India-Iraq Economic Cooperation Council to boost trade

India and Iraq have set up a bilateral economic council with the aim of encouraging Indian businesses to look at Iraq as a possible destination for trade and investment.
    
The India-Iraq Economic Cooperation Council will have offices in Delhi and Baghdad, creating awareness about trade potential and facilitating business between the two countries.
    
It would also help Indian businessmen, who used to do business with Iraq earlier but had disrupted because of Iraq war.
    
Demonstrating the urgency to kick start the two-way trade, a business delegation from India will soon visit Iraq to identify specific areas of cooperation.
    
"The special focus of the council will be on to increase two-way trade between India and Iraq, which at present does not reflect the strength, progress and complementarity of the two economies," the Council said in a statement here.

The initiative would also create more awareness about Iraq's economic scene among the Indian business community so that they can contribute towards reconstruction of Iraq which could prove to be a big business for India.
    
The council has identified several sectors such as rehabilitation of refineries, power plants, hospitals, roads, telecommunications, bridges and railways for Indian participation, it said.
    
"The revenues should not be a problem for Iraq as the country is sitting on world's third largest oil reserves of at least 115 billion barrels," it said.
    
The bilateral trade between the countries was $8 billion in 2008-09.