Project linking 10 Saudi cities with Iraq revealed

Baghdad-INA


The Saudi Ministry of Transport for Logistics unveiled on Tuesday a project linking 10 Saudi cities with Iraq, setting a condition for the implementation of the project between the two countries.
 
"There is a great desire to cooperate with Iraq because there are great ties between the two countries, including neighborly ties, language, history, kinship, etc.," Undersecretary Louay bin Omar bin Awadh Mashaibi told The Iraqi News Agency (INA), adding that "we have opened a new port, which we expected to have a great tributary for the trade movement between the two countries and this has not been achieved and is far from the hoped ambition."
 
"There are a range of challenges in the port, part of which has been resolved," he said, adding that "we as a government agency can solve it, including trade, which was in the goods exchange area on the Iraqi side, where it was up to 600 dollars and dropped to 300 dollars and currently 200 dollars."
 
"There are still some challenges that government agencies cannot solve and the private sector must solve them," he said, adding that "the Iraqi-Saudi Business Council is working to establish companies specialized in transport between Saudi Arabia and Iraq."
 
"Before the end of this year, there will be an economic deposit area within the port borders with refrigerated warehouses, which will give Saudi trucks the speed to unload the shipment and the Iraqi driver will come to pick it up faster," he said.
 
"There are several things that we have agreed with the Iraqi side with great cooperation to accomplish and we are waiting for them, such as the approving of the certificate of origin, which must be from embassies," he said.
 
 
"We have a clear order and guidance from His Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman to consider opening other ports, including Al-Jamima, and it is possible to connect the hafar of al-Batin to Basra through a railway linking Riyadh and Qassim within the Kingdom and linking east to west and passing through Al-Naba, King Abdullah Port, Jeddah City, Riyadh, Dammam, Jubail and Ras al-Khair, as this project is proposed and implemented by the private sector and is ready for it," he said. 
"If the figures improve in the volume of trade between the two countries through Arar, it is possible to go to the construction of the railway," he said.