TEHRAN – Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari said on Sunday that Iran and Iraq are poised to hold their 5th Joint Economic Commisison to bolster bilateral trade and economic ties.
“Following talks with Iraqi officials in line with efforts of President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration to effectively hold joint economic commissions with target countries, the 5th session of the Iran-Iraq Joint Economic Commission will be held in Baghdad on March 12-14,” Safari said.
He said an Iranian delegation consisting of representatives of the public and private sectors, especially a group of Iranian businesspeople, headed by the Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, will travel to Baghdad to discuss important issues of cooperation in various fields such as banking, transportation and transit, agriculture, investment, insurance, trade and commerce, export of technical and engineering services, energy, science, sports, etc.
According to the scheduled program, the two sides will ink various documents aimed at deepening bilateral cooperation in relevant fields.
The volume of trade exchange between Iran and Iraq in the first 10 months of the current Iranian calendar year in 1401 (March 21, 2022 to Jan. 22, 2023) reached about $9 million, Safari added.
In this period, Iran’s export of products to neighboring Iraq hit more than $8.9 billion, showing a 23 percent hike as compared to the last year’s corresponding period while imports from Iraq decreased by 84% to $146 million.
The 4th session of the Iran-Iraq Joint Economic Commission was held in Tehran in January 2021. It was hosted by the Iranian Ministry of Energy.