Syrian company executes a water transport tunnel in Southern Iraq

Syrian official sources said that the general company for irrigation and potable waters (RIMA) has won an international bid to implement a project of a 19.2 Km long tunnel in al- Basra areas in Iraq.

This is the first time in which a Syrian company working for the public sector wins such a contract abroad. Iraq and Syria have also signed a bilateral cooperation agreement in the area of the railways.

The Syrian official daily Tishreen on Tuesday quoted the company's director general Hazem Barakat as saying that his company had joined the bid to implement the project together with several international companies and was able through its " technical and economic efficiency from winning the bid for the project which aims at irrigating 200.000 hectares within a period of 33 months at a cost of 133 million EUROS."

Barakat commented that his company's implementation of this project is an important step in inter- Arab cooperation.

Within the same context; Syria and Iraq signed a railway cooperation agreement by the Syrian director of the railways establishment Eyad Gazzale and his Iraq counterpart Ghassan Abdul Razzaq al-Ani.