Textile firm wins Iraqi army uniform contract

 

By Shaymaa Adel

 

Azzaman, October 26, 2009

 

The State Company for Textile Industries has won a multi-billion Iraqi dinar contract with the Iraqi armed forces.

 

Under the contract, the firm will produce 600,000 army uniforms which the country used to import from abroad.

 

The company, based in Hilla, south of Baghdad, was established in 1967 and is one of the largest in the Middle East.

 

The state firm is one of the few which escaped the 2003-U.S. invasion unscathed. Its machinery, equipment and buildings were miraculously spared in the upsurge in insecurity and lawlessness that followed the invasion.

 

The contract will cost more than 20 billion dinars.

 

The firm has also signed another 11-billion dinar contract with the Ministry of Interior to produce more than 400,000 uniforms for its forces.

 

A dollar is worth more than 1,000 dinars.

 

A statement by the company said a plan to modernize equipment would be implemented under which 150 highly advanced new machines would be installed.

 

The company has several plants and is mainly specialized in cotton clothes.