On Sunday 18th December 2016, I had the pleasure of attending the Iraq British Business Council (IBBC) Autumn Conference, hosted for the first time in Dubai. The event was opened by Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, IBBC President and UK Trade Envoy to Iraq, followed by a keynote address from The Minister of Transport, H.E. Kadhim Finjan Al-Hamami, in which he made it clear that Iraq is "open for business" with a wealth of new projects in the pipeline including a metro system in Karbala with potential for 1/2 million users per day, and an extension of the rail network that has already reached Iraqi borders, to link the likes of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan with the sea for the transport of goods, namely the Port of Aqaba in Jordan.
