Iraq sets up new agency to develop port and rail network
Iraq plans to launch a reconstruction agency to focus on projects such as a deepwater port and a rail network, Iraq’s president said on Thursday, as the country seeks to put years of turmoil behind it.
Over the past year Iraq has emerged from a devastating conflict with hardline militants who seized almost a third of the country.
It declared victory in December last year over ISIS, having taken back all the territory captured by the militants in 2014 and 2015.
President Barham Salih told an international conference in Rome that defeating ISIS was “a monumental challenge and an immense success for Iraqi army forces”.
Iraq plans to work with foreign entities, including sovereign wealth funds, on several infrastructure projects, Mr Salih said, but he pointed to corruption and abuse of public funds as problems that undermine reconstruction efforts.
“Iraqi and foreign private sector companies as well as international financial institutions, donor countries and sovereign wealth funds, will be invited to invest in these [infrastructure] projects,” Mr Salih said.
Parliament elected Mr Salih, a Kurdish politician, in October. The presidency is largely ceremonial, but the vote for Mr Salih was an important step in forming a new government.