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use of Iranian rail knowhow in connecting the region may conceivably contribute to developing China’s huge Belt and Road trade transport infrastructure initiative and the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) which aims to ease the passage of goods travelling routes between the west coast of India and northern Russia and northern Europe, via Iran and Azerbaijan.
Iran on August 24 launched a large cargo ship referred to as the “Grand Ferry” that will sail a route from Iran’s southern port of Bandar Bushehr to Hamad Port in Doha, Qatar, the Financial Tribune d aily reported. Qatar has boosted business and political relations with Iran and Turkey over the past 18 months since the onset of an air, land and sea blockade of the country mounted by Saudi-led Arab states as part of a political row. For instance, several dozen Iranian and Turkish consumer brands have flooded the Qatari market to make up for goods unobtainable due to the Arab boycott. According to the director general of the Ports and Maritime Directorate of Bushehr Province, Siavash Arjmandzadeh, the shipping service will provide cargo transportation for goods on pallets and in various types of containers, including refrigerated ones.
“Given the high costs of air transport, the Grand Ferry will facilitate transportation and open a new horizon for trade ties between Iran and Qatar,” Arjmandzadeh was quoted as saying.
The Grand Ferry is 144 metres long.
Iran exported more than 678,000 tonnes of non-oil commodities worth $117mn from Bushehr via sea freight to Doha during the previous Persian calendar year (ended March 20).
Turkmenistan and Iran have struck an agreement to establish a direct Caspian Sea shipping line between the two countries, ISNA reported on August 20.
Iran increasingly uses the Caspian Sea as the main transit option for connecting with its northern neighbours. A new ferry service between the Russian city of Derbent in Dagestan in the North Caucasus and Iran’s Bandar Anzali was, for example, announced lately.
Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami said the agreement with Turkmenistan was reached recently at the Caspian Sea Economic Forum h eld in the Turkmen city of Turkmenbashi. He added that the agreement and some others would be officially enacted at the end of the Iranian month of Mehr (October 22) during a meeting in Ashgabat.
The forum also heard Iran object to Turkmenistan’s plan to create a Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline on “ecological grounds”.
If via Azerbaijani and Georgian links Turkmenistan was connected to the Trans Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) that reaches the Greek border through Turkey, the Turkmen would open up a route to exporting gas to European markets. TANAP connects to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that is to make landfall in southern Italy via Albania and a subsea route under the Adriatic Sea.
9.1.5 TMT sector news
Iran has developed an indigenous version of the popular Android operating mobile system in response to Google’s policies against the country, Iran Press reported on July 8.
Iran, which during the previous round of sanctions in 2013 developed local app
39 IRAN Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com