TEHRAN - The head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) said his organization has signed nine investment deals worth 55 trillion rials (about $1.31 billion) with domestic investors since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20), IRIB reported.

Speaking in a ceremony on the occasion of the National Transportation Day on Tuesday, Mohammad Rastad said despite all the U.S. efforts for hurting Iran’s economy and its maritime transport industry, non-oil imports through the country’s ports has witnessed a 15.8-percent rise while exports grew by 2.2 percent.

According to the official, since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year, 23.5 million tons of goods have been imported into the country’s ports and 38.6 million tons of commodities have also been exported.

Delivering his speech in the same event, Deputy Head of PMO, Mohammad-Ali Hassanzadeh said over the past year, more than 158 trillion rials (about $3.76 billion) have been invested in various maritime and port sectors in the form of 330 investment deals.

“Investment in this sectors has increased by 53 percent compared to previous year," he added.

Investment deals signed on Monday

On the sidelines of the ceremony, PMO also signed two investment deals worth 900 billion rials (about $21.4 million) with the country’s private sector.

The investment agreement between Amirabad Port and Ard Nemone Joybar Flour Company was one of the contracts reached on the sidelines of the event which was held at Homa Hotel in Tehran.

The second agreement was inked between PMO and the Office of Advanced Space and Transportation Technologies of the Vice Presidency of Science and Technology for construction and indigenization of marine vessel technology.

The agreement was signed by Mohammad Rastad and Manouchehr Manteqi, the president of the Office of Advanced Space Technologies and Advanced Transportation.

EF/MA