A 30-member delegation of Omani traders and business owners visited Hormozgan Province’s Shahid Bahonar Port on Friday. Following their visit, senior managers of Oman’s National Ferries Company expressed their willingness to help launch a shipping line between Iran’s Bandar Abbas and Oman’s Port of Khasab. NFC is a significant contributor to maritime transport infrastructure and development in the Sultanate of Oman.
“The main aim of the trip is to expand economic relations between the private sectors and the commerce chambers of the two countries. Oman is eager to play a more significant role in the Iranian market,” IRNA quoted the representative of Oman Foreign Investment Organization in Iran, Es’haq Abousaeedi, as saying.
Shahid Bahonar Port and the affiliated eastern ports of Hormozgan Province are all set to expand economic ties with Oman by establishing shipping lines, said the manager of Shahid Bahonar Ports and Maritime Office, Mohamad Mohseni.
Hormozgan has more than 2,400 km of coastline with shores along both the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman. It is close to the Strait of Hormuz, which is the most important maritime trade route in the region.
The manager of Qeshm Ports and Maritime Office says the Omani delegation has signaled its readiness to add the new sea route of Qeshm-Oman to the direct shipping line between Iran’s Shahid Rajaei Port and Oman’s Sohar Port launched in April. Once container ships set sail on the new route, the volume of smuggling will decrease dramatically, Baqer Mousavi added.
Separately, the advisor to the managing director of Ports and Maritime Organization announced that Iranian ports will attract 20,000 billion rials (about $667.11 million) in foreign investment by the end of next Iranian year (starting March 20, 2016). “PMO is ready to delegate the expansion of ports to foreign investors,” Hadi Haqshenas added.
