TEHRAN – Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnasser Hemmati held talks with Iraqi Finance Minister Fuad Mohammed Hussein on Monday night to discuss expansion of banking relations between the two countries, IRNA reported.

“The two countries’ $20-billion trade target is easily attainable if the two sides expand their banking relations to facilitate expansion of trade,” Hemmati wrote in an Instagram post after meeting with Fuad. 

“The development of monetary and financial relations between the two countries will play an important role in furthering this goal as soon as possible,” he stressed.

Fuad visited Iran along with a high-ranking trade delegation headed by the Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

It was Abdul-Mahdi's second visit to Tehran as Iraq’s prime minister, he first paid a two-day visit to Iran in early April during which an Iran-Iraq business forum was held in Tehran. The visit came after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s landmark visit to Iraq in March.

During the business forum, the two sides called for further expansion of the trade ties between the two countries.

Later that month, Hemmati also traveled to Baghdad and met some Iraqi senior officials to explore the ways for the expansion of banking relations between the two countries.

During that visit, he met Abdul-Mahdi, Mohammed Hussein and Central Bank of Iraq Chairman Ali Mohsen Al-Allaq.

On the sidelines of his meeting with the Iraqi officials, Hemmati stressed that Iran-Iraq banking relations would be eased to lubricate transactions between the two countries’ businessmen.

He said that regarding the ever increasing trade transactions between the two sides and Iran’s exports of gas and oil to Iraq besides Iranian private sector’s exports to the country, the exports value from Iran to Iraq has increased recently up to $12 billion per year.

“There are some banking difficulties about which negotiations were made with the Iraqi minister today and as accorded, to ease Iranian tradesmen’s activities in Iraq the impediments will be removed soon”, CBI governor said.

Iran and Iraq are determined to boost their trade turnover to $20 billion in near future and to meet this target many officials and delegations from each side have been recently visiting the other side.

EF/MA