Shafaq News / Iranian minister of energy, Reza Ardakanian, announced that Tehran and Baghdad have reached an agreement, over two contracts to develop and improve the electricity industry in Iraq.

This came after he met with his Iraqi counterpart Majid Hantoush, who is visiting Tehran as part of the delegation accompanying the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.
Ardakanian said that the two contracts will involve plans to reduce damage to the electricity distribution network in the provinces of Najaf and Karbala, and repairing distribution transformers in Iraq, indicating that a final agreement will be reached upon them.

Regarding the dues of supplying electricity to Iraq, Minister Ardakanian stated that it was agreed to pay a portion of the dues of "Tavanir" Company starting from the end of the current month.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi announced that he would soon reopen the southern crossings of his country with Iran.

This came in a meeting between the head of the Iranian Customs Authority, Mahdi Mir-Ashrafi, with the Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi, on the sidelines of the meeting of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.

Allawi reported his country's decision to reopen the southern ports (Shalamcheh and Jazzaba) soon, which were closed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 and were partially operated recently.

The Iraqi Minister of Finance expressed his country's desire to cooperate and benefit from the experiences of Iranian customs in the field of automating procedures, suggesting that Iraqi experts and customs officials be dispatched for this purpose.

The two sides stressed the necessity of establishing joint commercial portals, while the head of the Iranian Customs Authority expressed his readiness to implement joint measures in the field of customs information exchange, training Iraqi customs officials, and reopening of border crossings.