A new shipping line between Iran’s Jask Port and Oman’s Al Suwaiq Port has come on stream and will be used to transport wholesale Iranian commodities to Oman using containers, Iran-Oman Chamber of Commerce announced on Wednesday.
This is the fourth direct shipping line launched between the ports of the two neighboring countries after Bandar Abbas-Sohar, Khorramshahr-Sohar and Bandar Abbas-Al Suwaiq, the news portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture reported.
Iran-Oman Chamber of Commerce also announced that following negotiations by the Iranian Embassy in Muscat with Omani officials, the direct shipping line between Oman’s Sohar Port and Iran’s Bandar Abbas Port on the shores of the Strait of Hormuz has resumed its activity.
The shipping line was launched in mid-2015 by the private sectors of the two neighboring countries, yet commercial vessels along this marine route halted operations from early November after the new round of US sanctions against Iran came into effect.
The joint chamber of commerce has noted that only commodities not included in the sanctions list will be traded via this route.
Alireza Jalalzaee, the head of Sistan-Baluchestan Cultural Heritage, Handcraft and Tourism Directorate, said last month that Iran’s southeastern port of Chabahar will pair with Oman’s Sohar as sister ports in the near future.
"The move would help improve cultural, economic and commercial ties between the two ports and eventually boost friendship and tourism between the two nations," Mana.ir quoted him as saying.
Sisterhood or twinhood between towns, cities, counties, provinces, regions, states and even countries in geographically and politically distinct areas refers to a form of legal or social agreement to promote cultural and commercial ties.
The modern concept of twinning, conceived after the Second World War in 1947, was intended to foster friendship and understanding between different cultures and between former foes as an act of peace and reconciliation and to encourage trade and tourism.
Iran’s trade with Oman reached $870 million during the first seven months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Oct. 22) to register a 50.77% upsurge compared with the similar period of last year, according to Iran’s commercial attaché to Oman.
“Expansion of marine transportation between the two countries, facilitation of visa issuance procedures and an increase in Iranian companies established in Oman are among the main reasons for this increase in trade,” Abbas Abdolkhani was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
If the same trend were to continue, he said, Tehran and Muscat will experience a twofold increase in bilateral trade by the end of the current fiscal year compared with the previous one.
President of Iran-Oman Chamber of Commerce Mohsen Zarrabi said in October that trade between the two countries is expected to reach $1 billion by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2019).
According to Iran’s Embassy in Oman, as many as 25 trade delegations from the private sector were exchanged between the commerce chambers of the two countries in the fiscal 2017-18.
