Event Venue and Description: Cloth Hall Court, Quebec Street, Leeds

An opportunity to join Mr Jon Wilks, CMG, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Iraq, and his DIT colleagues to explore the opportunities for business in this market.

This is an exciting time for doing business in Iraq and in particular those companies already doing business in the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and the Levant should consider Iraq as a place to do business.

Perceptions of the country are dominated by conflict and security concerns. But look deeper: The security situation is stabilising and exports of goods and services from the UK are increasing (reaching £0.5bn in 2017). So the opportunity is there for UK firms to get into this market early – not least through UK Export Finance which has been offering support in the market since 2017 and recently completed £1bn of business.

To reflect the close ties between the UK and Iraq, our Embassy in Baghdad has been working with the new Iraqi government to boost our economic partnership.

Priorities for the next four years have been identified in the following sectors:

• Oil and gas
• Power
• Infrastructure
• Security and defence
• Healthcare and life sciences
• Education
• Financial and business services
• Technology
• Retail
• Agriculture

The international community is increasing its activity in Iraq, which is creating opportunities for aid-funded business. Donors are moving into the economic space to create the conditions to stimulate the private sector and improve the ease of doing business.

Iraq is a challenging business environment, but opportunities are there and the British Embassy and DIT Iraq are on hand to help. You can book round table and one-to-one sessions on the day.