INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
TEHRAN- Iran exported non-oil commodities valued at $9.4 billion to Iraq during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year
(March 20-December 21, 2024), the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced.Foroud Asgari said that Iraq
was the second top export destination of the Iranian non-oil goods in the mentioned nine months.Considering Iran's vast export capacity
and Iraq's large market for Iranian goods, both sides want to expand the volume of bilateral economic exchanges.Iran and Iraq have set a
target of $20 billion in annual trade, and businessmen and authorities of both countries are determined to meet that target.In late May
2024, the head of the Department of Spatial Planning and Regional Planning of the Iranian Planning and Budget Organization (PBO) said that
opportunities and challenges of attracting Iraqi investors and strengthening trade relations between the two countries in line with
tons of gold reserves, and 147 billion barrels of proven reserves of crude oil, is among the richest countries in West Asia.Currently, Iran
exports over 2,200 various types of goods and products to Iraq, he said, adding that more than half of the active Iranian traders are
present in the Iraqi market.Developing the trade infrastructures to facilitate trade between the two countries, encouraging traders to
invest in Iraq, promoting trade through dispatching and admitting trade delegations and participating in exhibitions of the two countries,
are suggested to strengthen the trade and economic relations between Iran and Iraq, he underlined.In an interview in mid-December, the
ambassador of Iran in Iraq praised the economic relations between the two sides and expressed hope that these relations will be more and
better.Mohammad Kazem Ale-Sadeq announced the value of commercial exchanges between the two countries, and stated that economic relations
hosted the 6th meeting of the Iran-Iraq Joint Economic Committee.The two-day event was co-chaired by the former Iranian Finance and Economic
committees including commercial, industrial, agricultural, standardization and quality control, energy, finance, banking, investment and
Insurance, shipping, transport, and Customs, scientific, educational, tourism, health, as well as sports consulate held meetings to discuss
areas for cooperation.Increasing non-oil exports to the neighboring countries is one of the major plans that the Iranian government has been
pursuing in recent years.Iran shares land or water borders with 15 countries namely the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Afghanistan, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Saudi Arabia.MA
