OPEC member Iraq has awarded a Chinese company a contract to build a civilian airport to replace the military base in the capital of the Southern oil-rich Dhi Qar Governorate, according to the official Iraqi news agency. 

The unidentified firm will complete the project within 36 months. and it will have the capacity to handle 750,000 passengers a year, it said. 

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi on Saturday laid the foundation stone for the new airport, which he said would attract tourism and investment into the governorate. 

Iraq’s Civil Aviation Authority said the contract has been awarded to a “Chinese company” and that it also includes the construction of a cargo building and roads linking the airport to the city’s town centre. 

It did not name the company or say whether the contract is governed by an oil-for-projects agreement signed between Baghdad and Beijing in 2019 allowing Chinese firms to execute projects in Iraq in exchange for crude oil. 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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