Tehran, Iran, July 8
Trend:
Iranian Deputy Minister of Road and Urban Development asked for transfer of a part of the production, supply, shipment, and sales of large international industries of the country into Iran's strategic plan.
“What today guarantees the economic and social security of countries is having a role in international trade and in global supply chains,” Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development of Iran Shahram AdamNejad said at the opening ceremony of the first National Logistics Meeting in Maku Free Zone, Trend reports citing official website of the Ministry.
“Logistics is the propulsion of this strategy,” he said. “The logistics headquarters of Iran was established in 2018 to coordinate and convergence of the main logistical actors of the country, whether in the private sector or in the state.”
Pointing to the need to facilitate regulations and trade with other countries, he says that facilitating the entry of foreign investment, focusing on building logistics infrastructures, and paying attention to technologies are among the main priorities.
“According to the ITF report, OECD countries spend on average 1-2 percent of their Gross Domestic Product to develop their domestic logistics infrastructure,” said AdamNejad.
“According to OECD, countries such as Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, which are Iran's regional rivals in the case of international corridors, are spending 2.6, 1.5 and 1.1 percent of their GDP, respectively, in the logistics infrastructure,” he added.
“Logistics and international supply chain are among the main economic potential of Iran, due to the country's special geopolitical position in the region,” the Deputy Minister said. “Given this potential, free zones of Iran can have a significant share in international logistics market.”
The Deputy Minister stated that, given the changing pattern of trade in recent years and emerging economies in the world, such as Indonesia and India, there is a need to determine the role of the free zones of Iran in the global supply chain and transit corridors.
The Deputy Minister outlined the most important roles that the free zones of Iran can play in order to improve the instant development of the country's logistics network.
“On-line coordination and communication between free zones in order to plan for cargo flows between, reduce the cost and time of goods transits and increase their scale of operation should be considered,” he said.
He went on to suggest the facilitation of the presence of multinational logistics companies providing valuable services.