Joint Committee to Enhance Water, Power Ties to Iraq

Iran and Iraq have established a joint committee to fast-track the development of water and electricity projects.

Bahram Nezamolmolki, deputy energy minister for technical and engineering exports, has been appointed as the Iranian head of the committee by Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian, Mehr News Agency reported.

In view of the fact that Iran and Iraq have increased technical and engineering collaboration over the past several years, the two sides set up the committee to further facilitate bilateral ties in the key water and power sectors.

The energy committee will help remove hurdles in areas such as easing the participation of Iran’s private sector in Iraq's energy market, opening lines of credit by the National Development Fund of Iran for the implementation of power projects in the Arab country and support investment and technology transfer to Iraq so that the war-torn neighbor can manufacture equipment in cooperation with Iran.

Iran built a 162-megawatt power plant in Iraq, near the southern city of Najaf. The plant was commissioned two years ago.

Part of the electricity demand of the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala is being supplied by the new power plant, which was designed and constructed by Iran's MAPNA Group.

Iran’s electricity industry ranks 14th in the world and first in the Middle East in terms of power generation with an installed capacity of over 75,000 MW.

Plans call for raising power production capacity by 50,000 MW within 10 years and boosting total installed power capacity to more than 120,000 MW.