Tehran, Iran, Nov. 11
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran has the capacity to annually export $20 billion worth of goods to neighboring Iraq.
Iran's Ambassador to Baghdad Masoud Danayifar said that Iranian companies need to deliver the goods on time, and always provide high quality goods with reasonable prices in order to gain a stable position in Iraqi market, Iran's Tasnim News Agency said on Nov. 11.
"Iran's trade with Iraq was around $790 million in the Iranian calendar year of 1385 (ended March 20, 2007), but the figure has now surpassed $7 billion," he said.
"Iranian companies have won tenders on some 32 major projects in Iraq. Once the projects' development plans start, Iran's technical and engineering exports to Iraq will rise significantly," Danayifar said, adding that the current figure is $4.2 billion.
According to the official, Baghdad annually imports $1.3 billion of electricity from Tehran.
"Iran also plans to increase its share out of Iraq's $3-billion medicine imports market," he noted.
The Secretary General of the Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce Jahanbakhsh Sanjabi said on September 24 that the Export Guarantee Fund of Iran has opened a $300-million line of credit for exports to Iraq.
He said the Iranian government seeks to prevent exporting low-quality goods to the neighboring Iraq.
"Adding energy and electricity exports and tourist exchanges, Iran's total exports to Iraq in the mentioned period reaches $5.5 billion," he added.
Sanjabi went on to note that Iran's exports to Iraq has decreased compared to previous year, but the country has managed to expand its share of the Iraqi market due to lack of presence of Turkish firms.
"Iraq was always the fourth or fifth great trade partner of Iran, but security problems in the Arab country has increased the two country's trade so Iraq is now Iran's second trade partner," he added.
Iran plans to hold a conference on trade opportunities for Iranian and Iraqi businesspersons in capital Tehran in late December.
The two-day event aims at finding possible ways to boost Iranian goods' exports to Iraq, Iran's IRIB News Agency reported on September 24. The event will be held on December 27-8 at Shahid Beheshti University.