Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

Industrial Development & Renovation Organization of Iran, known as IDRO Group, plans to build 2,000 railway wagons jointly with the German company, whose name has not been disclosed.

The share of Iran’s investment in construction of wagons will amount to 55 percent and these wagons will be used in nine major cities of the country, said the Head of the Investment Development Department of IDRO, Fardad Daliri, IRNA news agency reported.

"The amount of investment needed for the construction of wagons is estimated to be 2 billion Euros which will be provided by the Fund for National Development of Iran and foreign companies", said Daliri.

The new joint plan on the production of wagons aimed at attracting advanced technologies of the European partners.

Iran is the Middle East’s second-largest economy and is reported to be the largest to re-enter global markets since the Soviet Union in 1991.

The international sanctions that had crippled Iran's economy were lifted following a January implementation of a deal between Iran and world powers called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iran’s Customs Administration's statistics show that Germany exported $1.43 billion worth of goods to Iran and imported $248 million from this country during 10 months of current Iranian fiscal year, which started on March 21, 2015.

German exports to Iran were valued at 4.7 billion Euros ($5.1 billion) in 2010 but have fallen as the West tightened sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear program.

Hence, Iranian transport sector remains underdeveloped because of poor management and the impact of international sanctions.

However, with huge levels of transport and logistics investment planned or underway, Iran’s transport industry has the potential to become a major economic sector for the country.

Attractiveness for international finance in the transport industry is also on the rise. Iran jumped up 12 spots from rank 27 to 15 with the lifting of international sanctions on Transport Intelligence’s rankings for emerging markets in January 2016.

---

Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz