IRNA � Chabahar has a free trade zone and two ports, completion of first phase by the public sector has given the city the loading and unloading capacity of 8.5 million tons a year, providing the private sector with numerous opportunities for domestic and foreign investments that will help the development of southeastern Iran.

Chabahar is the only ocean port of Iran and had been well developed in the past several years. The port is expected to change into a treasure for the landlocked countries of the region.

Huge investments leading to provision of infrastructures, with the emphasis of the Supreme Leader, has depicted a bright future for the eastern parts of Iran, especially the Makran coastal region of Sistan and Balouchestan Province.

The investment opportunities include making petrochemical and petroleum terminals, dry goods warehouses, open air storage, passengers terminal and harbor areas, services centers for passengers, area for logistic containers, ship making and cannibalization factories, service centers for vessels.

Other opportunities are making silos, transport lines for petroleum and petrochemical products, fishery industries, farming byproducts industries, metal and steel industries, processing minerals, refrigeration facilities for perishable goods and food, providing bunkering services, strategic and non-strategic repair centers, collecting waste and filtering ships� water, flour factories, and packaging factories for livestock and poultry food.

Numerous investment encouragements have been offered for investors in Chabahar, some of which are tariff encouragements for liners (60% discount), docking (80% discount), towing and dredging (60% discount), terminal handling charges (THC) (90% discount), and warehousing of empty containers (90% discount).

The deputy director of the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran in the southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan said that in the past two years the loading and unloading have risen noticeably in Chabahar.

Hossein Shahdadi said that the port is the safest and most economical route for transporting goods to and from India, Afghanistan, and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The director of the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran in the southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan, Behrouz Aqaee, said Chabahar uses the most modern equipment, so there are no restrictions for ships; in some cases, even up to seven ships can dock in the port.