Riyadh is scheduled on Monday to host the activities of the Saudi-Iraqi Business Forum, which is being organized by the Federation of Saudi Chamber at its headquarters, with a wide and big participation of ministers, officials, representatives of public and private sectors, and Saudi and Iraqi businesspeople. The forum aims at pushing forward the path of economic ties between the two brotherly countries, which is witnessing a remarkable progress at all levels. Several Saudi and Iraqi ministers and officials will address the opening session of the forum, while its agenda will include presentations on the investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia, especially those related to projects of Saudi Vision 2030 and promising investment opportunities in Iraq, mainly in the energy, transport, logistics, importation, financial, banking and infrastructure sectors. The forum will include holding bilateral meetings between businesspeople of both countries to discuss opportunities of holding commercial and investment partnerships, in addition to signing several agreements and memorandums of understanding between public and private sectors institutions and holding the joint Saudi-Iraqi Business Council. The forum is important in light of the interest and support of both countries' leaderships to develop bilateral economic relations and the aspirations of the Saudi and Iraqi business sectors to develop and enhance trade and investment aspects in conjunction with the launch of the second session of the joint Saudi-Iraqi Business Council, especially that Iraq is interested in attracting Saudi investments in various fields. Also, the obstacles and challenges facing the flow of trade between the two countries will constitute an important aspect in the forum's discussions in a bid to find proper solutions that can support the future of the Saudi-Iraqi economic relations. The Saudi-Iraqi economic ties are built on a solid institutional base through commercial and investment agreements signed between the two countries in various fields, in addition to having the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council and the joint business council between businesspeople of the two sides. The re-opening of the Jdaideh-Araar border crossing in 2020 after a closure of 30 years was a result of efforts of the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council, where the project of establishing and renovating the border crossing from the Saudi side and Araar border crossing from the Iraqi side is established on a total area of 1.66 million square meters. The scheme has a logistic zone project that will act as an economic gate for the northern part of Saudi Arabia and a launching point towards enhancing Saudi-Iraqi economic ties and towards opening new horizons of cooperation in the economic and development fields, as the project will contribute to facilitating the flow of trade between the two countries. The commercial exchange volume between Saudi Arabia and Iraq in 2020 totaled SR3,412 million compared to SR2,971 million in 2019, marking an increase of SR441 million or 14.8%. Saudi Arabia's exports to Iraq amounted to SR3,371 million in 2020, while Saudi Arabia's imports from Iraq reached SR41.8 million for the same year. — SPA
