Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian opened the pipeline"s first section at a ceremony near the border.

Under the first stage of the project, Iran will annually export some 400 million cubic meters of gas, which will be increased up to 3.2 billion cubic meters when the 141km link is completed.

The 100km Iranian section runs from Tabriz to Iran-Armenia border. The Armenian section runs from Meghri region to Sardarian.

According to preliminary estimates, about $90-100 million was allocated for construction works in Armenia and Iran earmarked about $120 million for construction activities on its territory.

Pointing to electricity export, he said that the side’s plan is to increase its capacity for importing power from Iran.

Referring to exports of five million tons of Iran’s LNG to India, he announced that the contract was signed two years ago and now the Economic Council is not agree with the price, hence, it should revise the case

Trade Tariffs

Meantime, head of Iran-Armenia Joint Chamber of Commerce announced here on Tuesday that the sides’ trade tariffs will decrease to help grow bilateral economic cooperation.

Levon Aharonian told Mehr that the tariffs of some products will slump to zero.

Despite the sides’ high economic potentials, the trade volume, valued at about $200 million, is not desirable and has to reach one billion dollars per annum.

He referred to construction of Aras 170MW hydroelectric power plant, establishment of railway linking the two states, and transmission of power to Armenia and Georgia, predicting a rising trade volume for the countries.

The sides made the decisions in the seventh session of the Iran-Armenia Joint Economic Cooperation Commission in Yerevan.

The commission was chaired by Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki and Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan.

The commission discussed cooperation in the areas of trade, energy, health, transportation, science, and culture.