Aras Free Trade – Industrial Zone\u00a0is located in the Northwest of Iran\u00a0at the border point with neighboring Armenia,\u00a0Republic of Azerbaijan\u00a0and the\u00a0Nakhichevan and has established very good relations and interactions with these Eurasian countries. Aras Free Zone is home to more than 200 active industrial and production units which play a leading role in spurring the economy of the free zones of the country in particular. Suitable opportunities have been paved for producing agricultural and horticultural products in the zone, most of its products are presently exported to the Russian Federation. In addition, Aras Free Zone has also heavily invested in producing clear energy like solar energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Thanks to its outstanding geographical position, Aras Free Zone has established very good interaction and cooperation with these countries in the fields of trade and economy and has gained salient achievements in the fields of logistics and joint production and investment activities. This area was expanded on December 4, 2008 to 51,000 hectares based on the new decree of Board of Ministers, including some parts of Jolfa and Kaleybar\u00a0towns. This approved area in the attached part has increased the main district from 9,700 hectares to 20,500 hectares, and in three detached parts makes up totally 51,000 hectares of entire Aras Free Zone including a part of Kaleybar city with the area of 24,000 hectares (called Gholi Beig Lou) and the vicinity of Khodafarin Dam with the area of 6,100 hectares as well as the district of Norduz Customs (Iran-Armenia border) with the area of 240 hectares.<\/p>\n
To learn more about the details, we have reached out to Deputy CEO of Aras Free Zone for Economic Development and Investment Affairs Ebrahim Jalili which comes as follows.<\/p>\n
To begin with his speech, he stated that Aras Free Zone is home to more than 200 industrial and production units. Suitable opportunities have been paved for producing agricultural and horticultural products, most of its products are presently exported to the Russian Federation. In addition, Aras Free Zone has also invested in producing clear energy like solar energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The deputy pointed to Jolfa Township and stated that it is located in the northwest of East Azarbaijan Province between 45\u00b017\u2032 to 46\u00b031\u2032 of eastern longitude and 38\u00b039\u2032 to 39\u00b02\u2032 of northern latitude as a narrow strip on the northern border of the province. From the north, it ends up to the\u00a0Aras River, Republics of Nakhchivan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. This Township covers the area of 1670.31 square kilometers and it neighbors Kaleybar Township to the east, and Marand and Ahar to the south. On average, the width of Jolfa Township is 17 kilometers and its length is 100 kilometers. Jolfa City is the capital of the Township and it is located 135 kilometers to the northwest of Tabriz and 65 kilometers to the north of Marand. Jolfa is among the smallest cities of the province covering 1670.31 square kilometers which is only 3.4 of the total area of the province and it is ranked twelfth in this regard.<\/p>\n
\u00a0In terms of political divisions, Jolfa Township is composed of two districts, namely Central District and Siyah Rood, and five rural districts: West Dizmar, Nojeh Mehr, Arasi, Daran, and Shoja.\u00a0 According to the statistics of 2004, there are 73,219 villages in Jolfa Township.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Based on the resolution 530820 T\/20708 dated June 28, 2005, passed by the Iranian Cabinet, Aras Free Zone covered some 9,700 hectares of lands. However, according to another resolution adopted on December 4, 2008, by the respectable Cabinet, the borders of this Zone was expanded to cover some 51,000 hectares including parts of two counties namely Jolfa and Khoda Afarin.<\/p>\n
Investment Competitive Advantages<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00d8 Human resources (expert and cheap work force)<\/p>\n \u00d8 Cheap energy<\/p>\n \u00d8 Investment security<\/p>\n \u00d8 Cheap warehousing<\/p>\n \u00d8 Land<\/p>\n \u00d8 Exemption from customs duties and commercial interests for importing raw materials and machineries<\/p>\n \u00d8 Exemption from customs fees and commercial interests for the import of goods produced in the Zone to other parts of Iran based on the Value- Added Act.<\/p>\n Customs Advantages for Investment<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Reducing commercial interest up to 15% of CIF value of the commodities which are imported to the mainland\u00a0through trade- industrial free zones<\/p>\n \u00d8 Increasing the amount of imported commodities to free zones up to $3,000,000,000<\/p>\n \u00d8 Minimum time needed for evaluation and discharging formalities<\/p>\n \u00d8 Possibility of importing commodities through foreign, domestic transit, TIR Carnet, etc.<\/p>\n \u00d8 Possibility of transferring goods by train and being connected to overseas lines.<\/p>\n \u00d8 Accepting warranty for discharging commodities from the Zone.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Separating bills for discharge warehouse (absolute discharge, transit, export, etc.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Entering agreement with commodity owners for the import and export of the commodities of the production unit within the Zone.<\/p>\n \u00d8 Discharging fixed commodities on the truck within the minimum possible time.<\/p>\n \u00d8 Issuing a negotiable warehouse bill on demand of commodity owners.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Stop services for the available commodities in the customs of Free Zone two times higher than the expected time for the customs of the mainland. The stop services time for the produced commodities is infinite.<\/p>\n \u00a0Legal Advantages for Investment<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Making use of advantages contained in the Value Added Act.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 20-year tax exemption for various economic activities since the operating date.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Exemption from customs fees and commercial interests for the import of raw materials and machineries.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Exporting the produced commodities to abroad with the minimum formalities.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Freedom for importing any goods except for the ones inconsistence with the Islamic laws.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Guaranteeing the capital of the foreign investors against nationalization and expropriation.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Foreign investors’ complete free hands for any economic activities.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Company registration by Aras Free Trade and Industrial Zone Organization.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 The possibility of 100% foreign investment without Iranian partnership<\/p>\n \u00d8 Visa-free entrance.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 The possibility of using foreign experts.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00d8 Issuing employment license for aliens by Aras Free Trade and Industrial Zone Organization..<\/p>\n \u00a0Infrastructures at Aras Free Zone<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0Railway network<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0The railway of Jolfa-Tabriz is the first and the only electric railway of Iran constructed 100 years ago connecting Aras Free Zone to Central Asia, the Caucasus, Russia, the Black Sea, Turkey and Europe from the north, the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea from the south, and CIS countries from the East. Jolfa-Tabriz Road network links the city’s entrance and exit points through Jolfa-Nordooz and Khoda Afrin with the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, Armenia and Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n \u00a0The Aras Airport is under the construction in Aras Free Zone,120 kilometers away from Tabriz Airport and 35 kilometers away from Nakhchivan Airport.<\/p>\n \u00a0Energy<\/strong><\/p>\n Energy sources including oil and gas are sufficiently available in the region at present and the construction of a 500-MW power plant is executed by the private sector. This power plant would be the main supplier of energy for the Zone in the future.<\/p>\n \u00a0Telecommunication<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0Telecommunication infrastructures and communicating facilities have completely been set up in the Zone. The necessary branchements have been provided in line with the current needs and they are ready to be given to the applicants for making use in planning for the construction of data center ICD of the Zone, supporting private sector investors in areas of SAP,PAP, and PSTN given that legal limitations of the mainland are not practiced here, establishing and expanding ICT in the Zone due to the relative advantage of Aras Free Zone in having access to national communication infrastructures and its located on the way of eastern and western international fiber optic network from China to Europe and planning to transform the Zone into a pilot case study for the national projects of \u200b\u200bICT in line with realization of an electronic zone.<\/p>\n Translated and Compiled by S. M. Ahmadi Al-e Hashem<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/en.hamsonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/5392012.jpg\")
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