Saudi commerce minister reveals plans for joint Iraqi investment company

Iraqi worshippers exchange Eid Al-Adha greetings in Baghdad. (Reuters)

• It follows plans to launch a $3 billion fund to promote investments in the country agreed in March during a visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi to Saudi Arabia

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and Iraq plan to launch a joint investment company, Al Arabiya reported.
Saudi Commerce Minister Majid Al-Qasabi, who also chairs the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council, told the news channel that the company would act as a guarantor for investments and help to channel capital from the Kingdom to Iraq.
It follows plans to launch a $3 billion fund to promote investments in the country agreed in March during a visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi to Saudi Arabia.
Al-Qasabi also revealed that the Kingdom was studying the opening of other border crossings with Iraq following the re-opening of the Arar border post last year for the first time in 30 years. It had been closed after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.
He added that three commercial offices would be opened in Iraq along with branches of the Kingdom’s investment ministry.
The commerce minister said that the Kingdom supported the reconstruction of cities liberated by Daesh, through the Saudi Investment Fund and had allocated 500 educational scholarships for Iraqi youth.