TEHRAN, Iran, Dec.26
Trend:
Secretary of Iran's High Council of Free and Special Economic Zones Morteza Bank said that Exports from free zones are three times higher than imports and reach $20 billion, Trend reports citing IRNA.
“1,900 manufacturing and industrial units are active in the free and special areas,” Morteza Bank said. "We have taken effective measures in this area to develop them.”
“In Aras Free Zone, the area of greenhouses will exceed 300 hectares by the end of next Iranian year [March 21, 2020],” the secretary said adding that the free and special zones cover less than 0.5 percent of the country's territory.
“Our free and special zones finance their infrastructure from their own revenues, which is a new kind of pattern,” the official added.
“It is not correct to compare our free zones with those at neighboring countries. In addition to difficult economic conditions in our country, foreign and even domestic investors have to go through thousands of procedures to be able to work in Iran's free zones,” said Morteza Bank.
He went on to say that the international sanctions and fluctuations have negative impact on attracting investment.
“However, due to the incentives and benefits available in these areas, the special and free zones are significant despite difficulties,” Morteza Bank noted.
Pointing to the volume of private sector investment in the free zones of the country, he stated that it was about $9.5 billion in 2017, about $16 billion in 2018, it reached nearly $26 billion this year.
"Of course, foreign sector investment is limited due to the constraints, as their financial transfers are difficult at the moment,” the official said. “The investor must be very brave to invest in Iranian free zones due to the sanctions, unclear rules, barriers to production, and lack of world standards.”
"Meanwhile, even under these tough conditions, we have been able to attract large investments, and we are proud of this,” he said.