On 20th January 2024, the Taqat event was organized by the Iraqi embassy in London under the auspices of its Ambassador, His Excellency Mr. Muhammad Jaafar Al-Sadr. The event took place at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster, London.
Iraq’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Dr Ahmed Al-Mubarqa, the Advisor to the Prime Minister for Youth and Sports Affairs, Dr Iyad Bunyan, and several members of the Iraqi community in the United Kingdom, and Iraqi institutions, bodies, companies, and non-governmental organizations, with the aim of Introducing the youth energies of the Iraqi community in the United Kingdom and the competencies, experiences, and skills they possess in various fields, including (health, education, investment, volunteer work, the financial & banking sector, and technology).
The main content of the forum was Panel Discussions which was made for different sectors including Investment, healthcare, e-commerce & creative economy. Various investors whom they have already established their investment in Iraq such as Qi Group, EQIQ, Al Zaman Group, Kapita, Fintech, and WHO have given a speech during the panel discussion to share their experiences in doing business in Iraq.
Al Zaman Group was the official sponsor of this event has participated in the investment panel discussion and a speech was given by Mr. Abdullah Shaban who is a Naval Architect Engineer from the marine technical department of Al Zaman Group. The speech included an introduction for Al Zaman Group company and its activities within the marine industry including shipbuilding, as well as the vision of the group to transfer the experience of shipbuilding and ship maintenance to Iraq by investing in a shipyard project in Iraq to manufacture ships and to perform maintenance operations for existing vessel that enters the Iraqi ports.
Mr. Abdullah also clarified the huge marine traffic in the Iraqi territorial water and the demand for maintenance as well as demand for building new fleet of vessels to serve in the area. Especially, with the upcoming opening of Al Faw port in the south of Iraq which will eventually increase the marine traffic in the region and will require to make such project. Many of the attendees and investors were very interested in investing in this project and they are
looking forward to the first step of execution to step in and join in this strategic project for Iraq.
Al Zaman Group also had its booth in the event in which we showed some of our shipbuilding projects. The CEO President of Al Zaman Group Mr. Ahmed Shaban who was present in the event and was interviewed by some of the media channel to talk about Al Zaman Group activities and projects.
Also, Al Zaman Group has represented the Federation of the Iraqi Chamber of Commerce (FICC) as Mr Ahmed Shaban is a consultant for this federation. The FICC is supporting young entrepreneurs to grow businesses in Iraq and to build modern economy system in Iraq. FICC is also supporting small and medium size business with Iraqi development fund, and the FICC is planning to do strategy and planning, market research and business analysis to encourage investment in Iraq in all sectors.
During the event, His Excellency the Iraqi Minister of Youth and Sports visited Al Zaman Group’s booth, and a plaque was presented by the CEO in honor of the visit. A plaque was also presented to His Excellency the Iraqi Ambassador in London, Mr. Muhammad Jaafar Al-Sadr, for the honor of his visit and his support for this forum.
Finally, we would like present our thanks and gratitude to the personnel who participated in organizing this event, including Dr Ahmed M. Khalid counselor at the Iraqi embassy, Mr Aladdin Al-Nasri and Ali Khairullah diplomats at the Iraqi embassy, Mr Jaafar and Ms Sama from Becorp, and all other cadres who spent their efforts in organizing this event.
The event was ended by a boat cruise in the river Thames on Sunday 21st January, where it gathered people from the Taqat forum for london sightseeing and networking.
