Iraq’s National Investment Commission (NIC) will award three projects in three governorates in 2022 as part of its strategy to diversify investment base outside the oil sector.

NIC’s chairperson Suha Al-Najjar told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that the three projects are in Wasit, Diwaniyah and Mosul governorates.

She said: “These projects are ready in terms of feasibility studies and approvals. We are also working on projects in other governorates.”

The three projects comprise the Hor Al-Dalmaj agricultural, industrial, touristic project linking the Al-Diwaniyah and Wasit governorates; the Al-Ghazlani Camp integrated residential and commercial project in Mosul and the Dujail housing project in Saladin.

Al-Najjar said NIC has joined hands with the Ministry of Environment to regulate land allocation and building specifications to help resolve the housing crisis in the country.

Commenting on the Al-Rafeel city project near Baghdad Airport, she said 30 percent of the land was from the Baghdad Airport.

“We have obtained rest of the land and are working with the advisory office to delineate investment plots.”

She said that out of the 12 projects in Al-Rafeel, two have been awarded to the UAE’s Emaar and a Saudi company, and the rest would be the awarded soon.

“The plans are ready and includes green spaces, and we will market these projects inside and outside Iraq,” she said.

(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

© ZAWYA 2022