A new civilian airport to be constructed by a Chinese company in South Iraq will cost around $367 million and will be completed after two years, an Iraqi official was quoted on Wednesday as saying. 

The OPEC member has awarded the airport project in Nasiriyah, the capital of the oil-rich Dhi Qar Governorate, to a Chinese firm which will also prepare designs for the project, Dhi Qar’s Governor Ahmed Al-Khafaji said. 

He told Iraq’s Aliqtisad News website that the company has just embarked on technical work and survey of the project site. 

“The company has started preparatory work for the project, which will be completed after two years according to the firm’s estimates...it has also estimated the project costs at around $367 million,” he said. 

Khafaji did not identify the firm or make clear if the contract is part of 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. 

However, past media reports by local news agency Shafaq News, and Chinese business news portal Seetao.com, and earlier, in September 2019 by Zawya, have named China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CESEC) as the main contractor for the project.

Officials said in June that the airport, part of post-war reconstruction plans, would be built at a military base that was destroyed during the war in Iraq. 

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi laid the foundation stone for the new airport, which will handle nearly 750,000 passengers per year in June . 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

 
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