Minister of Economy and Energy Petar Dimitrov held a working meeting today with Iraqi delegation led by State Minister for National Security Affairs of Iraq, Al-Shiruan Al-Faraj Alla Al-Uaili.

Iraqi delegation arrived today at the invitation of Minister Dimitrov to participate at the opening on 28 May International exhibition of defence equipment Hemus 2008 in Plovdiv and the accompanying it events.

During the meeting, Minister Al-Uaili thanked for his hospitality and the good organization of the visit. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the traditionally good bilateral relations with over 50 years tradition.

It was paid attention to the unsatisfactory state of the current trade and economic links that do not meet the potential of both countries. Bulgarian side had raised questions about the need to restore the activities of the Intergovernmental Bulgarian-Iraqi joint committee for economic, industrial, commercial and technical cooperation and start preparations for holding a 25th session of the Commission.

Minister Al-Uaili informed about the current situation in Iraq as underlined the significant achievements of the government in recent months to improve security. Main objective of the Iraqi government is creating favorable conditions for attracting foreign investment in all sectors of national economy, and to this end has adopted a new law to encourage and guarantee investments.

It was stressed that Iraq is a country with the largest deposits of oil in the world. Currently it produces only 2 million barrels oil per day, while the available deposits allow this capacity to reach 10 billion barrels oil per day.

Minister Dimitrov noted the rich experience of Bulgarian engineering companies that have developed in the past many sites of national significance in the field of energy, agriculture, road infrastructure and others. And the issue was discussed on the development of energy sector in Iraq and the extraction of gas to the potential of the country to participate as a provider of gas to Europe.

Minister Dimitrov introduced its Iraqi partner with the capabilities of the Bulgarian military defence industry and expressed hope that within the Iraqi delegation visit will have an opportunity to examine in depth the possibility of supplying equipment and equipment of Iraqi security forces.