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Khudoyor Khudoyorov, Minister of Transport of Tajikistan, and Reza Ardakanian, Minister of Energy of Iran agreed that each side would invest $4mn to complete construction work inside the Istiklol tunnel during the recent CICA meeting held in Dushanbe from June 15 to 16.
An unnamed source speaking with RFE/RL Tajik service said: "The money will be used to install and put into operation ventilation and fire suppression systems, lighting and safety control in the tunnel, as well as traffic control." Iran has invested more than $60mn in the construction of the tunnel and has carried out much of the engineering work.
Like other CIS countries, Tehran appears to be attempting to mend ties with their estranged Persian cousin country.
Plans are reportedly afoot to launch a bus route between Azerbaijan’s capital Baku and Iran’s second city and holy city of Mashhad.
The bus service would be the first undertaking of its kind amid warming bilateral relations between Iran and Azerbaijan.
“An agreement on the opening of the Baku-Mashhad bus service was reached during a meeting of the Azerbaijani-Iranian joint commission on international automobile relations in Baku,” Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies said in a statement, according to Interfax.
“Following the meeting, the parties also agreed to eliminate the restrictions applied to freight vehicles registered in Azerbaijan when they enter without cargo to Iran,” the news agency’s report added.
According to the Azerbaijan Customs Authority, in 2018, trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Iran amounted to $446mn, up 74% y/y.
The Azerbaijan-Iran-Azerbaijan bus option is set to follow the recent launch of other cross-border travel services connecting Iran to the South Caucasus. One service offers a bus service which originates in Iraq, traverses Iran and finishes in Armenia . Due to the low cost of state-subsidised fuel in Iran, Iranian coach operators have a good shot at profitability compared to peers elsewhere.
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 stores, is now going one step further by developing a local version of the popular operating system.
A limited number of companies including Iranian phone producer GLX are said to be rolling out the Iranian version of Android, minus the Google services but including apps like Café Bazaar, the most famous indigenous software store. The new home-made Android Operating System (OS) has been designed and developed by a group of IT experts at Sharif University of Technology, often dubbed “MIT of Iran”, many of whose graduates land jobs in top US tech firms. Google has not specifically banned Iranian users from their system, but Iran’s IT minister said the move was developed in preparation for a possible disconnection of its phones from the popular phone system.
“Google cannot eliminate the Iranian-made operating system,” said Iran’s Communication, Information and Technology (CIT) Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi on July 8.
Earlier this year, several popular applications including ride-hailing and online
38 IRAN Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com