TEHRAN, Iran, May.6
Trend:
Iran’s Sarakhs Free Zone will become a regional energy exchange hub for the Central Asia, Sarakhs governor said.
He noted that in particular, Turkmenistan, which is an oil and gas exporter, needs to transport its products to Europe.
“Sarakhs Free Zone has the necessary infrastructure to facilitate swaps and exchanges,” Sarakhs governor Mohammad Reza Rajabi Moghadam said, Trend reports citing IRNA.
He noted that Sarakhs Free Zone can meet the energy needs of other Central Asian countries and facilitate the re-export of their products including oil, mineral products and derivatives, such as sulfur, through companies that provide technical and specialized services in the field of energy.
"Currently, the cheapest sulfur in the world is produced in the Central Asian region, which needs to be processed for export,” he said. “Two mineral processing units will be opened in this free zone till end of October.”
Rajabi Moghaddam pointed out that Sarakhs has a positive export balance in trade with Central Asia thanks to the appropriate infrastructure for transit of goods.
"On the other hand, Sarakhs is the only free trade zone in the country, the infrastructure of which has been created by the non-governmental sector,” he said.
The zone is located 150 kilometers east of Mashad, capital of Razavi Khorasan province, and 15 kilometers from Sarakhs city and is neighboring Turkmenistan from north and east of the zone.
Its activities started from 1996 simultaneously with the inauguration of railway project between Mashad-Sarakhs and Tejen.