Minister of Industry and Minerals Fawzi Hariri of Iraq to visit Finland

Press release 442009
9 February, 2009

Minister of Industry and Minerals Fawzi Hariri of Iraq is visiting Finland on 9–12 February at the invitation of Minister of Economic Affairs Mauri Pekkarinen. Minister Pekkarinen will meet with Minister Hariri on Tuesday, 10 February. The ministers will discuss bilateral relations between Finland and Iraq, and the development of trade and investment relations.

During his visit to Finland, Minister Hariri will also have talks with Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen and Deputy Speaker of Parliament Seppo Kääriäinen. In addition, the Iraqi minister will meet business representatives and will learn about Finnish expertise particularly in the field of environment technology. In conjunction with the visit, the Finnish-Arabic Trade Association will organise a seminar on economic relations between Finland and Iraq.

This is the first official visit by an Iraqi minister to Finland since 1986. Minister Hariri is responsible, among other things, for owner steering of all State enterprises outside the oil and gas sector and for preparation of structural reform of the whole state sector.

Additional information: First Secretary Anssi Leino, Unit for the Middle East and North Africa of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, mobile tel. +358 40 731 3837, and Ministerial Adviser Henri Backman, Ministry of Employment and the Economy, tel. +358 10 606 3581