Since the removal of Iran sanctions, various foreign delegations have travelled to Iran and expressed willingness to invest in the country’s port and maritime projects, Saeednejad said, according to Tasnim News Agency.

Nine major foreign investors have so far submitted their bids to develop Shahid Rajaee port in Iran’s southern city of Bandar Abbas, he said, adding that the proposals are under study.

“New contracts worth nearly $1 billion to develop the country’s ports will be signed this year,” the Iranian official said.

Saeednejad added that 17 major international shipping lines have chosen the country’s ports as their port of call.

In recent months, Iran’s southern Shahid Rajaei port and other major ports have turned into a major hub for shipping and transship activities due to suitable facilities considered by Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization for international vessels following the removal of the sanctions.

The lifting of the sanctions came after Iran and the P5+1 group – Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany – reached an agreement on July 14 2015 on a lasting nuclear agreement and implemented it in January.

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Turaj Amiri further said that given the expected 28 percent rise in operations in the year to mid-March 2017, the port will handle over 2.1 million containers during the period, IRNA reported.

Pointing to the loading and unloading of three million containers per a year during the years before the Western sanctions, the official said the figure dropped to 1.6 million last year.

He put the annual operation capacity for the first phase of Shahid Rajaei’s First Terminal at 1.5 million containers adding that once the second phase of the terminal’s development project becomes operational, the figure will rise to 3.5 million containers.

Pointing to the capacity of the Second Terminal of Shahid Rajaei Port, he said that with the completion of the third phase of development plan, the annual operations capacity for the port will grow to 8 million containers.

“Step by step the problems have been resolved (since then), removing many restrictions and limitations,” Mohammad Saeidi, the chairman of Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) told Reuters in an interview at the Danish Maritime Forum conference in Copenhagen on Thursday.

A slowdown in global trade together with a glut of vessels has left the container shipping industry struggling with its worst ever market conditions, but Saeidi said the post-sanctions environment meant IRISL would be looking to expand its 156-ship fleet.

“We are negotiating with some shipyards and some makers and hopefully it would reach clear conclusions in the next 3-4 months,” he said.

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The deal was sealed by Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhundi and Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment of the Netherlands Schultz van Haegen.

During the MoU-signing ceremony, Schultz van Haegen of the Dutch ministry said the two countries ink the deal with the aim of strategic development of maritime and port activities noting “the agreement holds great significance given the role played by both parties in their areas of jurisdiction.”

Iran’s Akhundi, for his part, pointing to the joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Tehran and Amsterdam asserting “the Netherlands remains as a major European country in the field of maritime transport as a great portion Europe’s maritime transport is carried out through Dutch ports.”

“The main axis of talks between the two states in the field of transport marks use of existing facilities to enable maritime logistics between Iran and the Netherlands,” he underlined adding “negotiations were held over development of Phase 3 of Shahid Rajaee Port as well as Chabahar port for the Dutch side to take part in Iran’s port tenders in case of willingness.”

The Iranian minister further pointed to the held talks over road transport adding “presently no MoU exists between the two sides though Iran has made a proposal for study to the Dutch minister and the results would hopefully lead to an agreement in future.”

“Currently, a total of 800 Iranian trucks commute to the European country and the draft of an MoU has been inked,” he maintained.

Minister: Iran-Netherlands flights in recent days stating that the first KLM flights was performed and direct flights will hopefully be boosted in near future.

Abbas Akhundi also touched upon resumption of Iran-Netherlands flights in recent days stating that the first KLM flights was performed on Sunday and the number of direct flights will hopefully be boosted in near future.”

“Iran requires comprehensive cooperation with the Netherlands in order to restore new corridors between Europe and the East,” commented the official.

It is worth noting that the recent MoU between Iran and the Netherla.nds was inked in Tehran and covers several areas including bolstering of port and maritime ties, investment, formation of a joint committee, exchange of experts, training of managers as various levels, practical measures as well as development of logistic procedures.

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