Mr. Aliakbar Einollahi, the Director General of Public Relations at QFZO:

“We are trying to help the Island in general and not just the Free Zone. We want to be of service to the local population. First and foremost we want to develop a library of considerable size and encourage reading among our personnel and the local people in general.
“Our other duty, we feel, is to preserve as best possible, the natural environment and to further develop it. Presently the number of deer on the Island is constantly rising. We have been trying to make the conditions favorable for the attraction of migrating birds. And we intend to keep the coastal waters as clean as those of a virgin island.
“Once the bridge that shall link the Island to the mainland is completed, linking Qeshm to Bandar Abbas, then the Island will be connected by rail to the regions north of Iran.
“The bridge is to be 1.8 km long and through it Qeshm will be linked to as far as Saint Petersburg, through Bandar Abbas-Tehran-Astara-Astrakhan. This will offer a very profitable transit route but of course it requires that by then the port facilities be expanded from the present capacity of 40,000 to 100,000 tons per day.
“At present the cost of transportation of one container from Bandar Abbas to Helsinki, for example, is 2,100 USD and the journey takes 42 days. This rail route will carry the same container to the same destination at 1,900 USD, in 19 days.
“Therefore, presently studies are being conducted on this corridor at national and international levels, under the title of The Asian Highway.”

Mr. Ali Ghalamsiah, the Deputy for Ecotourism of QFZO:

“The waters surrounding the Island provide excellent habitat for dolphins, mangrove forests, migrating birds… Also, Qeshm offers archeological sites such as the Tooran Dam which was built in the Achaemenid era, the British Graveyard, the Naderi Fort, the Portuguese Fort…
“In the year 2000 worldwide expenditures on tourism surpassed 700 billion dollars. We can, by making proper plans and offering suitable conditions, attract at least a small share from this amount, which shall not be small for us in real terms.”

Mr. Rahgozar, the Deputy to the Minister of Oil, who participated recently in the Oil & Gas Conference held by the QFZO, said in an interview with Events:

“Qeshm Island lies at the centre of nine gas fields of considerable reserves of high quality natural gas. The Island can easily become an international terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG). It can also become a centre for petrochemical industries using gas as raw material. Thus the Island can easily provide 25,000 job opportunities by absorbing 3.64 billion dollars of investment to the gas-based industries.”