JEDDAH, 5 February — An official yesterday urged local businesses to maximize their presence in Iraq to avoid losing their market share to competitors.
"Saudi businessmen should focus on the Iraqi market... and participate in commercial exhibitions in Iraq, either directly or through agents, to preserve our market share in Iraq," Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Zamil, chairman of the executive council of the Saudi Export Promotion Center (SEPC), said in a statement.
Since 1999, Saudi Arabia has been tentatively restoring trade with Iraq under the UN oil-for-food program that allows Iraq to sell oil to buy food, medicine and other essential supplies for Iraqis struggling under crippling economic sanctions imposed after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
Saudi companies exported around $300 million worth of food and other products to Iraq last year under the UN program.
Saudi businessmen said the figure would have been much higher if the world body had shown greater flexibility and cooperation.
In 2001, Saudi firms signed contracts worth $298 million for the export of miscellaneous goods to Iraq after securing UN approval. Of this, $117 million was food exports, $104 million machinery and spare parts, and $77 million medical products.
Al-Zamil stressed the need for more contact among Arab peoples, saying that businessmen should take the lead. Trade relations between Saudi Arabia and Iraq is a reflection of the historic ties between the two countries, he added.
"The Iraqi market is seen as an extension of the Saudi market, given its proximity and the fact that Iraqi consumers are more acquainted with Saudi products," Al-Zamil said.
Some 30 Saudi companies and factories are expected to take part in a weeklong exhibition on the reconstruction of Iraq to be held in Baghdad next month. The organizers say the market offers $17 billion worth of contracts and investments under the oil-for-food program.
Al-Zamil said the UN should do more to remove the obstacles it has created before Saudi exports. He cited the long delays in completing the bureaucratic procedures required by the world body along the Saudi-Iraqi border. He urged the UN to approve opening a border post between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which he said the Kingdom had agreed to in 2000.
The Saudi government gave its approval for the reopening of the Arar border crossing to provide Saudi exporters with direct access to the Iraqi market after much lobbying by the SEPC.
"The delay by the United Nations will hamper the flow of Saudi exports, preventing them from competing with other products in the Iraqi market," he added.
