Maliki tells Germany Iraq is open for business
BERLIN (AFP) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said his battle-scarred country was now safer and back in business, in a sales pitch in Germany after talks Tuesday with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Maliki said Iraq was getting back on its feet and aimed to revive its historically strong ties with Europe's biggest economy, recalling the 1980s heyday when annual bilateral trade reached four billion euros (6.4 billion dollars).
"We have managed to save our country from a civil war," he told reporters at a news conference with Merkel.
"Now we want to rebuild our country. With security improved, we are ready to welcome foreign companies. We have taken the necessary measures."
Merkel said Germany was in a unique position to help rebuild Iraq, which badly needs engineering expertise and industrial facilities -- two German specialities.
"We are pleased that the security situation in Iraq has improved little by little and that is of course a pre-condition for economic and political reconstruction to move forward," she said.
"Iraq is a country rich in raw materials and Germany has broad technological and industrial know-how. We are pleased that some German companies have already expressed interested in helping to rebuild Iraq."
She said Maliki had asked for German assistance in the areas of training, renewable energy and infrastructure.
Maliki was to attend a dinner organised by the Arab-German chamber of commerce and industry, known as Ghorfa, with about 100 business leaders, particularly heads of small- and medium-sized enterprises.
Last year, Germany exported goods worth a total of 319 million euros to the war-ravaged country. But German firms are keen to build stronger ties with Iraq, with its massive oil reserves and lucrative reconstruction contracts.
Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Baker Jaber Solagh said the government would have more than 75 billion dollars at its disposal this year thanks to skyrocketing oil revenues to cover daily expenses and finance projects such as refineries, roads, railways, hospitals, ports and the purchase of airplanes.
"We have not had this much money since 2003," he told AFP recently in Baghdad.
For now however, while many German companies have expressed interest in working in Iraq, few have taken the next steps.
Wintershall, a unit of the chemical giant BASF, is one of the few to actively seek contracts, in its case a license for oil drilling.
A BDI spokesman acknowledged that "we cannot say how many German companies are currently active in Iraq."
Attacks, corruption and poor infrastructure are obstacles to many.
"Economic ties without hindrances will only be possible when the security situation improves considerably," the head of the German chamber of commerce DIHK's external trade department, Axel Nitschke, told MDR Info radio.
He warned entrepreneurs to obey travel warnings from the German foreign ministry. "Any other stance would be irresponsible," he said.
Baghdad has pressed Berlin to abandon its official warning against travel in the still volatile country.
In June, a German-Iraqi economic commission was resuscitated and met here for the first time since 1987, under the oversight of Economy Minister Michael Glos and Iraqi Industry Minister Fawzi al-Hariri.
Six weeks later, Glos flew to Iraq along with a sizeable German business delegation -- the first member of the government to make the trip since 2003.
