According to the Public Relations and International Affairs Department of Kish Free Zone Organization, quoting Rastin Online News site, during a joint meeting of Kish and Qeshm Free Zones CEOs, held on Kish Island on Thursday, July 16, Gholamhossein Mozaffari called Kish and Qeshm islands Iran’s oldest free zones.
“We are going through difficult times economically, and we must use all the domestic capacities and facilities of the Zones to improve our beloved country,” he said, adding. “I believe that during recent years and various governments, investments have been made to build the necessary infrastructures using the revenues of the Zones, and it has become possible to use the revenues of the free zones to build new infrastructure and to create the conditions for the private sector actors presence.”
Mozaffari said: “Today, there are huge investments in the free zones, both socially and physically, which in the current situation should help improve the country’s economic conditions.”
We should try to take advantage of these opportunities, and, naturally, the exchange of information and experiences between different regions can be very effective in this regard.
He announced that good work has been done on Kish and Qeshm free zones during the past years, and valuable experiences have been gained, adding that in Qeshm Free Zone, proper measures have been taken in the field of energy supply. Also, one of the primary needs of Kish Island is a sustainable energy supply, and in this regard, we will use Qeshm’s experiences.
Kish Island is the only region in Iran that is not connected to the national power grid. Right measures have been taken to provide gas supply infrastructure to Kish Island from Siri Island, and we hope it will be operational by the end of the current year, but the electricity supply for Kish Island is a big deal.
Mozaffari said: “The volume of the work done on Qeshm Island, is different from that of Kish Island, due to its larger population and area, but sharing Qeshm Free Zone experiences and also cooperating in the field of sea-related activities such as shrimp farming can be very effective.”
KFZO head considered the work done on Kish Island as important and tremendous, and announced his readiness to share Kish experiences with the Qeshm Free Zone.
He added: “In the fields of investment and construction, we have gained experiences that we believe can be transferred to Qeshm Free Zone, which has similarities and proximity to Kish Island. The experience we have gained in creating added value has been one of the ways to overcome economic problems and constraints.”
“Also, in the past two years, especially at the beginning of our mission on Kisk Island, we had severe economic conditions, and we even had problems in financing the payment of KFZO staff salaries. However, now we have over two thousand billion tomans of financial resources, part of which is in cash, and the rest can be cashed in less than a week. That’s why almost all of the island’s executive projects have been activated, some of which were inactive due to lack of funding.” Dr. Mozaffari said.
Mozaffari stated that one of the main projects is the new terminal of Kish Airport, which we hope will be operational by the end of this year and will be one of the best-equipped airports in the country and added: “In some parts of the project, due to the difficult conditions imposed on our country in terms of currency and oppressive sanctions, we took advantage of the domestic potentials and capabilities, a clear example of which is the design and construction of jet bridges for the new terminal of Kish Airport by an Iranian knowledge enterprise.”
The Managing Director of Kish Free Zone Organization continued: “This was done with the support of the Vice Presidency for Science, and every two weeks one of the jet bridges is to be prepared and installed. There are outstanding capacities in the country; this project was operational with four main sides, including the knowledge enterprise; Vice Presidency for Science and loans received from the Technology Fund equal to 100 billion Tomans; airport construction project contractor; and Kish Free Zone Organization.
Over 90% of the required equipment has been purchased in these severe conditions, and its costs have been paid, and it can be said that we have passed the critical and challenging stage of the project.
He pointed out that Qeshm and Kish are islands, so the main way to enter them is through the airports and ports, and added: “Although, that famous bridge to connect Qeshm Island to the mainland may be built soon, this will not happen in Kish Island shortly.
However, as I mentioned earlier in the meeting, it is possible to connect Kish Island to the surrounding ports by rail, and it can be put on the agenda. I hope that the time will come when this will be possible, as there are similar examples in the world.”
Mozaffari clarified: “Airport and port are the two ways for passengers and goods to enter Kish and Qeshm islands. There’s also a 35,000-ton commercial pier in Kish port, which has not been used for more than three years due to the impossibility of dredging because of lack of resources, and it is a massive work that, with God’s help, the dredging contract has been concluded.
He pointed out that in the discussion of municipal services, the infrastructure has been predicted for the next 25 years. “We have estimated the capacities of every project that we started for the next 25 years,” he said.
For example, the contractor is working on the sewerage system and also the supply of incinerators to Kish Island. We believe that no waste should remain on Kish Island. Experiences have been gained in these areas, including the formation of the High Financing Council.
The official said that during the past Persian year, the main meetings we held without a break were the High Financing Council of Kish Island, adding: “Fortunately these meetings helped us to identify all the hidden revenue potentials of the island and naturally control the excess costs and part of the facilities were counted. And when we faced the Corona outbreak crisis late last year, we planned with confidence to get through the crisis.
We even made managerial shifts, all to improve the conditions and some warfare to deal with the consequences of the Coronavirus, and we have to conserve resources and manage costs, given the circumstances.
He pointed out that another example is the progress made in Kish Innovation Center and supporting the knowledge enterprises, and in terms of the land restrictions we have on Kish Island, he said: “We are focused on specific industries such as pharmaceutical town or medical equipment. We have reached agreements with the Ministry of Health and the Specialized Association of Medical Equipment, as well as a town for knowledge enterprises that, if they enter the production stage, we can provide them with land with easy conditions.”
Mozaffari referred to the important point that was also mentioned in the meeting which is the cryptocurrency that has had ups and downs in the country and stated: We believe this is an exceptional opportunity both in the field of blockchain in the general sense and also in the production of cryptocurrencies, we haven’t had any clear and specific laws and framework in this field in the country so far, but recently, some acts have been approved by the cabinet.
Our impression is that at present, although we have problems in supplying electricity, especially during peak consumption time, the preliminaries have been provided in the days when electricity consumption is not high, and currently, 15,000 currency code mining machines have been installed in one of Kish complexes with good production. We have also received other requests for investment in both the operation of the power plant and the extraction of currency codes.
We have corresponded with the Central Bank, and we hope to use the currency generated by cryptocurrency production in the region to meet the needs of the Zone and issues like the import of cars and goods by merchants and traders on Kish Island.
The CEO of Kish Free Zone Organization pointed out that the Ministry of Industries and Mines, Customs, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and Mr. Jahangiri personally agreed on the import of cars, but the Central Bank objected due to currency problems. “In this regard, it may be possible to untie the knot using the currency generated by the production of cryptocurrencies whose origin is known. In this section, joint cooperation and transfer of experiences between Kish and Qeshm is required.” He added.
Mozaffari, stating that in such projects, our effort has generally been to have a partnership between the Free Zone Organization and the investor, added: “Another method that was used to provide income, in the rental complexes of the organization, our effort has been to share a portion of the revenue from these complexes so that we have both greater transparency and revenue stability.
The CEO of Kish Free Zone Organization referred to the atmosphere created regarding the transfer of Kish to China: “The general atmosphere of the country, especially in the days that news about the joint cooperation between Iran and China has been published, is that of Fear and Hope, economically. On the one hand, there are many who believe that this contract is like the Treaty of Turkmenchay, and on the other hand, the more realistic analysis or view is that it is an appropriate possibility or opportunity for Iran that should be used well. One of the issues in the agreement is China’s investment in the country’s selected islands.”
He continued: “Rumors have been spread in cyberspace for more than two years that Kish will be handed over to China, and this issue has made our situation special. We have denied it many times, and even it has already been rooted out that this issue has been spread abroad through counter-revolutionaries with no origin. My personal impression is that the joint agreement between Iran and China is a great event for the country’s economy.
Mozaffari pointed out that China is one of the top countries in the world in terms of economy, and it could become the world’s largest economic power in the not-too-distant future. And yet, for whatever reason, we have not been able to link our economy to Western countries, and specifically to the United States. “Because of the problems and the lack of trust between us, we need to have a stable partner in the economic field and seize the opportunities,” he reiterated.
“There are no restrictions for any country to invest on our islands, and they can be more beneficial for our islands if they are in the form of long-term contracts, and we can make more use of the economic interactions that exist between our country and other countries.” KFZO Managing director concluded.
PR & Int’ l Affairs Department- KFZO