TEHRAN – The head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) has said over the past few years the organization has managed to attract nearly $1.7 billion of foreign and domestic investment in the country’s ports and maritime sector.

Speaking in a press conference on Wednesday, Ali-Akbar Safaei said some 620 trillion rials (about $1.24 billion) of domestic investment and $470 million of foreign investment have been attracted in the mentioned sectors, IRNA reported.

“The attraction of this amount of private sector investment is significant compared to the total budget of the government in the sea and port sectors,” Safaei said.

According to the official, regarding the foreign investment, PMO has signed contracts with five countries including India which has so far invested $120 million in the port sector and $250 million in the rail, roads and infrastructure sector.

Referring to the growth of maritime trade in the country, Safaei continued: “Maritime trade increased from 215 million tons in [the Iranian calendar year] 1401 (2022-2023) to 237 million tons last year (ended on March 19, 2024).”

“In the first quarter of the current year, 60 million tons of maritime trade was recorded, which shows a 10 percent growth compared to the same period last year, and even a 70 percent growth was recorded in some ports of the Caspian Sea,” he added.

Back in November 2023, Safaei said his organization was going to attract 1.0 quadrillion rials (about $2 billion) of investment in the country’s ports to develop maritime economy.

Speaking in a televised interview, the official said 470 trillion rials (about $924 million) of the mentioned figure was going to be invested by the private sector and the rest would be supplied by PMO.

“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 the course of five years.

EF/MA