MOSCOW: Russia is ready to export SSJ-100 aircraft (Sukhoi Superjet 100) as well as other equipment to Iraq, Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexander Tsybulsky told journalists here the other day.
He said that the Iraqi side had shown interest in the proposals, which the Russian side had submitted to its Iraqi partners at negotiations held prior to a meeting of the bilateral inter-governmental commission in Baghdad.
“We offered the Superjet and another two advanced planes MS-21 and Tu-204…On the whole, we saw [Iraq’s] interest in those products. But it is certainly premature to speak about concrete delivery volumes,” Tsybulsky said.
According to him, Russia came up with a package of concrete projects. “We saw that our partners were interested in obtaining road and construction equipment as well as building materials. They also want to attract Russian contractors to construction sites in the territory of Iraq,” the Russian deputy minister of economic development said.
Iraq also wants to learn Russia’s privatization experience.
“We have learnt and our colleagues have confirmed that Iraq is planning a serious campaign to privatize its state property. The Iraqis have asked us to share the Russian experience with them. They understand that along with positive experience we also made some mistakes during the process. We agreed on a possibility to attract potential investors to these privatization projects,” Tsybulsky said adding that for the moment the proposal was just a good idea.
Touching upon bilateral cooperation, the Russian deputy minister of economic development said that the Russian-Iraqi trade had reached almost $2 billion in 2015 compared to $1.7 billion in 2014. “We hope it’s not going to fall [in 2016],” Tsybulsky concluded.
The Russian delegation led by Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin is staying in Baghdad to meet Iraqi leaders and attend a meeting of the Russian-Iraqi inter-governmental commission on February 11 for the first time since 2008.
Dozens of Russian businessmen have arrived in Baghdad together with government officials.
