Undaunted by the dismal security and economic situation in Iraq, State Minister for Trade Kürþad Tüzmen spoke enthusiastically of a roadmap involving elements of the private sector and called for cooperation between neighbors. A meeting of over 3,000 Turkish and Iraqi businesses was organized in Gaziantep last year and a huge Middle-East fairground is to take place there on May 23-27 this year. "We will do whatever we can to develop Iraqi-Turkish trade and industry," said Tüzman. Iraqi Minister of Planning Ali Baban said that Turkey would play a big role in Iraq's reconstruction. Tüzman called for the development of infrastructure.

  He said that a second and a third border crossing to Iraq should be opened and that all major southern Turkish cities would be connected to Iraq by a modern highway system. "You will be able to get from Turkey's southern cities to Basra in a single day," he said.

Minister of Iraq's Water Resources Abdullatif Jamal Rashed stressed that wars during the Baathist period, the economic embargo and the current security situation meant that 90 percent of Iraq's infrastructure needed to be overhauled. He did not include the effects of the last war in Iraq in his summary of the situation.

 Tüzmen said that energy is one of the biggest fields of collaboration and urged for the Iraqi Hydrocarbons law, which has been approved by the Cabinet but has not yet been submitted to Parliament, to come out as soon as possible. He stated the importance of a natural gas pipeline between Iraq and Turkey.

 

Turkish Daily News

Güncelleme Tarihi: 20 Eylül 2018, 18:16