Special Economic Zone Lotus Director-General Sergey Milushkin told IRNA on Saturday international transportation corridors, especially Iran's north-south corridor, have important role in expanding trade ties between Iran and Russia and have been successful to date.
Completion of the corridor, he said, allows the two countries to save money and time by changing logistics chains and attract transit flows from neighboring countries.
The International North-South Transit Corridor which is deemed by experts to be Iran’s development opportunity was signed by transport ministers of Iran, India and Russia in 2000 in St. Petersburg, Russia. It significantly reduces cost and time for transportation of between the member-states.
For example, the corridor decreases the time needed for transporting goods from Russia to India by 50 percent to 20 days and cuts costs by 35 percent.
The corridor is expected to host transport of 25-30 million tons of goods in the first phase.
SEZ Lotus DG said that the international route is now in administrative process to establish a seamless international transportation system and Russia makes efforts in collaboration with Iran’s Anzali and Chabahar special economic zones to remove administrative obstacles.
India is connected to the corridor through the coastline between Chabahar and Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf and northern Iranian ports of Amirabad, Anzali and Astara link the corridor with the Caspian Sea littoral states and thence with the Central and Northern Europe.
Milushkin noted that SEZ Lotus was regularly holding meetings with officials of Iran's free trade zones to solve all problems regarding the corridor.
A Russian group has been tasked with management and development of the International North-South Transit Corridor and holds meetings with delegations from other countries, according to the Russia official.
He highlighted Iran's support of the corridor and its readiness for launching it as soon as possible, noting that Russia has plans for optimizing the corridor’s use, establishing transportation and logistics center, and constructing warehouses.
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