$1b. industrial investment contracts signed

AMMAN / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi government has signed $1 billion worth of contracts with a number of local, Arab and foreign firms to rehabilitate and re-operate some companies affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Minerals. “Under the terms of the contracts signed with investment companies, factories will be rehabilitated and their production capacity will be restored,” an advisor to the prime minister for legal affairs, Fadhil Mohammed Jawad, who led an Iraqi delegation to the Jordanian capital, said in a press conference held at the headquarters of the Iraqi embassy in Amman. Describing the contracts as “a step towards privatization,” Jawad said that the Iraqi government will not interfere in the work of investors, but will urge them to obtain an optimal performance. SS (P) 62