|
|
| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 14, 2001 |
Iraq Pledges to Enhance Relations With Outside World |
|
Iraq will continue to enhance relations, especially trade ties, with Arab and other countries around the world to break the 11-year-old U.N. sanctions, Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Salah said on Wednesday in Baghdad.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Iraq will continue to enhance relations, especially trade ties, with Arab and other countries around the world to break the 11-year-old U.N. sanctions, Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Salah said on Wednesday in Baghdad.
In a brief speech at Wednesday's closing ceremony of the annual Baghdad International Fair (BIF), the largest ever since 1990, Salah expressed gratitude for distinguished attendees of the fair, including 14 ministers from Arab and other countries.
Iraq will give trade priority to countries participating in this year's BIF, Salah said.
Moreover, Salah condemned the embargo, imposed on Iraq since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and the two no-fly zones established by the U.S.-led Western allies after the 1991 Gulf War to contain Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
A total of 1,650 companies from 48 countries around the world took part in this year's exhibition with an indoor display area of 27,750 square meters and another 18,000 square meters for open-air exposition, 12,000 square meters more than the previous fair, which was attended by 1,554 companies from 45 countries.
Iraq, dilapidated by the stringent U.N. embargo for more than a decade, has attracted the world with its lucrative reconstruction market estimated at billions of U.S. dollars.
|
|
|
|
|