MADRID - Ali Alawi, the trade minister of Iraqi Interim Governing Council, who attended an international donors' conference for Iraq in Madrid called Turkish companies to make investment in Iraq.
Sources said on Thursday that Alawi called Turkish businessmen to make investment in Iraq with ''a very clear and intimate language'' and quoted Alawi as saying that they should not only think of trade in Iraq, but they should make investment there.
Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) Turkish-Iraqi Business Council Chairman Ercument Aksoy who talked to Alawi told the A.A correspondent that Alawi made very constructive and satisfactory statements to them and quoted Alawi as saying that Turkish companies should not only think of trade in Iraq, but they should come to Iraq and make investment. Aksoy said that Alawi stated that leading Turkish companies such as Koc and Sabanci should make investment in Iraq.
Stating that DEIK would open a Turkish promotion bureau in Baghdad in mid-November, Aksoy said that they earlier planned to open the bureau, but attack on Turkish Embassy in Baghdad postponed it and stated that he guessed that the bureau would be opened in mid-November. Aksoy noted that it would be opened on behalf of DEIK, but it would serve for all Turkish businessmen.
Iyad Alawi, the head of Iraqi Interim Governing Council, said that if foreign private sectors made investment in Iraq, they could also provide benefits to neighboring countries like Turkey and Iran.
(EÖ-AÖ) 23.10.2003