A group of businesspeople and investors from the United Arab Emirates visited Kish Free Trade Zone earlier this week and expressed interest in investing in various economic activities on Iran’s southern island.
The group, comprised of representatives from a private company active in the field of commercial flights and private jet services, met with the managing director of Kish Free Trade Zone Organization Ali Asghar Mounesan on Sunday and explored avenues for cooperation, IRNA reported.
The delegation was briefed on the facilities at Kish Airport, including technical, engineering and maintenance services. They discussed investment in the development of special hangars and launching private flights from the island to the mainland.
The UAE businesspeople also toured the island’s passenger and cargo ports, infrastructure, parks and roads. They described the development of Kish Island as “remarkable”.
Visit of the UAE delegation followed a recent trip by Mounesan to Abu Dhabi, Jebel Ali and Dubai, during which he introduced investment opportunities in Kish to UAE-based investors as well as Iranian businesspeople in the Persian Gulf country in the wake of the lifting of sanctions imposed by the US, EU and the UN Security Council against Iran over its nuclear energy program.
In mid-June, Iran’s Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Iranian Business Council in Dubai jointly organized a conference on introducing investment opportunities in Iran’s free trade zones in Dubai.
President Hassan Rouhani’s chief advisor and secretary of Iran’s High Council of Free Trade and Special Economic Zones, Akbar Torkan and Iranian and foreign businesspeople attended the one-day conference.
On the sidelines of the conference, Torkan told reporters that Iran’s policy is to create suitable grounds for the attraction of domestic and foreign investments. “Iran seeks to further strengthen its economic relations with all regional countries, including the UAE, and encourage joint investment in its free zones,” he said.
Later in July, a UAE delegation led by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of DP World, which owns and operates Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone, travelled to Iran to scope out the potential of expanding cooperation with Iranian free trade zones.
Sulayem, accompanied by DP World Company’s partners from the United Kingdom, visited three Iranian FTZs of Qeshm and Chabahar in the south and Anzali in the north.
Kish, in the southern province of Hormuzgan, is a 91.5 square kilometer resort island on the Persian Gulf. In view of its free trade zone status, it is considered a consumers’ paradise, featuring numerous malls, shopping centers, tourist attractions and hotels.
