- The Iraqi government intends to raise trade exchange with Egypt to $2bn (2.3tr IQD) billion during 2012.
Last year the figure reached only $400m (466bn IQD), said Kamal Sharif, chairman of the committee tasked with planning to increase Iraqi trade exchange.

Sharif said the Ministry of Trade and the General Secretariat of Baghdad have designed a plan for the current year to increase the figure to $2bn and boost the number of Egyptian companies to more than 80.

The official did not comment further on the plan but noted that there are currently 28 Egyptian companies in Iraq, 15 of them operating with the government and the rest in the private sector.

Sharifi went on to say that the Iraqi government stresses that the trade exchange between Baghdad and Cairo "be according to the economic interests of both countries and be an active participation and not take stereotypical forms".

Turkey topped the regional investors in Iraq with $12bn (13.9tr IQD) in 2011. Iraq's trade exchange volume with Iran, Syria and Jordan in the same year reached $4bn (4.6tr IQD), $2bn (2.3tr IQD) and $1bn (1.1tr IQD), respectively.





AKnews