Tehran – Maryam Jalali de Dekordi, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Handicrafts, highlights the strategic situation of the Anzali Free Zone in Gilan Province.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Islamic Republic’s 7th Export Subsidy Exhibition held in Tehran from April 28 to May 2, she made news about the Ministry of Tourism’s programme to turn Anzali’s free zone into an export hub for export to the Caspian Ocean Coast.
Regarding the trade potential of Anzali, she said Anzali could turn into a smaller version of Iran. Iran is a space where foreign tourists and merchants can become familiar with Iran’s cultural diversity and enjoy its free zone infrastructure.
She called for the establishment of custom management of specialized crafts, standardising the products and improving the artisan business knowledge as the region’s most important priorities.
Jalali called the indigenous identity of the global handicraft village a necessity. She also said the Anzali Handicrafts campus should be a cultural representative of all states and a live fair of Iranian art and identity.
She said that the handicraft export promotion company will be established with a public joint stock structure and will enter the capital market.
The company plays a key role in attracting investors and can turn Anzali into one of the leading hubs for handicraft exports, she added.
Jalali said Anzali’s free zone has enormous capabilities to achieve culturally based economic diplomacy, given its proximity to major markets such as Russia.
Also, Mostafa Ta’ati-Moqaddam, managing director of Anzali Free Zone Organization, said the largest Anzali handicraft campus will be established in Anzali.
The complex, which focuses on basket weaving produced in the village of Fashtakeh, with the participation of 1,800 artisans, will begin by the end of the current Iranian year. The complex will become a venue for training, production, display and exporting handicrafts, he added.
He also announced the launch of Antonov 26 freight flights between Rasht and one of the Russian provinces. He concluded that these flights are planned with the ability to target six tons of handicrafts to target markets in the coastal provinces of the Caspian Sea every two weeks.
The establishment of the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in Iran dates back to 1368 (March 1989 – March 1990), urging the government to promote non-oil exports after the country’s oil revenues fell the previous year.
Iran’s first two free trade zones were established in the south. The first was the Qish Free Trade Zone, founded in 1368 on Quiche Island in the Persian Gulf, and the second was the Qish Free Trade Zone, founded the following year on Qishm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
Five other free trade zones have also been established within the country, including Chabahar in the southeastern Sistan Balchestan province, Alvando in the southwest of Hazestan, Anzali in the northern part of Gilan province, and Araso in the East-Azarbaijan province and Mak in the western Azarbaijan province.
The development of existing free trade zones and the establishment of new FTZs have become one of the major economic approaches of the Iranian government.
KD