Iraq has asked China to set up a fund to help with the reconstruction of the war-battered country, an Iraqi government official said on Monday during a visit to Beijing by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh also said Baghdad was keen to get Chinese companies investing in the country, which is China's seventh largest supplier of oil last year.
The United States has spent $54 billion in relief and reconstruction efforts since the 2003 invasion, and it and the Iraqi government have spent billions more in Iraqi money, but ordinary people have seen little improvement.
The Iraqi government, which gets most of its $72 billion budget from oil revenues, says it is committed to improving basic services. But progress is painfully slow.
"We are asking the China side to make a fund, for ... reconstruction and to guarantee and assure the investment in Iraq for Chinese companies," Dabbagh told reporters in Beijing. "Koreans they did the same, they had to create a fund, which they support their companies to work in Iraq. Germany is going to make such a thing. Iraq is requesting from China to have such (a) fund," he added, speaking in English.
"We left it to the Chinese to check and to find out how they could manage this one. It's especially dedicated to Iraq."
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