Iran envoy: Iranian firms active in Iraq fully supported

TEHRAN(Defapress)-speaking at a meeting to review grounds for investment in Iraq at the Iranian embassy attended by Iranian economic activists and managers of companies active in Iraq, Masjedi underlined the importance of being realistic for starting economic activities in Iraqi markets.

Addressing Iranian economic activists and managers of companies present in the meeting, Masjedi called on them not to go to extremes in assessing conditions for their economic activities in that country.

He said Iranian economic activities in Iraq were on the rise, calling on Iranian companies to carefully study the numerous opportunities available in the country in order to be able to start their economic cooperation and investment projects powerfully.

A number of economic activists in short speeches enumerated certain problems and obstacles on the way of their economic activities and investment in Iraq.

Seyyed Hamid Hosseini , a member of the board of directors of Iran-Iraq chamber of commerce outlined the economic opportunities available to Iranian firms and said the Iranian companies had better cooperate with Iraqi side in the field of technical and engineering services.

Iranian commercial attaché Nasser Behzad said at the meeting that during talks with relevant Iraqi officials , they had promised to facilitate foreign investment and improve certain procedures.

Referring to negative propaganda that has discouraged some Iranian firms from entering Iraqi markets, he said Iraq has recently published a list of 1,200 investment projects which can be appealing to Iranian companies.

He said one of the proper ways of overcoming existing problems is formation of powerful consortia by Iranian firms so that they can interact with Iraqi markets more vigorously.

On Thursday, Iran participated in a one-day international conference on investment opportunities and reconstruction of Iraq held in Baghdad.

Present in the meeting were a number of Iraqi ministers, officials, economic activists and representatives of Arab and foreign companies as well as regional and international financial institutes.

Managers and representatives of 30 Iranian holdings and big firms also attended the Baghdad conference.

During an exhibition held on the sidelines of the conference, Iraqi officials introduced 200 investment project worth 100 billion dollars to the participants.

Given the new conditions prevailing in Iraq and relative political and security stability of the country, the conference was held as a follow up to a previous gathering on reconstruction of the country held in Kuwait in February.

At present, Iraq is one of the most important economic and trade partners of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the region and world. The value of Iran's non-oil exports to Iraq now stands at 6.5 billion dollars, showing a 6-percent increase compared to the figure in the previous year..

Message end