In an interview with Shana, Khosro Afrozeh explained the most important missions and goals of the Vice President of Planning and Economic Development of the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone Organization.
South Pars region, or in other words, the country's energy hub, has been the center of attention of domestic and foreign investors with huge gas refineries and projects and petrochemical industries on a global scale.
The full text of this conversation follows:
What is the main mission of the economic development and investment management of Pars Special Economic Energy Zone and how successful do you think this management has been in fulfilling the assigned missions?
The development of petrochemical industries to create more added value from South Pars gas reserves is considered another fundamental goal of the establishment of Pars Special Economic Energy Zone.
If we look at these two areas in the current situation, we can see that most of the above goals have been achieved.
Based on the information of 1400, the total nominal capacity planned in the development horizon of upstream and downstream petrochemical industries in Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (1404) is 60 million tons per year, of which approximately 32 million tons per year have been realized.
In the field of gas industry, the nominal capacity of the twenty-four phases can be expressed as 40 million tons per year of product (ethane, LPG, gas condensate, and sulfur), of which 38 million tons have been realized.
The planned nominal capacity for the 24 phases of the refinery is equal to 800 million cubic meters of natural gas (methane) per day, which has been achieved a figure equal to 700 million cubic meters, hence the organization can relatively fulfill its mission of facilitating the investment process of upstream industries and he considered them successful in supporting them for more than two decades.
What incentives have been considered for the presence of investors in the special region of Pars?
Some legal exemptions have been considered in the law on the establishment and administration of special economic zones.
Exemption of commercial exchanges of special regions with foreign countries from paying customs duties, commercial interest and all import and export duties are among these exemptions, while exchanges are not subject to the restrictions and prohibitions of import and export regulations.
Exemption from the payment of import duties for goods produced or processed in the region to the extent specified is among other legal exemptions for the economic operators of the special region.
The Organization of the Special region, as the general management of the region, has sufficient authority to issue all kinds of licenses (economic activity license, agreement in principle, establishment license, exploitation license, land transfer and contract conclusion, etc.) Of course, coordination with other relevant departments in the region may be necessary.
So far, the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone has been among the least developed areas, so production and mining projects have benefited from the 10-year tax exemption of these areas.
What are the advantages of investing in the Special Region of Pars?
The most important relative advantage of Pars Special Economic Energy Zone is the presence of upstream gas, petrochemical and energy industries.
This feature has brought other advantages such as diverse, abundant and cheap food, for this reason the establishment of industries corresponding to these advantages with the aim of entering global markets in Pars Special Economic Energy Zone is very profitable.
How do you evaluate the state of infrastructure in the region to attract investment in the region and what measures have been taken to eliminate some deficiencies?
Pars Special Economic Energy Zone, from the point of view of the infrastructures created in it, including port facilities, airports, highways and access roads, as well as the investments made in the field of energy, gas and petrochemicals, cannot be compared with other similar regions, and this is the special advantage of the region that has attracted the attention of investors (foreign and internal) to this area.