Iraqi PM vows to diversify national economy

Baghdad, May 2 Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has said that his government is committed to bolstering the industry, agriculture, trade, and tourism sectors, to reduce the country's reliance on oil and transition to a diversified economy.

The Prime Minister made the remarks during the inauguration ceremony of the first phase of a continuous casting plant in the Taji area, nearly 20 km north of Baghdad, according to a statement by his media office on Wednesday.

"We have no choice but to support industry, agriculture, trade, and tourism to achieve the transition from a country dependent on oil revenues to a diversified economy," the statement quoted al-Sudani as saying.

"We have targeted industry as a major goal in economic reform ... as Iraq is an industrial country as much as it is an oil and agricultural country," the Prime Minister added as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

The invasion of Iraq led by the US in 2003 resulted in the shutdown of numerous Iraqi factories due to security concerns.

In recent years, the Iraqi government has begun to re-establish some of these factories in a bid to reduce the country's reliance on revenue from crude oil exports, which account for more than 90 per cent of Iraq's income.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor