“We are counting on new investment opportunities and the development of economic exchange between Poland and Iraq.Most potential for cooperation appears to be in the foodstuffs industry, agriculture and the power sector”, said the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Waldemar Pawlak, at the meeting with Iraqi Minister of Industry and Minerals, Fawzi Franso Hariri. The talks were held on 9 November 2009 at the Ministry of Economy.
The Iraqi Minister of Industry and Minerals assured that his country is interested in intensification of the economic relations with Poland. “Our current contacts are based mainly on military cooperation, but we would like for economic exchange to expand to other industrial sectors, as well”, underlined minister Fawzi Franso Hariri.
Deputy Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak reminded that Poland is the only EU state to achieve positive economic growth this year regardless of the times of crisis. “It is an effect contributed largely to the fact that our economy is very diversified.Our enterprises operate across various industries and sectors”, explained the Polish Deputy Prime Minister.
Minister Fawzi Franso Hariri informed that his country is in the process of in-depth transformation and is approximating an economy based on the free market model. “Iraq has an enormous potential for growth. Our annual GDP reaches USD 130bn.In the next 5-10 years we want it to triple", he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak assured that Poland is eager to share own experiences from the 20 years of its transformation. “Those two decades allowed us to test many options for improvement of the economy as well as administration.What played a major role in Poland was the development of stable local administration and territorial governments that were built with large commitment of our society”, he pointed out.
The ministers also talked about the difficulties in the relations between Poland and Iraq. They agreed on the need to solve the issue of arrears and bad settlements that the Polish companies are addressing and the issue of the Iraqi debt to Poland to be redeemed at a rate of 80 percent pursuant to the Paris Club agreements. “Those are issues that should be solved quickly”, Waldemar Pawlak agreed. “Another opportunity to discuss it will occur during the Polish visit of the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, which is scheduled for the second half of November 2009”, minister Hariri added.
***
In 2008, the trade between Poland and Iraq amounted to USD 37.6m of total turnover, including USD 37.4m in Polish export. The first 8 months of 2009 resulted in the trade turnover of USD 21.0m, which was almost entirely Polish export.