Egypt, Iraq Discuss Economic Cooperation

Egypt and Iraq confirmed their identical views regarding the political issues that concern the two countries and the Arab world and the regional issues as well as their common desire to push forward bilateral cooperation in all fields, especially in economy, and trade and investment.

This came during the press conference which was held on 4/3/2013 between Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and his Iraqi counterpart Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad. The two sides stressed their common will to activate the agreements signed between Egypt and Iraq and to hold the meetings of the Joint Higher Committee as soon as possible in Cairo.

Qandil said that the Egyptian delegation will discuss ways of boosting economic cooperation with Iraq in the petroleum, infrastructure, electricity, roads, housing, health and construction domains. Meanwhile, an oil pipeline will be extended from Iraq to Egypt, passing through Jordan, at an investment cost of $17 billion to refine Iraqi oil in Egypt, said Industry and Foreign Trade Minister Hatem Saleh.

Hatem said that the revenues from this project will benefit the three involved countries; Egypt, Jordon and Iraq, adding that talks are underway with the Iraqi trade minister to lift a ban on Egyptian dairy products exports.