Baku, Azerbaijan, March 15
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iranian Ports and Maritime Organization Managing Director Mohammad Saidnejad has said that great changes will happen to the way the organization offers services after international sanctions on Iran are lifted.
There is a high probability that the talks with the group P5+1 will lead to a final agreement, he said, Fars news agency reported March 15.
Iran and the P 5+1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) are holding intense talks on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
The sides are to reach a comprehensive agreement by the self-imposed deadline of June 1.
Tehran says that any agreement is bound to the removal of sanctions.
Sahidnejad went on to say that in the current Iranian calendar fiscal year (March 21, 2014 to March 20, 2015), Iran's port activities grew by 6 percent.
He further stated that during this time, private investment in the ports saw a great rise.
Saidnejad noted that in the current Iranian year, the Chinese finance was made available for Iran, which, according to him, is another valuable measure as far as it concerns ports and trade transactions.
He further said that some marketing projects are currently carried out by Iran in order to attract international liners to Iran's ports after the economic sanctions are lifted.
The total loading and unloading capacity of ports in Iran has reached 184 million metric tons, Saidinejad had stated on December 2.
He added that the passenger transfer capacity has reached 18 million people per year.
On March 20, the offiical stated that $500 million is being invested to develop Iran's ports.