Over $390m Invested in Aras FTZ in 3 Yrs.

An aggregate of 15.86 trillion rials (about $396.5 million) have been invested in Aras Free Trade-Industrial Zone over the past three years, the managing director of FTZ SAID. Mohsen Khadem Arab-Baghi added that domestic investments accounted for 11.88 trillion rials ($297.2 million) of the overall figure and the rest were made by foreign entities, IRNA reported.  Noting that 1.17 trillion rials ($29.42 million) or 63% of revenues earned in the free trade zone in the last Iranian year (March 2015-16) were spent on development projects, Arab-Baghi said, “As many as 173 factories are being constructed on an industrial estate of 961 hectares.” Aras Free Trade-Industrial Zone is located in northwest Iran at the border point with neighboring Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.