Iraqi economic delegation to visit Iran today

A senior Iranian official announced that a high-ranking economic delegation headed by the governor-general of the Eastern Iraqi Wasit province is due to visit Iran's Western Ilam province on Thursday. "The high-ranking delegation headed by the Wasit governor-general is slated to travel to Ilam today," Ilam Governor-General Mojtaba Alayee told FNA on Thursday. He reiterate that the Iraqi delegation is due to meet with Iranian officials, visit a cement production factory and discuss the settlement of problems at Mehran border crossing between the two countries. Last month, Head of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines Mohammad Nahavandian announced that Tehran and Baghdad officials are working on a number of plans to boost economic ties and cooperation, specially between the two countries' private sectors. Nahavandian said the relations between Iran and Iraq should be promoted mainly through private sector, which is in nature stable and strong, so that political cooperation between the two sides would be enhanced accordingly. "Considering Iran's $150bln trade and Iraq's $90bln - as two important economies of the world - the two countries' trade should reach more than $4.5bln," Nahavandian said in his address to Iran-Iraq Trade Seminar in September. Iran and Iraq have enjoyed growing ties ever since the overthrow of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, in 2003. Both sides are working on a series of plans to take wide strides in expanding their ties. Early in July, Iran and Iraq agreed to boost the value of their trade exchanges to $20bln in the near future. "We agree to increase the value of mutual economic and trade exchange, which is expected to reach 10 billion dollars by the end of the current year, to 20 billion dollars in the near future," Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told reporters in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad at the time. The two countries inked six Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) to expand cooperation in various sectors such as information technology, health and medication and culture.