Industry minister visits Baghdad, follows up on summit outcomes

AMMAN — Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Maha Al Ali on Monday visited Baghdad to follow up on the implementation of the economic outcomes of the trilateral summit that was held between His Majesty King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi in Iraq on June 27.

According to a ministry statement cited by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Ali and the accompanying delegation held several meetings with Iraqi ministers, officials and representatives of the industrial and commercial sectors. The meetings discussed mechanisms to realise economic integration and achieve the economic outcomes of the summit. 

The minister said that the Iraq visit reflects the Kingdom's keenness to speed up economic integration between Jordan, Iraq and Egypt and strengthen Jordanian-Iraqi cooperation.

She also highlighted the joint economic estate between Jordan and Iraq, where both sides had allocated land to the project to enable the Jordanian Iraqi Company of Industry to start conducting studies for the venue’s establishment. 

Ali called on the Jordanian and Iraqi private sectors to benefit from the opportunities and investment projects in both countries. 

Iraqi Minister of Industry and Minerals Manhal Aziz Al Khabbaz expressed his country's eagerness to embark on practical steps to increase economic cooperation with Jordan, under the framework of trilateral cooperation with Egypt. He referred to the countries’ potential and private sector capabilities to improve economic cooperation.

Iraqi Minister of Trade Alaa Al Jubouri said that enhancing trade between Iraq and Jordan is important to integrate several commodities in the trade field that the countries produce.  

Iraqi Minister of Planning Khalid Najim stressed the importance of continuing these meetings and exerting more efforts to speed up trilateral economic integration in the agreed upon fields.