Iranian Provincial Official Calls for Expansion of Economic Ties with Iraq

Iran is ready to expand its bilateral economic ties with neighboring Iraq, an Iranian provincial official said.

Iran’s Western Ilam province Governor-General Mahmoud Abbaszadeh made the remarks in a meeting with Iraqi Babel province Deputy Governor General in the provincial capital city of Ilam on Wednesday.

“Iran is ready to broaden bilateral economic ties with friendly and neighboring Iraq,” Ilam governor-general said.

Abbaszadeh noted that the economic, social and cultural transactions between Iran and Iraq should take place at a broader level.

Earlier this month, an Iranian trade official said that “a high-ranking Iraqi trade and economic delegation is slated to pay a visit to Iran in the near future in a bid to expand mutual cooperation and boost trade transactions between the two countries”.

“A high-ranking trade and economic delegation comprising 200 active businessmen of (Iraq’s) private and government sectors will soon travel to Iran,” Secretary-General of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce Jahanbakhsh Sanjabi said.

Sanjabi noted that Iraq was Iran’s top trade partner last year (ended March 20, 2012), adding that the value of trade transactions between the two countries hit $10.7bln in the said period.

Last month, Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Danayeefar announced that the value of the trade ties between Iran and Iraq will exceed $12bln this year thanks to the two countries’ growing cooperation.

Iran’s exports to Iraq worth some $11 billion last year and the figure is expected to exceed $12 billion this year, Danayeefar said in a meeting with a group of Iranian and Iraqi entrepreneurs in Tehran at the time.

He also said that Iraq’s free economy has created a suitable room for the country’s exporters to play key roles in the world markets and the opportunity should be seized by Iranian companies to present their products to that country.

Iran and Iraq have enjoyed growing ties ever since the overthrow of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, in 2003.

Both sides are working on a series of plans to take wide strides in expanding their ties, in economic fields in particular.

Iranian energy officials said in September that the country will start supplying natural gas to neighboring Iraq by the summer of 2013.

Head of the National Iranian Gas Company Javad Oji said Iran has completed more than 25 percent of a pipeline to Iraq that could carry up to 25 million cubic meters per day of its natural gas to Iraq.