“The Malaysians have invested heavily in the construction project of a 1000 megawatt power plant in this zone; they have also made investments in an aluminum melting plant which is to be constructed in Chabahar,” Mohammad-Taher Baqerizadeh explained.
“Oman, Afghanistan, and India are also going through the required procedures to invest in this zone,” he added.
Elsewhere he noted that the Chabahar FTZ Organization is after increasing the country’s income through this zone via expanding transit from Chabahar to various countries surrounded by land such as Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan and exporting these countries products to the world via Chabahar.
Baqerizadeh also referred to President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s emphasis on the quick inauguration of the Kerman-Chabahar railroad.
“This is to speed up the transit of products to Central Asian countries and Afghanistan,” he said.
This official noted that transit in the first three months of the Iranian calendar year (start March 20, 2008) had increased by 300 percent.
“We hope that this figure will reach 600 percent by the end of this year (Iranian calendar year ends on March 20, 2009),” he added.
Baqerizadeh noted that in the past Iranian year over $101 million dollars had been locally invested in this region.
RVA/MRK
END
MNA