Under the auspices of Basrah governor Dr. Sheltagh Aboud, the Iraqi-British businessmen council in cooperation with Basrah Investment Commission (BIC) held the investment conference for the Iraqi-British companies under the slogan of "TOGETHER WE BUILD IRAQ".

More than 20 British companies took part in this conference interested in different sectors including oil and gas in addition to Iraqi and Arab companies, as well as senior officials of Basrah governorate.

Basrah Governor, Dr. Sheltagh Aboud said "Having these companies come to Basrah is considered a very clever step forward as the city is widely open its gates and hails everyone which is full of the potentials that make projects as successful." Adding "We, as a local government are ready to offer all kinds of support and we wait for the international companies seeking for projects in Basrah".

On her honorable side, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, Emma Nicholson, a member of House of Lords in the United Kingdom, the chairman of the British companies delegation, said " The British companies have a lot of projects to do in Basrah to help solving the problems that the country suffers from in different sectors, these companies are looking for having long term projects as well as for partnerships and joint cooperation between the companies and the Iraqi investors on a very high level" .She also added "Basrah is open today for multinational companies to come and invest  in its different investment sectors , be it agriculture,industrial,infrastructure,construction and manufacturing industries.Therefore,the British businessmen and investors are here to reflect these investment sectors".

On his part, Dr Haider Ali, the president of BIC said" the Iraqi investment law has been passed in 2006, introduced one year ago in different governorates in which the commissions made great strides in the investment of the city.". He also added" The most important advantages provided by this law is the (10) ten years tax and customs free in addition to the right of transferring capitals and revenues from and outside Iraq according to investors' call. As well as the rights of residency and foreign workers entrance to Iraq which does not exceed (50%)".He also mentioned" The Ten Reasons to Invest in Basrah including the strategic location of the city being the sea access for the transport of goods and services " pointing out" the investment opportunities available to establish various strategic projects of residential units, power plants, fuel refineries and other projects in addition to the city's need for everything in terms of the infrastructures".

The president of the University of Basrah, Dr. Saleh Esma'il, said" We consider the reconstruction, construction and infrastructure sectors as a very vital in the sense that they represent the fertile soil to invest in Basrah.We have prominent companies like South Oil Company ,Port company, the Petrochemical and other industrial companies  ,we hope that you take the University of Basrah into account ".Adding" The university of Basrah contains (16) colleges ,the important things that help serving your sectors are that we have (6) scientific centers and other (9) consultancy centers ,we are ready to provide any services via our   centers on the top of which is the engineering bureau to help you figuring out statistics".

Afterwards, different meetings were done between the Iraqi-British businessmen and companies in addition to the Iraqi state companies like ,Oil,Gas,Port companies explaining the significant investment opportunities in these sectors.