Tehran, Iran, March.16
Trend:
The establishment of three industrial parks at Iran-Iraq border points would increase Iran's energy exports and help develop Iraq.
The head of Iran-Iraq joint Chamber of Commerce Yahya Al-Eshaq has discussed the issue with Trend, saying that nothing so far has been announced about the cooperation in the energy sector.
"There have been talks with Iraqis to establish industrial parks, but they weren't ready. Now, due to Iraq's power, gas and human resources shortages, establishment of three industrial parks has been agreed upon during President Rouhani's trip there, and Iran will take on the task," he said.
"By creating these industrial parks, Iraq's development would depend on Iran since they are depending on the country for gas, human resources and electricity imports. This would be important for Iran and it can help to industrialize Iraq and at the same time it would excel Iran's presence in Iraq's market, and the neighboring markets as well," Al-Eshaq said.
"This would be a big market for Iran's energy sector. Iran can sell electricity and gas to these parks according to the signed agreement," he noted.
The official said the details of the Iran-Iraq oil-related talks haven't been announced.
"Meanwhile in the power sector, that involves gas exports, Iran is ready to increase exports," he said.
"Iran annually exports around 8 billion kilowatts of electricity to Iraq and has the capacity to triple the volume, we have vast capacity and can use it for exports to Iraq," Al-Eshaq said.
He then spoke about Iraq's debts to Iran, saying that the Iraqi side has said it would be ready to pay off its debts in dinars from the start of the current year (started March 21, 2018).
"During the visit of governor of Central Bank of Iran Abdolnaser Hemmati ,the Iraqis have discussed their problems with the official and expressed willingness to pay their debts in dinar. Iraqi dinar is a strong and acceptable foreign currency and can be exchanged for other currencies and the Central Bank of Iran has accepted it. During this visit, Iraq has paid off $200 million worth of its debt in dinars," said the official.
"Iraq has no problem in paying its debts since it has sold some $83 billion worth of oil. But it had problems in the banking system and with transferring money. All this was resolved during Hemmati's visit there," he added.
Al-Eshaq said said that Hemmati also seeks to solve the issue of letters of guarantees, which will allow Iranian companies to attend and participate in Iraq's oil, gas and petrochemical tenders.
"One of the problems of Iranian companies was the letter of guarantee, they couldn't take part in the tenders in Iraq, if this problem is resolved, we can increase the technical exports for electricity, gas, petrochemical sectors of Iraq," Al-Eshaq said.