Tehran, Iran, Aug.3
Trend:
Iran's Golestan Province in north east of the country has high potential to increase exports due to its special location, Governor of Golestan Province Hadi Haghshenas told Trend.
"Golestan is among very few Iranian provinces, which have the advantage of having both and sea border," he said. "Since 2013, the province's exports have amounted to $200 million, while the value exports in the last Iranian year only (started March 21, 2018) reached $250 billion, which shows a significant growth."
Speaking about the province's production capacity, he noted: "The province shares ten percent of country's poultry production and occupies the second place among wheat producers in Iran, supplying 1.300 million tons of wheat a year. It ranks the first in oil seeds production including rapeseed and sunflower seed, and is the fourth in terms of the cotton and rice production as well as in the number of tourists."
He went on to say: "Golestan Province grows 92 types of agricultural products, thus, having high capacities in agriculture. For example, it supplies 260,000 tons of tomato per year. In the meantime, there is a lack of process industries in the province; creation of such industries would increase shares of the Golestan Province in the country's non-oil exports."
"For example, there are nearly 4,000 hectares of shrimp farms in Iran's north coast, and only Golestan has the capacity to process and export the shrimps, if there were process industries in the province," he added.
"We held negotiations with Ministry of Industries, Mine and Trade to expand number pf industrial cities in the province. The other issue is the problem with electricity in Etrek industrial city with 1,000 hectare area, which we hope to resolve with the help of the Ministry of Energy and the Planning and Budget Organization," he said.
"The parliament has approved creation a free economic zone at Incheboron border with Turkmenistan. This will allow to develop processing industries in the area and attract real investors in this sector," he noted.
The official emphasized that Golestan Province was hit by the flood during past one and half month; nevertheless, it is expected that the province will provide an investment package in the near future including advantages for the investors.
"The offers to the investors in the province may include assigning land and providing facilities for infrastructure such as roads, water and power with low interest rate," he added.