Iraqi, American and international officials and businessmen met in Dubai conference titled "exchange of investments between Iraq and the United Arab Emirates".
The Conference was attended by about 600 investors and businessmen came mostly from the Iraqi province of Anbar, in an attempt to attract Gulf and international investments. The attendees called on to invest in Iraq, confirming the existence of an exaggeration in the information on the security situation there.
The conference was held at the hotel "Sofotel" near the famous center "City Center" in the heart of Dubai, and attended by a number of American officials and investors, including the commercial advisor at the American embassy in Baghdad, along with a number of Iraqi officials including the governor of Anbar, Maamoun Rashid Alalwani, the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and the Deputy of Salah Al Din province.
The trade affairs adviser at the American embassy in Iraq, Andrew Ailjala, said that the conference is not devoted to Anbar province only, as it aims at attracting the necessary investments to help Iraqi people overcome the challenges they face, pointing out that the investments exceed several billions of dollars, which was set previously in a study by the International Bank. He explained that although the majority of attendees are from Anbar, but there are participants from other locations in Iraq, including Babylon and Salaheddin, pointing out that the conference was attended by 160 Iraqi officials and investors, as well as 400 investors and businessmen representing Gulf and international companies operating in UAE. And about the security circumstances in Iraq and whether they were suitable to attract investments, Ailjala explained that investments are required at all times, specifying the targeted investment sectors in Iraq to be in agriculture, food industries, information technology, communications, housing and power generation, contracting and construction.
Iraq's exports
According to statistics reviewed during the conference, oil formed 98% of Iraq's exports in 2005. The United States of America was the first trade partner of Iraq, since it took hold of 49% of Iraq's total trade with the world, followed by Italy with the share of 11%, then Spain 7%, Canada 6%, Taiwan 4%, South Korea 4% and 3% for each of Brazil, France and Turkey.
Ailjala pointed out that countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, India and Iran had not issued reports on the volume of their trade with Iraq in recent years. The estimated size of the Iraqi Trade in 2005 is more than 46.5 billion dollars. He stated that this conference is the first of its kind within three conferences will be held during the current year, with the aim of highlighting the investment opportunities in Iraq. The second conference will be held between February 28 and March 3 to find out about investment opportunities in the north of Iraq (Kurdistan).
On his part, the governor of Anbar, Maamoun Rashid Alalwani, said that the province provides 150 investment opportunities in several areas; it succeeded last year in attracting 171 million, including $ 96 million of foreign investments and 75 million in the form of external grants. He stressed that: "facing the challenges and problems in Iraq, will only be through the promotion of investments", explaining that the current conference is in a series of conferences held in a number of countries in the region that have agreed to host them, including Jordan.
|