ANTALYA - A 30-member Iraqi businessmen delegation composed of leading members of the Association of Iraqi Businessmen came to southern Antalya province on Wednesday to hold contacts and to do business.
Iraqi businessmen who came to Antalya as the guest of Foreign Trade Undersecretariat started visiting historical and touristic places of Antalya. The delegation would go to Istanbul on Thursday, hold meetings with businessmen there and later proceed to Ankara.
Younis Al-Samawi, the Chairman of the National Investment Company and Vice-President of Babil Investment Bank said that Turkey was the strongest neighbour of Iraq to make cooperation.
Al-Samawi said that he believed that commercial relations with Turkey would further increase after Iraq's reaching stability, adding ''Turkish businessmen are very important for us... We came to Turkey to sign new agreements.''
Samawi stated that ''there are very big projects in Iraq. Reconstruction is made in all fields in Iraq and we have cooperation opportunities with Turkey in all fields. We have historical relations with Turkey. Important businessmen of Iraq came here, Turkish businessmen could take their place in big projects of Iraq.''
Samawi said that Iraq did not have customs currently and stated that while 300 million U.S. dollars of goods were earlier bought from Jordan, it amounted to 1 billion U.S. dollars after Iraq reached stability. Samawi added that there was a similar situation with Turkey and stated that mutual trade would further increase and it depended on mutual confidence. Samawi said that they were always ready for cooperation with Turkish people.
Foreign Trade Undersecretariat officials said that high-ranking businessmen, who were members of the Association of Iraqi Businessmen, came to Turkey and stated that the 30-member Iraqi delegation would proceed to Istanbul after they visited historical and touristic places in Antalya.
The same officials said that the delegation would meet with TIM chairman Oguz Satici and ITO Chairman Mehmet Yildirim and have a working luncheon with businessmen in Istanbul and stated that they would later proceed to Ankara and have meetings with Foreign Trade Undersecretary and businessmen there.
Stating that Iraqi businessmen carried out activities on contracting services, food, construction materials, telecommunications and irrigation fields, officials noted that a cooperation possibility worth of 1 billion U.S. dollars could be provided with Iraqi businessmen.
Foreign Trade Undersecretariat officials noted that Turkey's exports to Iraq increased by 34 percent this year when compared to the previous years and it increased by more than a hundred percent last two months and added that Turkey's exports to Iraq would further increase with coming of businessmen who engaged with Iraqi economy to the Turkey.
(Öª-EÖ-AÖ) 20.08.2003