National Day of Russia at the 35th international fair in Baghdad

Saturday, the first working day of the 35th international fair in Baghdad, was declared a Day of Russia.

Olga Vdovichenko, general director of the "Machineimport" Association and coordinator of the Russian part of the fair stated that the Baghdad fair had enormous significance for Russia. She reminded that Russia and earlier the USSR had been represented at the Iraqi market for more than 50 years. Russian specialists built a lot of facilities in the country. And today Russia still is one of the major economic partners of Iraq.

Olga Vdovichenko reported that during only the 12th phase (the second half of the current year) of the "Oil for Food" program Russian companies signed contracts with Iraq worth about USD 700 million. Their implementation provides working places for 300,000 Russian citizens. By the way, already in the course of the fair the "Machineimport Association signed a large contract to drill oil wells in the south of Iraq.

Olga Vdovichenko stated that the present Baghdad fair differed from the previous ones in that mostly manufacturers and not trading companies took part in its work. Among them were 50 companies many of which represented interests of dozens of Russian works.

Olga Vdovichenko emphasized that the interest to the Baghdad fair was enormous. It is sufficient to say that all NATO member-states, with the exception of the USA and Great Britain, participated in it.

In total 1,200 companies from 49 countries of the world are participating in the work of the 35th Baghdad international fair.

The 35th international fair in Baghdad will last till 10 November.