Iraq And Qatar Agree To Activate Economic And Trade Relations

Baghdad / NINA / -Iraq and Qatar agreed to activate economic and trade relations and restore channels of communication in all fields and hold meetings of the Iraqi-Qatari committee in Doha early next month. "The Iraqi-Qatari relations will witness further progress for the two countries' desire to develop the horizons of cooperation between them and find new outlets for their development and upgrading through the activation of the memorandum of understanding signed between the two parties," Trade Minister Mohammad Hashim al-Ani said during his meeting with his Qatari counterpart Ali bin Ahmad al-Kuwari. " Ani said that Iraq is keen to restore relations with Qatar and re-work the joint agreement signed between the two countries in 1979 and activate it in light of the economic developments that take place in the world and the role of Iraq's economic. He stressed Iraq's desire to develop its economic and trade relations with Qatar and the possibility of Qatari companies to contribute to the investment opportunities witnessed by Iraq to rebuild its infrastructure. For his part, the trade Minister of Qatar, confirmed his country's desire to activate the Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries and develop areas of economic and investment work. He stressed the importance of forming a joint working group to review the memorandum of understanding and work on discussing the free trade agreement between the two countries in order to develop economic and trade relations and find new channels of communication. Al-Kuwari pointed to the importance of Iraq's participation in the tripartite agreement signed between Qatar, Turkey and Iran for the carrier line through the southern ports of transit as well as the possibility of the contribution of Qatari companies in investments and rehabilitation of Iraqi factories./ End