Iran, Oman to sign pact on shipping service

According to Ali Akbar Sibeveih, Iranian ambassador to the Sultanate, a number of visits between Iranian and Omani officials will take place by April 2015 with the aim of strengthening ties in various areas, including the trade and economic sectors

Muscat: Iran and Oman are planning to establish a shipping line to facilitate maritime trade between the two countries, said Ali Akbar Sibeveih, Iranian ambassador to the Sultanate.

Discussions for the establishment of the shipping line started six months ago and an agreement is expected to be signed in three months, Sibeveih told 'Times of Oman'.

He said that the shipping line will be operating between four Omani ports — Sohar, Sultan Qaboos, Musandam, and Shinas — and the Iranian ports of Chabahar, Bandar Abbas, Bandar Imam Khomeini, and one other port.

According to Sibeveih, a number of visits between Iranian and Omani officials will take place by April 2015 with the aim of strengthening ties in various areas, including the trade and economic sectors.

Omani Minister of Commerce and Industry Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy recently said that more Omani and Iranian trade delegations should visit each other's countries to explore investment opportunities.

Commenting on the trade between Khasab and the Iranian island of Qeshm, the minister said that it is a traditional trade and will hopefully be more regulated in the future, especially after the issue of sanctions against Iran is resolved.

"We hope that as we expand the port of Khasab in the next five-year plan and as we add more facilities and Iran gets out of some of its sanctions, the trade will be more regulated," Al Sunaidy said.

According to the latest statistics of Oman's Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the value of Oman's imports from Iran stood at OMR215,774,867 in 2013, showing a 172.2 per cent increase compared to 2012 when it stood at OMR79,262,355.

Also Oman's exports to Iran (exports and re-exports) totalled OMR124,261,002 in 2013, an increase of 8.4 per cent as against OMR114,673,887 in 2012. So the value of bilateral trade stood at OMR340,035,869 in 2013, compared to OMR193,936,242 in 2012.

Transit corridor
Commenting on the planned transit corridor that will run from Uzbekistan across Turkmenistan and then to Oman via Iran, he said that the project will help significantly boost trade between these countries and will enhance their trade ties with other neighbouring countries.

The overall framework of the project will soon be submitted to the transport ministers of the four countries and their foreign ministers, he said. The establishment of the corridor will facilitate goods transit between these countries and even to Turkey, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other countries.

In early August, the foreign ministers of Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan held a meeting in Muscat as part of their continuing negotiations to further develop business and economic relations through establishment of a corridor for transportation and transit.

The four foreign ministers signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for Ashgabat Agreement on Establishment of the international transport and transit corridor among the parties.