TEHRAN – Some 34 development projects with an investment of 30.6 trillion rials (about €61 million) and €9.5 million are going to go operational in Iran’s ports by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 19).

According to the Iranian Transport and Urban Development Ministry, the mentioned projects are mainly focused on the expansion and modernizing of the equipment of the country’s commercial ports, IRNA reported.

In mid-November last year, Ali-Akbar Safaei, the head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) said that the PMO was going to attract 1.0 quadrillion rials (about $1.968 billion) of investment in the country’s ports to develop the maritime economy.

In a televised interview Safaei said that 470 trillion rials (about $924 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 had so far signed deals worth 60 trillion rials (about $118 million) with PMO to implement development projects in the country’s ports.

“In order 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 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.

EF/