UNIDO ITPO Italy fosters Italian excellences to collaborate with Iraqi paper industry

Milan-Lucca, October 24^th 2012. An Iraqi delegation participated in the study tour on paper sector organized by UNIDO ITPO Italy. The initiative, supported by Lucca Promos and the Italian Manufacturers Association of Machineries for Graphic, Converting and Paper Industry (ACIMGA), aimed at promoting the rehabilitation project of the Basrah state company for paper industry, which has slowed down due to the conflict that has affected the country.

In this context, the delegates met the main trade associations and companies in order to show them commercial and industrial partnership opportunities offered by Iraq in the paper sector, as weel as to closely know the cutting edge technologies to improve local plants.

The first stage of the study tour was a meeting at ACIMGA premises in Milan for the packaging sector, followed by the visit to a plant in Modena Province specialized in the production of corrugated paperboard.

Iraqi delegation visited then the paper cluster of Lucca area: the companies of this dynamic district developed networking strategies to provide common services for the whole value chain (raw material processing, paper production, retailing and recycling) and for environmental protection, paying particular attention to innovation and professional skills development processes.

The initiative takes place in the framework of the UN Iraq Development Project and, more specifically, of the UNIDO Private Sector Development Programme. This programme, created and developed in collaboration with Iraqi and international stakeholders, aims at setting up a complete and effective context for the development of the Iraqi private sector. The final purpose of the project is to complete the ongoing modernization process so that the local industry can compete on a global scale, promoting a legal and normative environment able to foster direct investments and supporting the adoption of inclusive and eco-friendly policies.