Masrour described BRICS’s evolving financial architecture, including the New Development Bank and the bloc’s growing preference for national currencies, as a “historic opportunity” to reconfigure the global economic order. He argued that Iran’s unique geoeconomic position, bridging East and West and serving as a regional energy hub, makes its free zones ideal candidates for anchoring BRICS’s economic network.
A Financial Hub for BRICS in Iran
The proposed international financial zone would host branches of the New Development Bank and central banks of BRICS members, facilitating investment flows and enabling trade settlement in local currencies—aimed at reducing reliance on the US dollar.
Shared Production Through Complementary Strengths
Masrour advocated for joint industrial projects that leverage the comparative advantages of BRICS members: Iran’s energy resources, China’s technological prowess, Russia and Brazil’s raw materials, and India’s vast consumer market. These synergies, he suggested, could be realized within Iran’s free zones to foster co-production rather than mere trade.
Logistics Backbone of the North-South Corridor
Iran also proposed the creation of a BRICS transport consortium to invest in rail, port, and road infrastructure in the Chabahar and Anzali free zones, key nodes in the North-South transit corridor linking member states.
Innovation Parks and Digital Customs Integration
Masrour called for the establishment of joint industrial-tech parks in sectors such as petrochemicals, artificial intelligence, pharmaceuticals, and renewables, managed by BRICS-based knowledge firms. He also proposed a unified digital customs platform to streamline trade procedures across member free zones.
Legal Harmonization and Dispute Resolution
To bolster investor confidence, Iran offered to host a BRICS-aligned arbitration center and develop a shared legal framework for commercial dispute resolution within its free zones.
Smart, Sustainable Gateways for Global Partnership
Masrour concluded by emphasizing Iran’s natural resource wealth, strategic transit corridors, and educated youth as key assets. “We are reinventing our free zones as smart, digital, and sustainable gateways,” he said, inviting BRICS nations and global firms to partner with Iran in one of the world’s most pivotal geoeconomic crossroads.