Recognition of Unsuccessful Development of Iran's Marine Industries through the Analysis of Current and Ideal Situation of the Industrie's Value Chain

Iran's marine industry is of high importance due to the countries 5800 km of coastline, access to the sea in the north and the south, and access to free water although the industry's situation is not as successful as its rivals which started their development plan simultaneously. The purpose of this paper is to examine the gap between current and ideal situation of marine industry to find bottlenecks of development. To do so, the marine industry value chains in other countries are studied and customized with Iran's industry through expert opinions as the first step. Next, private and governmental companies, which have been registered in Iranian Association of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering, are reviewed and located in the value chain to find industry strengths and weaknesses. Finally, solutions to remove bottlenecks of Iran's marine industry development are proposed. Results are representative of the fact that the majour bottlenecks in supportive activities are the lack of integrated finance and insurance system, occupational skill training system, customs adminstartion, and R&D infrastructure. Moreover, the major bottlenecks in primery activities are lack of vendor list, and weakness of needs & feasibility assessment, supply chain management and technical capabilities. To improve the industry performance, the government should focus on integrated laboratory services, finance and insurance, and regulations to reduce investment risks and private sector should promote its productivity and competitiveness. This research could be used as a basis to formulate Iran's marine industry strategic plan.