Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Bahaa Al Araji, told a high level international conference in Baghdad today that his country recognised the vital importance of foreign investment and Iraq was full of opportunity.

Dr Bahaa said the Government was ready to extend all facilities and offer incentives for businesses to come to Iraq.  Large provision had been made in the latest national budget for this.

Speaking at the conference, organised jointly by the Iraq Britain Business Council (IBBC), the National Investment Commission and the Federation of Iraqi Chambers of Commerce, Dr Bahaa said he was particularly keen to encourage UK firms to come to Iraq.

“We know these firms will do business in the right way.  They would be very welcome to help us reconstruct our country,” he added.

The Chairman of the National Investment Commission, Dr Sami Al Araji, continued on the same theme, telling the audience of senior UK and international business leaders that Iraq was reforming itself for outside investment.

“We want to change from a central economy to an international economy. We want to be open to other countries and make all facilities available to encourage them to invest. If we want to work with the outside world then we must deal with business in the international way,” said Dr Al Araji.

He said the country had more than 900 projects that could be offered up for international investment and participation.

Iraq’s Minister for Oil, Dr Adil Abdul Mahdi, also spoke of the urgent need for foreign investment.

“To achieve our ambitions to serve the country better and maximise production of oil, we need to improve our infrastructure for oil and gas. We are actually losing more now than we historically produced in total,” said Mr Mahdi.

“Maybe soon we will hit four million barrels a day – we are not far from it. This means we need more infrastructure, especially storage – that’s storage in the fields and at the ports, and also more pipelines,” he added.

Dr Mahdi said gas was also a big issue. Iraq was losing billions of dollars because gas was not being harnessed and this was “not acceptable.”

Shell Iraq is now working to help develop Iraq’s fledgling gas industry and has recently opened the Basrah Gas Company.

Shell Iraq’s Country Chairman, Hans Nijkamp, said the government must continue to make more effort to expand and develop gas production. Tapping into natural gas would help modulate demand and in time Iraq could begin to export the product as far afield as Europe.

Mr Nijamp continued, saying the potential for both the gas and oil industries in Iraq was still “as big as ever.” There were a “few glitches” at the moment, not least the low oil price, but this was a reality they all had to come to terms with.

The Deputy Country Manager of BP, Zaid Elyaseri, told the conference that the company’s Rumaila field in Iraq had already generated $30 billion for the government and was currently adding $20 million a day to the Iraqi exchequer.

Mr Elyaseri said that BP had committed to a long term relationship to both the government and the country itself. The company wanted to ensure Iraq “gets where it wants to be.”

The UK’s Ambassador to Iraq, Frank Baker OBE, said Britain looked on Iraq as the cultural and financial centre for the region, with the potential to become the economic force in the Middle East, and all that after three decades of conflict, sanctions and lack of investment.

Mr Baker said Iraq now had its most inclusive Government in decades, with politicians on all sides working together.

“We in the UK stand ready to help – helping on the security front, with the humanitarian crisis, and also helping with economic reform and we are well placed to do so, having taken some tight decisions to put our own economy back on track.”

Delegates to the conference were welcomed by the Executive Chairman of the IBBC, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne.

She said partnership must be the most powerful message to come out of the conference.