BAGHDAD, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Thursday said that his government would negotiate with the world companies next month to sign investment contracts in various fields in in Iraq.
Abadi announced his government's move in a televised press conference after his weekly cabinet meeting, which came just one day after some of the world countries and organizations concluded a conference in neighboring Kuwait and announced 30-billion U.S. dollars financial contributions to help rebuild the war-torn country.
"The Iraqi government will hold meetings in the coming days with ambassadors of the countries and the representatives of the financial institutions participated in Kuwait conference, and during the next month we will carry out negotiations with the world and local companies so we can conclude deals with them," Abadi told reporters.
Abadi distanced himself from wasting billions of dollars without improvement in Iraq's infrastructure during the past years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, particularly during the eight years of the rule of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who took office from 2006 to 2014.
"We have to make plans from now, not like what happened in the past when they spent the money into incorrect directions and then we haven't seen any improvement in infrastructure and (public) services," Abadi said without naming those who wasted the money.
"We will be keen to get the funds of Kuwait's conference for the reconstruction of Iraq, to the right projects," Abadi said, adding that "the steps to rebuild Iraq will include all the Iraqi provinces."
"The international community has shown great confidence in Iraq, and the attendance at the Kuwait conference was three times greater than we expected," Abadi said.
On Wednesday, 76 participating countries, along with 51 international development funds, 107 local and international NGOs, in addition to 1,850 representatives from the private sector, concluded Kuwait International Conference on Reconstruction of Iraq.
The conference collected total contributions of 30 billion U.S. dollars to help reconstruction process in the war-torn Iraq.
