now,” Ali-Akbar Safaei said in a press conference on the sidelines of the seventh International Exhibition of Transportation, Logistics, and Related Industries.

Referring to the general maritime-oriented development policies emphasized by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Safaei said: “The government is creating an executive mechanism to realize these general policies so that we can see the participation of the people and the private sector in the maritime field.”

Back in November, Safaei said PMO was going to attract 1.0 quadrillion rials (about $1.968 billion) of investment in the country’s ports and maritime sectors to develop maritime economy.

Speaking in a televised interview on November 12, the official said 450 trillion rials (about $900 million) of the mentioned figure is going to be invested by the private sector and the rest will be supplied by PMO.

According to the official, private contractors have so far signed deals worth 60 trillion rials (about $118 million) with PMO to implement development projects in the country’s ports.

“To realize the general development policies of the maritime sector, we need an integrated, coordinated and agile management at the highest level,” Safaei said.

While Iran is combating the U.S. unilateral sanctions on its economy, the country’s ports as the major gates of exports and imports play a significant role in this battle. This role makes all-out support to ports and more development of them serious and vital.

Such necessity has led the government to define projects for more development of the ports and also take some measures to encourage investment making in ports, in addition to facilitating the loading and unloading of goods, especially basic commodities, there.

It is worth mentioning that Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization has defined a high number of projects to develop and improve the country’s ports, as the country aims to double the capacity of its ports in the course of five years.

According to the PMO, the capacity of the country's ports has increased from 180 million tons in the Iranian calendar year 1392 (ended in March 2014) to 250 million tons in 1399 (ended in March 2021).

EF/MA