CLDP led a three week workshop in Washington DC from October 3-19, 2011 on “Forming Durable Strategic Partnerships between Iraqi SOEs and Foreign Firms.” The program which was conducted by Deputy Chief Counsel Marc Tejtel and International Program Specialist Adam Al-Sarraf, is the final phase of an eight month program designed for Iraq’s state owned enterprises.

This program consisted of three phases, organized for the same group of participants which include 10 Iraqi SOE representatives and 10 representatives of the Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Minerals, the government agency that oversees the companies. CLDP completed the first phase earlier this year with a seminar that took place in Baghdad involving skills development exercises and case studies on how to identify and engage potential partners. The second phase, completed last June in Istanbul, Turkey, involved exercises on structuring, negotiating, and drafting contracts that form the bases of these partnerships, to include distribution contracts, licensing contracts and contracts to form joint ventures.
 
 The third and final phase of the program which took place most recently in D.C. focused on the legal issues related to the formation of ISPs and featured interactive negotiation exercises between Iraqi SOEs and US experts on technology licensing and the formation of joint ventures.  CLDP also worked with the US Chamber of Commerce's US-Iraq Business Initiative to set up a series of business match-making meetings with US companies from a variety of sectors. The meetings have already resulted in several partnership negotiations between the Iraqi State Owned Companies and US businesses.   The three week program concluded with a session on business strategy that was led by the Robert Smith Business School at the University of Maryland where the Iraqis learned how effective business strategies are developed and implemented.