Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) is to finance $250 million in a project for building a hypermarket of construction materials in Iran.

The group signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in this regard with the Iranian Omran Holding Group- a subsidiary to the country’s Civil Servants Pension Organization (C.S.P.O), in Tehran on Tuesday, the official website of C.S.P.O reported.

The MOU was signed by the CEO of C.S.P.O Mahmoud Eslamian, the Managing Director of Iranian Omran Holding Group Amir Hossein Karimi, and a director from BCEG.

As accorded, 15 percent of the required financial resources for implementation of the project will be supplied by C.S.P.O and the rest will be provided by the Chinese BCEG.

“The intended hypermarket will be constructed in an area of 90,000 square meters in east of Tehran,” Karimi said during the signing ceremony, “construction of this hypermarket is an introduction to construction of other specialized markets in Iran.” / Tehran times /

Iran bucked a slow start to wallop Hong Kong, 21-25, 25-19, 25-18, 25-15 and keep their dream of occupying a more decent placing alive at the SMM 19th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship.

Coming off a deflating loss to Australia, heavy hitter Mahsa Saberi vent her ire to Hong Kong after unloading 24 points off 18 kills, 4 aces, and 2 blocks at the Muntinlupa Sports Complex.

Neda Chamlanian and Soudabeh Bagherpour also came big for Iran as they registered 12 and 11 markers, respectively as the Iranians completely took over after a shaky start.

Yeung Sau Mei scored 11 points in a losing effort for Hong Kong, which has to settle for the 11th-12th classification match.

Iran, meanwhile, now await the winners of Oceania showdown of Australia and New Zealand, which is in play as of press time, to determine what nation will take the 9th place. / Tehran times /

Parisa Baratchi, female Iranian archer, has been awarded a place at 2017 2017 Archery World Cup Final to convene in Italy.

Upon completion of all four stages in 2017 World Cup, World Archery, the international federation for the Olympic sport of archery, has announced overall points garnered by participating athletes. Accordingly, the top seven athletes in every division have been invited to the 2017 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final.

The Italian capital will stage the event at the Stadio dei Marmi, on September 2 and 3.

Having collected an aggregate total of 26 points in various events, Iran’s Parisa Baratchi has landed sixth in the compound category finding her way to finals of the prestigious event.

In the final showdown, Baratchi’s rivals will comprise Sarah Sonnichsen, Denmark; Sara Lopez, Colombia; Sarah Prieels, Belgium; Andrea Marcos, Spain; Tanja Jensen, Denmark as well as Yesim Bostan, Turkey.

Due to injury, the Iranian representative missed the semifinals at the fourth and final stage of this Hyundai Archery World Cup in Berlin; otherwise, the odds were high that she would have collected more points. Parisa started archery in 2009 and made her international debut in 2012.

The competition, the climax to World Archery’s World Cup season, is one of the most prestigious prizes in the sport with the venue situated next to the Olympic Stadium which was used for the Rome 1960 Games.

Competition will take place using both the recurve and compound bows. / Meher news /

Transit of goods via railway network rose 55 percent in Iran since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21) until August 8, compared to the same period last year.

Some 1.2 million tons of cargo was transited via the national railway network in the past [Iranian calendar] year, while the figure is anticipated to reach 1.8 million tons this year, Tasnim quoted Ebrahim Mohammadi, the deputy head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI), as saying on Monday.

He also said that some 27.5 billion ton-kilometers of cargo was transported via railway in the country during the past year, and the figure is planned to reach 43 billion ton-kilometers this year.

“We have signed four memorandums of understandings with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) for the promotion of railway transportation since the beginning of current Iranian calendar year,” the official noted.

RAI director Saeid Mohammadzadeh said in January that railway should account for 30 percent of freight transportation in Iran by the end of the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2021). / Tehran times /

C lose to 25,000 tons of confectionery, including sweets and chocolate, worth more than 2.47 trillion rials ($76.13 million) were exported from Iran to over 40 countries during the first four months of the current Iranian year (March 21-July 22), the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration announced.

The main export destinations were Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, the UAE, Germany, the United States, Australia, China, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Norway, Mizan Online reported. / Financial tribune /

Iran secured its first victory at the Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship in the Philippines. On Friday, Iranian women claimed a 3-0 (25-4, 25-13, 25-14) triumph over their Maldivian rivals in a Pool D match at Muntinlupa Sports Complex in Muntinlupa, Press TV reported.

The Iranians, having already failed to secure a berth among the top eight teams, almost blanked their opponents in the first set of the game, and only gave away four points due to their individual errors.

The Maldives then tried to recover from the humiliating opening set in the ensuing sets, managing to score 13 and 14 points respectively.

Iran’s hard-hitting spiker Mina Roosta led the scoring with 9 points, while Mahdieh Khajehkolaei, Mahsa Saberi and Neda Chamlanian had 8 apiece to contribute to Iran’s victory.

“We had two difficult matches against Chinese Taipei and Thailand and today we had a normal match against Maldives,” Mirmostafa Shojaei, technical advisor of the Iranian women’s volleyball team, said after the game.

He added, “We are preparing ourselves for future matches.” Iran will next take on Australia in a 9-14 playoffs fixture in Pool H on August 14. / Iran daily /

Deputy Iranian agriculture minister said Iran ranked first in the world as regards production of trout and sturgeon.

Deputy Minister of Agricultural and Head of Iran Fisheries Organization Hassan Salehi made the remarks adding “in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 20), Iran took a major step in the fisheries sector by realizing a production of nearly one million and 100 thousand tons of aquatic species.”

Of the overall output, 54% pertained to fishing in the sea and mainly free waters while the remaining 46 per cent resulted from farming fishery products giving the country the top position in this regard, he underlined.

He said the country gained a good position in the industry last year with exports of 120 thousand tons of fishery products and revenue of 412 million dollars.

“Over 400 processing centers are currently active in various fishery sectors like canning, powder production and packaging giving way to creation of 220,000 direct jobs.”

Salehi stressed that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) had played a huge role in the Iranian fishery industry asserting “Russia restricted imports from Europe and the US in retaliation for their sanctions creating an invaluable market for Iranian products.” The official, while noting that Iran still needs to work on establishing proper infrastructure for meeting demands of foreign buyers like Russia, said “today, Russians are putting a demand for 100,000 tons of Iranian fishery products, shrimp in particular.”

Deputy minister of agriculture went on to note that, following JCPOA implementation, three thousand tons of these products have been deployed to the Russian market.

“Last year 10,000 tons of the overall 160,000 tons of produced trout were exported while the figure for the present year has been targeted at 30,000 tons.”

The official further underscored that Iran has a low per capita consumption of about 10 kilograms while the global average stands at 20kg; “in a bid to boost people’s health, the current per capita needs to rise by producing processed products.” / Meher news /

Iranian short animated piece ‘The Servant’ has scooped Best Animation Award at 40th Elche International Independent Film Festival in Spain.

‘The Servant’ narrates the familiar story of a master and his servant, the story of a writer’s encounter with a gigantic insect: a cockroach. The cockroach becomes a servant but gradually begins to realize that it deserves better conditions, so it tries to turn the table and change the game in its own favor. The man, however, attempts to preserve the current situation but soon realizes that the game has no rules.

‘The Servant’ has previously won a number of international awards including best short animation award for February at London Independent Film Festival, second Best Animation Award at the 20th San Francisco Black Film Festival (SFBFF), and Best Short Animation award at the 2017 Silver Scream Festival in California, US.

Elche is Spain’s 12th oldest film festival, and a contributor to Goya Awards – Spain’s main national annual film awards.

The 40th edition of Elche International Independent Film Festival was held on July 14-21, 2017.

/ Meher news /