Deputy Head of Iran Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization Mohammad Teymouri said on Sunday that international transit via Iranian soil nearly doubled over the past Iranian calendar year to late March.
He said that the surge in international transit via Iran happens despite efforts to bypass transit corridors running through Iran.
The official however noted that in case of introducing alternative corridors, it would be so difficult to return to the past conditions and revive the previously used corridors.
“Many international corridors run through our country,” Teymouri said, adding that “Iran’s geopolitical conditions are so that we have to make the most benefit from the transit of commodities between the East and the West.”
He put the volume of global transactions at nearly $20,000 billion, nearly a third of which that equals to $6,000 billion is being underway between Asia and Europe.
The official said that “if we consider that 10% of the value of global transactions is spent on transportation sector, a roughly $600 billion is annually spent on transportation of goods between Asia and other parts of the world, Europe and Africa in particular.”
A recent report by the Iranian Ministry of Economy signaled a major growth in transit via the Iranian soil.
Iran has been the number one world issuer of TIR carnets among member countries of TIR Convention in 2021, the report said citing figures by the International Road Transport Union (IRU).
It said that Iran issued 125,604 TIR carnets in 2021 to stand at the world top spot.
Under the TIR procedure, goods transported between member countries by authorized TIR carnet holders are not subject to customs control at intermediate borders and can travel directly from point A to point B, provided all the seals are intact and the documents are ok.