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Iran transfers 32 fishing ports to private sector

Business Materials 25 February 2013 12:28 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.25 / Trend F.Mehdi/

Iran has transferred the operation of 32 fishing ports to the private sector in the current Iranian calendar year which began on March 20, 2012, IRNA quoted the Iranian Fishery Organisation Director Gholamreza Razeqi as saying.

The decision has been taken in line with article 44 of the Constitution which stipulates privatising state-owned entities, he noted.

The organisation aims to transfer the operation of ports and harbours to cooperatives and unions, he added.

The total capacity of Iranian ports has increased by 80 million tons during the past eight years, reaching 184 million tons, IRNA quoted Iranian Roads and Urban Development Minister Ali Nikzad as saying on Sunday.

Emam Khomeini and Shahid Rajaii ports are the two key ones accounting for 90 per cent of the total capacity, he added.

On February 2, ISNA quoted head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation Ataollah Sadr as saying that building 60 small and multi-purpose ports across Iran is underway.
By the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20), 40 ports will be inaugurated, Sadr added.

Sadr went on to say that 11 major Iranian ports have the loading and unloading capacity of up to 172 million tons.

In December 2012, Sadr said that Iran plans to increase capacities of its commercial ports by 100 per cent by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2013), IRIB reported.

Capacities at Shahid Rajaee , Shahid Beheshtit and Bandar Anzali ports will be doubled to six million, six million and 16 million tons respectively, he added.

He added that just 135 million tons of the ports' capacity is currently being used for loading and unloading goods.

The ports have the capacity of 5.7 million TEU, but only three million TEU of the capacity is being used, he noted.

Iran's trade turnover in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year which began on March 20 amounted to $65.5 billion.

The country conducted transactions with 150 countries during that period.
Exports stood at $28 billion dollars, while imports surpassed $37.4 billion in the eight month period.
Iran's annual trade turnover is projected to reach $160 billion by the end of the fifth five-year development plan (March 2016).

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