Special Economic Zones
Hormozgan has five special economic zones including: Persian Gulf mineral and metal special zone, Persian Gulf ship-building special economic zone, Shahid Rajaee Port special economic zone, Parsian special economic zone of energy consuming industries, and Lavan special economic zone. Each of them has specific features and advantages in the region.
Most of the large and heavy industries are located in these regions of Hormozgan, especially in Persian Gulf mineral and metal special zone. The special economic zones are active under free and special zones regulations and they are offered with some exemptions regarding investment; the arrival and departure of aliens, tax payment and etc.
A. Persian Gulf Ship-Building Special Economic Zone
This zone has the area of 1,100 hectares and is located in 37 km of west Bandar Abbas and Hormoz strait. This zone is particularly designed and dedicated for marine industries.
Currently, Iran Fara Sahel Ship-building Company is the major site in this zone. Its subsidiaries companies are Bahr Gostaresh Hormoz co., Nadim Gostaresh Khalije Fars co., Mobin Sazeh Gostare Khalije Fars co., Azim Gostaresh co., Shahid Darvishi marine industries co., and Sanaye Fara Sahel co. This site is currently capable of building and repairing different small and large ships of up to 80,000 tons of capacity and building offshore structures up to 35,000 tons in each year.
The Advantages and Facilities of Persian Gulf Ship-Building Special Economic Zone

• The possibility of using rail, land, air, and marine means of transportation and Iran transit highway through Bandar Abbas to different parts of Iran and Middle East
• Civil infrastructures and facilities such as water, electricity, land line phones, cell phone services, and inexpensive plots of land.
• Short air distance to the center of Iran and regular daily flights from Bandar Abbas to different parts of the country.
• Inexpensive fees for services such as warehousing, loading and unloading of different goods, containers, and using special equipment of the site such as cranes, trucks and bogies and the possibility of using private and exclusive warehouses.
• Backup and support policies and facilities including inexpensive skilled and semi-skilled workforce and the use of available lodging-houses in the site.
• Accessible customs duties in the zone without facing any bureaucracy and red tape prevalent  in other customs offices and being close to Qeshm and Kish free zones and other Persian Gulf countries and special zones.
• Issuing single warehouse receipt negotiable and acceptable for all banks of Iran and local and international investors.
• The existence of regular shipping lines and voyages to Persian Gulf countries and different parts of the world.
• Appropriate urban facilities and amenities, with  half an hour drive from the zone
• The possibility to process the goods and levying added value to it.
• The possibility to transit and re-export of the imported goods to the zone

B. Persian Gulf Mineral and Metal Special Zone
This zone has the area of 5,000 hectares and is located in 20 km of the west of Bandar Abbas and 5 km of the east of Shahid Rajaee port. This zone aims to attract foreign and local investors to contribute to growth and development of mineral and metal industries and ultimately to export them. This zone is consisted of three active sites as follows.
The Southern Site: This site has the area of almost 100 hectares and is located in the southern side of the zone. The dock for goods in bulk (with the capacity of loading and unloading of 100 thousand tons per day), Al Mahdi water refinery, stores and warehouses for goods dispatching, logistics and back up services and many others are available in this site.  
The Middle Site: This site has the approximate area of 190 hectares and is located in the center of the zone. This site is designed for multipurpose industries with the aim of developing the zone, establishing utility factories such as power generation or wastewater treatment.
The Northern Site: This site is about 1,770 hectares where Al-mahdi Aluminum co., Hormozgan Steel co., and Jonoub Steel (South Steel) are located there. Furthermore, about 3,000 hectares is going to be allocated for plan developments of the zone.
The Advantages and Facilities of Persian Gulf Mineral and Metal Special Zone

• Marine terminal and dock with the capacity of 6 million tons (it can be expanded 12 million tons)
• Bulk storage areas
• stone dock
• Water refinery facilities with the capacity of producing 35,800 m3 per day and this capacity can be extended up to 100 thousand m3 per day.
• Khalije Fars (Persian Gulf) Hotel with 156 rooms
• Roads and bridges to access the zone
• Marine Accessibilities: loading and unloading dock for mineral materials with the capacity of 12 million tons and oil dock with the capacity of 15 million tons per year with room to be increased to 70 million tons and being adjacent to Shahid Rajaee and Shahid Bahonar ports.
• Railroad Access
• Road Access

C. Shahid Rajaee Special Economic Zone
Shahid Rajaee special economic zone is located in 23 km to the west of Bandar Abbas and is stretched to the north of Qeshm and Hormoz Strait. It has a marine relation with more than 80 internationally known ports and they exchange goods with each other. This zone also holds about half of Iran trades. Shahid Rajaee Special Economic Zone is placed in the center of South-North transport corridor which is one of the most important international transport corridors. This corridor connects Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to Caspian Sea through Iran and then through Russia, to St. Petersburg and north Europe.
The strategic and privileged geographical position of this zone, its access to open water through Persian Gulf, its connection to the international railroads and the Silk Road, possessing modern facilities and equipment, and being close to Qeshm and Kish free zones and Persian Gulf ports, altogether  have made this zone a unique strategic spot.
Persian Gulf port as an oil zone of Shahid Rajaee special economic zone is equipped with   proper facilities to handle large quantities of export, swap of products, transit, and bunkering. Persian Gulf port has 9 docks of 1,200 meters long and with the depth of 7.5 meters. It has also 320 hectares of operating areas and backup sites.
Facilities and Advantages of Shahid Rajaee Special Economic Zone

• Owning the privileges of special economic zones.
• Land plots for backup, industrial, oil, and service activities through BOT, BOOT, short term, midterm, and long term rent.
• Availability of fresh water, electricity, IT, and surface water disposal and drainage systems
• The optimum access to domestic and international road, rail, and marine networks
• Being located on the main path of transport corridors like South-North and East-West to facilitate the transit to Middle East countries, Persian Gulf and Oman sea countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Russia, and North of Europe through roads and railroads
• Access to free water and optimum use of privileges of sea transportations.
• Adjacency to the main production, industrial and petrochemical centers of Iran
• Availability of banks, financial institutions, insurance, customs duties, and other related service organizations.
• Bank loans and credit offers
• Exclusive terminals for fuel transit and bunkering, containers, normal cargoes, petroleum and mineral products.
• Taking the advantages of exclusive railroad and modern equipment and facilities for goods loading and unloading

D. Parsian Special Economic Zone of Energy Consuming Industries

• This zone has the area of 9,800 hectares and is in the west border of Hormozgan. It has been ratified and legalized in 2010. This zone is 15 km to the west of Parsian and 30 km to the east of Assaluyeh. What distinguishes this zone is its location at the border of three provinces, Hormozgan, Bushehr, and Fars which enables this zone to use resources and potentials of all three provinces.
• This site with the average area of 10,000 hectares, is under construction with two sections dedicated to port and industry:
• The industrial section is planned for energy consuming industries such as steel, aluminum and gas condensate factories as well as petrochemical projects, and power plants and etc.
• The port section is designed to ease the means of access to those industries which are fixed in or floating on the sea water, jetty, different sort of required docks, bulk storage areas, port logistics and back up services which is supposed to be within the limit of coastlines.

Potential Advantages of the Zone:
Its adjacency to Persian Gulf coast and its access to free water enable this zone to reach international marine transportation networks. Thus, this zone can import its required raw materials and export its products via these international free sea lines. However, the main strength of this zone is its adjacency to Pars special economic zone and Assaluyeh gas fields. Another potential advantage of this zone is the Persian Gulf International Airport with only 20 km distance from the zone. The other is Parsian port complex with the capacity of 40 million tons of loading and unloading in a year.
Main Advantages of the Zone:

• Adjacency to South Pars Gas Complex
• Access to appropriate infrastructures for land, marine, and air transportations.
• Establishment of Parsian port complex with the capacity of 40 million tons for loading and unloading as Iran's largest technical, industrial, and mineral port.
• Establishment of cooperative facility corridor between South Pars special zone and Parsian special zone to transfer raw and feeding materials for petrochemical industries.
• Supply of water, electricity and telecommunication facilities during the construction.
• Possessing all legal advantages and incentives of special economic zones to facilitate the process of goods entry and exit, customs exemptions and duties free and etc.
• Having legal advantages of the regulations pertaining to the act of removing barriers from production.

E. Lavan Special Economic Zone
Lavan Island is linked to Mogham port from the northwest, Shatur Island from the east, and Salman, Reshadat, as well as Resalat oil fields from the south. This island is 76 km2 and is the largest Persian Gulf Island in Iran after Qeshm. Its distance from Bandar Lengeh and Bandar Abbas is 91 sea miles and 198 sea miles respectively. Lavan has a remarkable oil reserves close to its water. Currently, the products are transferred to oil facilities called "Lavan Oil Refinery Company" and then they are converted into petroleum products for domestic consumption.
Lavan, a part of Kish district, is a small but vital island in Persian Gulf region and is of high economic significance to Iran. This port has several metal docks with different capacities for sea transportation and the proper infrastructure for investment and economic activities are made ready. Ultimately, it is a port well suited for transferring petroleum products.
In addition to exporting petroleum products, there are other exported goods such as pearl and fish. Encompassing three aspects of energy, fishery, and watershed management, Lavan special economic zone was formed in 2010 by the government official permit.
Advantages of Lavan Special Economic Zone with Energy, Fishery, and Watershed Management Functions
1. Lavan Special Economic Zone is the only zone with three valuable functions of energy, fishery, and watershed management and it is founded to implement Iran's laying basis for non-oil economy. These policies aim to achieve equal distributions of national wealth and to generate dynamic jobs.
2. To stabilize the dominance and sovereignty of Islamic Republic of Iran over Persian Gulf islands and strengthening and developing the settlement issues of Iranian citizens on the island and preventing local migration. These goals can be reached by taking the advantages of the special zone by creating and developing investment opportunities and eventually amplifying effective strategies to absorb foreign and domestic investment.
3. Terminal infrastructures (loading and unloading docks, oil and gas docks, stores, roofed and open warehouses, exclusive wharf and quay for the zone, custom affairs, port affairs, customs duties, port administration, Tejarat Bank, Melli Bank and etc.
4. The existence of tycoon oil companies (Iranian Continental Oil Refinery Company and Oil Products Distribution Company) as well as great reserves of gas and oil can create a right avenue to establish immense petrochemical units and other minor and subordinated industries related to oil, gas and petrochemical. This can pave the way for establishing small clusters of gas and oil refineries in the field of energy.
5. The existence of various sea species in Lavan, where is known as Persian Gulf aquarium, provides the opportunities to create and develop fishery industry especially in the export section
6. Lavan's controllable annual rain fall, its fertile land and intact environment have prepared suitable room for investment in watershed management. Investment in this field will certainly lead to a lucrative business with a high added value.
7. Easy and cheap access to international free water that can make the process of import and export of goods easier and it can contribute to the expansion of trade among countries.  
8. Offering considerable incentives and elimination of bureaucratic procedures and red tape in importing and exporting goods from Lavan zone.
9. Taking the advantages of legal exemptions in the areas of documentary credits, (LC) pertaining to regulations and rules about the constitution and administration of special economy zones approved and ratified by Islamic Parliament of Iran.
10. The possibility of transferring goods from all custom offices and entry borders of Iran to Lavan in the form of foreign transit without paying any customs duties or commercial interest.
11. The possibility of direct dispatching of goods to Lavan special economic zone without bearing any cost or passing the customs duties procedures.
12.  Availability of young and fresh work force.
14. The feasibility of establishing logistics and back up service units and welfare centers for the platforms as well as the surrounded oil fields.
14. Reasonable cost of land procurement to build investment centers compared to other similar islands
15. Lavan special economic zone is selected as the third petrochemical center of Iran.
16. Multitude existence of tourist attractions such as wonderful sand beaches and spectacular cliff-side beaches of 35 km length. Additionally mild weather and magnificent climatic sceneries can be seen during different seasons of the island.
17. Elimination of bureaucratic processes for importing those industries related to energy.
18. Establishing the second petrochemical pole of Iran.