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Iraq has invited South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering and Construction Company for a meeting in a bid to resolve a financial rift that has blocked the completion of its largest housing project, an official was reported on Wednesday as saying.
The talks aim to “persuade the company” to resume work on the multi-billion-dollar Bismaya City after it decided to suspend the contract because of delayed payments.
“There will be a meeting soon between the National Investment Commission and Hanwha…..it is intended to allow the company to resume work on Bismaya city project to compete the construction of all the 100,000 houses,” said Mohammed Al-Ziadi, a member of the Parliament’s investment committee.
Ziadi told Iraq’s Al-Forat News agency that there is an “urgent” need to finish the project to tackle persistent housing problems in the capital Baghdad.
Iraqi newspapers said in 2020 that Hanwha decided to halt work on Bismaya after the government failed to pay its dues for two years.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
