Hyundai Offers To Invest In Anzali, Iran’s Northern Port City

Hyundai Development Company Group is going to invest in Iran, local media reports said Tuesday, adding that the South Korean company will invest in superstructure and infrastructure projects in Iran’s northern port city of Anzali.

Hyundai reportedly made the offer during a recent meeting with Ali Naeimi, the director general of Gilan Province Ports and Maritime Organization. Naeimi mentioned in the meeting that the development of Anzali was critical for transiting goods from foreign countries.

Hyundai holds 50 percent share of a project on expanding South Korea’s Pusan Port, the world’s fourth largest container port. The project is going to expand the port, so that it can handle 13 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) of trans-shipment cargo by 2020, making the South Korean port the world’s second largest, Press TV reported.

A major obstacle to Iran’s economic growth is the militant activities in the Middle East. Iran hopes to win the trust of its neighboring countries all over again to counter extremist forces in the region.

Iran’s Vice-President Masumeh Ebtekar said that her country would want to work with other powers in the gulf region to promote peace. She said that the Islamic republic had no intention to dominate the Middle East. However, she stressed that Iran had the right to defend itself.

"Our foreign minister is travelling in the region, because maintaining ties, actually restoring trust with our neighbors is an issue for us," Ebtekar told BBC as she used a pejorative term for Islamic State militants. "We hope to be able to restore that trust working with different regional states to be able to stand firm against extremism, against terrorism, against Da'esh which is a terrible phenomenon."