TEHRAN- During a meeting between the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI)and the managing director of the Commercial Bank of Iraq, the two sides discussed the ways for the transfer of Iran’s funds in Iraq.

Iran and Iraq have several times discussed the issue of releasing Iran’s financial resources in Iraq over the past months, based on which Iran was supposed to have access to its funds which are related to the gas export to Iraq.

Iranian goods, services highly welcomed in Iraq

The chairman of Iran-Iraq Joint Economic Committee stated that Iranian products and services are highly welcomed in the Iraqi market.

Saying that Iraq has many social, cultural, religious, political, and economic commonalities with Iran, Mohammad-Vali Alaeddini expressed hope that the process of boosting export to the neighboring countries, especially Iraq, will be stable and will continue and increase due to Iran's very desirable capacities.

In mid-January, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian, who is the head of the Iran-Iraq Joint Economic Committee, said that the two countries’ annual trade is going to be increased to $20 billion.

Ardakanian made the remarks in the opening ceremony of the two countries’ fourth Joint Economic Committee meeting in Tehran, which he co-chaired with the Iraqi Trade Minister Alla Ahmed Al-Jubouri.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to support the export of Iranian engineering and technical services to Iraq by establishing a joint investment fund,” he said, adding that new agreements are going to be signed between the two countries in the fields of water and energy.

He also underlined the development of transportation lines between the two countries as an important factor in the development of trade relations between the two countries and added: “We are ready to implement the previous agreements in the fields of electricity, gas, and water, and to formulate new agreements in this field in order to develop cooperation between the two countries.”

The official further called for signing agreements for cooperation in other fields including double taxation, investment, preferential tariffs, and customs.

Ardakanian also mentioned the positive political relations between the two countries as a base for boosting economic relations.

He expressed hope that with the efforts of the two countries’ governments and businessmen, the development of trade and economic relations between the two sides will become smoother and the talks in the Joint Economic Committee meeting will lead to the signing of documents to develop bilateral cooperation.

Further in the meeting, Al-Jubouri emphasized the significance of modern technologies in the development of economic relations between the countries, and said: “In today's world, the digital economy is very important and the existing obstacles and problems in the way of the development of economic relations between the two countries can be overcome accordingly.”

MA/MA