Iraq opened at Polish Business

The Polish-Iraqi Economic Forum was held in the Centre for Banking and Finance “Nowy Świat”. Over 100 people, representatives of the Polish private and state enterprises and of some ministries participated in the meeting with representatives of the Iraqi government.

Under the patronage of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency

The Forum was held as part of a two-day visit of the Iraqi delegation in Poland headed by the President Muhammad Fuad Masum. The Forum was organised by the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in Warsaw and Polish-Arabic Cultural and Economical Club. The event was under the patronage of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency. Partners included the Commercial Chamber of Polish Waterworks (Izba Gospodarcza “Wodociągi Polskie”), Bydgoszcz Industrial Cluster and the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers.    

The Iraqi side was represented by Salman Ali Hassan Al-Jumalii, the Minister for Planning, Adil Kareem Kak Ahmed, the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Raw Materials and by Assad Sultan Abo Gulal, the Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq in Warsaw, and two Members of Parliament: Hakim Abbas Mus, Chairman of the Commission for Safety and National Defence and Deputy Sadeq Rasool Hassoon al-Mhann.

“ We fought on behalf of the whole world”

The Ministers paid much attention to the subject of combating terrorism and to the close and entire victory in Iraq over Daesh, the consequence of which is the need to strengthen the army weakened by war lasting for a few years. This as a result creates broad perspective of cooperation with the Polish defence industry.

-Perhaps still this week or the next one, the government will officially announces success in the war over Daesh terrorists. This means that our lands will be liberated till the border with Syria – stated deputy Hakim Abbas Mus. Then he elaborated: – We feel that we thought with terrorism on behalf of the whole world. We fought on behalf of Central and Eastern Europe, where we counted over 9 thousand terrorists, who came to support the Islamic State. Thousands arrived from the Western Europe, not to mention Arab and Muslim states. Since 2014 we have annihilated in Iraq over 70 thousand terrorists, and 5 thousand are still imprisoned. It may be stated that terrorism has been eradicated not only at army level but also the ideological one. We estimate that around only 1% of the territory of the state remains in their hands.

Not only for the military sector

Also private enterprises acting in sectors different than the military one may obtain profitable orders. In Iraq there is a need for over 3 million flats. Also production lines of destroyed plants and the whole industrial plants require rebuilding. In this case the Iraqi looks for contracting firms and entities interested in long-term investment in Iraqi industry. Other areas for potential cooperation include pharmaceutical and agricultural as well as food sectors.

Deputy Sadeq al-Mhanna said about the changes in the way of managing the state: Today we are planning in a different mentality than before. This is planning with broad perspectives, with encouraging entities from abroad, just like you present here, we encourage you to invest in our country. This Economic Forum will be widely discussed after our return to Iraq. Also Member of the Parliament will be thoroughly acquainted with the interest of the Polish side.

Minister Salman Al-Jumalii said that Iraqi state entities are willing to enter into partnership with Polish entities, In this way guaranteeing safety of joint investment. Deputy Hakim Musa added that visa matters were simplified to such an extent that today for investors this is just a formality. The development of economic relations is also envisaged by Ambassador Assad Abo Gulal who announced that another agreements will be concluded with the Polish Ministry of Development.

Tender offers are waiting

Tadeusz Ratajczak, the President of POLSYNERGY, a company from Poznan, asked about the perspectives of energy industry development, in particular about production and building of industrial networks and about supervision over these networks.

–          There are already first tenders for projects ready to be performed – answered the Minister of Industry and Raw Materials. – the State guarantees energy collection and raw materials necessary for such installations to work.  We have also a very ambitious project to build many thousands of kilometres of industrial lines, in particular at the territories destroyed by Daesh. You can get acquainted with the tenders via the Ministry of Energy website, via the Polish Embassy in Baghdad, and also through representatives of Polish companies providing activity at the territory.

The Minister answered also a question about building residential units: – over 3 million flats are needed. This is not a single unified project. This is divided into different projects. Recently, Koreans have undertaken to build 200 thousand flats. Sometimes the tenders are for 5 thousand flats. Usually these are multi-storey buildings in urban agglomerations – he clarified.

Iraq is waiting for revisits

Summing up the conversations, the Iraqi side invited Polish entrepreneurs and Polish authorities to visit Iraq as often as possible. The last such visit took place in May. The Iraqi hope that there will be more and more of them.

Paweł Skutecki, the Chairman of Polish-Iraqi Parliamentary Group, ensured about the efforts made by the bilateral group led by him: – We have diagnosed the most important obstacles in our contacts. The first issue is the difficulty in obtaining visas for Iraqi entrepreneurs, the second is launching direct flight connections between Baghdad and Warsaw, and the third issue is the reconstruction of a full scale embassy in Baghdad, and we are working over all of these issues. I know that during this visit and talks with the government and the Polish President, this subject has been raised. I can say that from my side as a representative of the Polish Parliament we are doing everything for the obstacles to be eliminated.

Polish exhibition with an Iraqi accent

Closing the session Przemysław Skrzypek, the President of the Polish-Arabic Cultural and Economical Club stated: – What we are trying to do for the last ten months it to raise public awareness, de-mythologise the way of perceiving Iraq and Arabic states in general and build relations not only at business level but also at human and institutional level. 

The President of PACEC announced another two events of a broad scope, which have a chance to be performed already next year. – our partner – Commercial Chamber Polish Waterworks –  which is an organiser of largest waterworks trade fairs in Europe, expressed its will to organise an Iraqi day during this event. Our second partner Bydgoszcz Industrial Cluster is having similar plans, this in turn conducts INNOFORM trade fairs. Also these our activities will be intensified. Next year our Association will open an office in Baghdad. We can already say that there are another breakthrough events in front of us.