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Iraqi cement, fertilizer plants

Task force meeting

on 24th to plan

rehabilitation

MUZAFFAR QURESHI

KARACHI: The first meeting of the task force set up to develop business relations with Iraq will be held on January 24 in Islamabad. The meeting will formulate plans to assist the Arab country in rehabilitating and modernising cement and fertilizers plants with supply of expertise, equipment and spares.

A delegation of Iraq's Ministry of Industries had visited Pakistan to see the industrial capability and expertise available and had requested Pakistani authorities to help in the industrial development of their country.

According to a study to be submitted to the task force, Pakistan can also help Iraq in the development of irrigation system, power generation and in developing an industrial software programme (ERP) for almost all the major industrial units in Iraq.

The study says that Pakistan can help in rehabilitation of cement plants in Iraq with technical knowhow and supply of locally manufactured boilers, heat exchangers, pressure vessels, fans and piping systems.

Pakistan Engineering Company (Peco) can supply irrigation pumps, submersible pumps, centrifugal pumps, vertical turbine pumps and their spares to the brotherly country. In the power sector Pakistan can offer towers, transformers, transmission on line tower.

The January 24 meeting will be attended among others by Abu Shamim Arif, Secretary, Industries, Syed Masood Alam Rizvi, Vice-Chairman Export Promotion Bureau, Tanvir Ali Agha, Joint Secretary External Finance, Hussain Ahmed Siddiqui and Javed Sahebzada of Peco.

Economic cooperation with Iraq was initiated by the former EPB chairman Wajid Jawad during his visit to that country in June last year. It was followed by a visit to Iraq in October by Syed Masood Alam Rizvi. The Iraqi government delegations which followed these visits, were impressed by the industrial development made by Pakistan and requested the government to assist Iraq in development and modernisation of cement, fertiliser, power generation and computerisation sector.

Prior to the economic sanctions by the UN, Iraq had a $100 billion imports and Pakistan could capture a significant share of the Iraqi market by providing technical expertise and engineering goods to that country.