Pezeshkian stresses foreign investment in transit infrastructure development
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian underlined the necessity and importance of private sector and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the development of railway, road, and port infrastructure in Iran, noting that foreign investors can invest in Iranian ports.
Pezeshkian made the remarks in a meeting with economic officials from the Roads and Urban Development Ministry on Saturday, during which they reviewed the latest state of the country’s transportation infrastructure and regional corridors, according to president.ir.
At the meeting, Roads Minister Farzaneh Sadeq-Malvajerd pointed to Iran’s ongoing talks with the Russian parties and presented a report on the agreements and cooperation documents with Moscow on the implementation of transportation infrastructure and regional corridors.
After being briefed by the minister and other relevant officials regarding the country’s international road and rail corridors, the president emphasized accelerating the implementation of the border corridor with the Republic of Azerbaijan as well as finalizing the construction of the International North-South Transit Corridor. “Considering the importance of these regional corridors, they should be completed as soon as possible,” he stressed.
The president tasked the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development with finalizing the plans for cooperation with Russia in the field of road and rail transport infrastructure.
Referring to the agreements signed with Iraq regarding speeding up the completion of the Shalamcheh-Basra railroad during his recent visit to the neighboring country, Pezeshkian said, “This route is very important for us as the Iraqi government officials have also stressed speeding up its implementation and completion. Therefore, we must increase our efforts to remove the barriers on the way of the completion of the project.”
He criticized the implementation of some railway and road routes, stating, “The quality of materials used on some routes is not satisfactory. As our focus is on transit trade in the country through these routes, the material quality for implementation of these routes should be enhanced.”