Iran is set to operate a 144-meter cruise ship “Grand Ferry” connecting the port of Bushehr to Hamad Port, Qatar’s main seaport, located south of Doha.
The vessel is expected to embark on its first voyage today, August 24.
According to Director General of Ports and Maritime Directorate of Bushehr Province Siavash Arjmandzadeh, the shipping service will provide cargo transportation for pallets and various types of containers, including refrigerated ones.
“Given the high costs of air transport, the Grand Ferry will facilitate transportation and open a new horizon for trade ties between Iran and Qatar,” Arjmandzadeh was quoted as saying by News.mrud.ir.
Some 678,000 tons of non-oil commodities worth $117 million were shipped from Iran’s Bushehr Province to Qatar during the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2019).
According to Saeed Zarrinfar, the deputy for economic affairs and resource development of Bushehr Governorate, the figures indicate that Bushehr's exports to Qatar registered a 62% and 47% growth in terms of value and volume respectively year-on-year, Mehr News Agency reported.
Minerals, construction materials and agricultural products were the main exports from Bushehr to Qatar.
Minerals accounted for 62% of the total volume of the southern province’s exports to Qatar, while agricultural and industrial products constituted 23% and 14% of the exports respectively.
Two southern ports of Bushehr and Lengeh account for the largest portion of goods sent from Iran to Qatar.
Iran and Qatar have been forging stronger economic ties ever since a number of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia abruptly severed diplomatic relations with Doha in June 2017 and imposed a blockade on the Persian Gulf country, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups.
The Qatari government denies the allegation as baseless, blasting the blockade as unjustified and a violation of international law. Following the development, Iranian exporters have vied for the Qatari market in the absence of Doha's traditional Arab partners. Qatar shares the world's largest natural gas field with Iran.
Qatar's Ambassador to Iran Ali bin Hamad al-Sulaiti thanked Tehran for its assistance to Doha one year after diplomatic and economic sanctions were imposed on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran pioneered aid and humanitarian assistance to the Qatari government and tried to reduce the negative impacts of the siege on Qatari citizens. It opened its airspace to the Qatari planes and rapidly sent foodstuff to make up for the abrupt cut in export of goods by the four countries. It also provided a passage for transferring goods by many countries to the Qatari government,” Sulaiti wrote in a memo.
According to Hossein Hosseini Mohammadi, the head of Bushehr Industries, Mining and Trade Organization, bolstering commercial relations with Qatar, resolving bilateral trade problems and increasing non-oil exports from the southern Iranian province of Bushehr to Qatar topped the agenda of the visit of an Iranian economic delegation, comprised of private-sector entrepreneurs and state officials, to Qatar in November to meet with Qatari officials and businessmen and discuss ways of further developing bilateral economic relations.
