Iraq calls on investors to help $100 bn reconstruction drive

DAVOS: Iraq called on Thursday for foreign investors to help it rebuild after defeating Daesh and making progress in reuniting the country, saying it would need up to $100 billion to fix crumbling infrastructure and war-torn cities.
Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi said help was needed with dozens of projects, as Iraq prepares for a major donors conference in Kuwait next month, which will be held together with the World Bank.
“It’s a huge amount of money. We know we cannot provide it through our own budget,” Abadi told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“We know we cannot provide for it through donations, that’s almost impossible. So that’s why we (have) now resorted to investment and reconstruction through investment. This is a way forward and we can achieve it,” he said.
Abadi came to Davos in 2016 and pledged to defeat Islamic State before the end of that year. He didn’t come in 2017 as the war on militants took longer than anticipated, although he declared full victory at the end of last year.
This year, Abadi has made efforts to resolve a crisis in relations with the country’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, which voted for independence in a referendum last year that was not recognized by Baghdad and has had to surrender major oilfields and chunks of territory to Iraqi troops.
He said he had met twice already this year with Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, adding Barzani had agreed to hand over oil to federal firm Somo while Baghdad and Irbil discuss the exact level of budget transfers.
Irbil started independent oil exports several years ago, accusing Baghdad of not transferring enough money from the federal budget, while Baghdad accused Irbil of not producing and transferring enough oil.
The balance of budget allocation versus oil remains the main sticking point in discussions between Baghdad and Irbil and Barzani said on Thursday nothing had been agreed.
“This is far from the truth, we didn’t discuss this issue in the first place,” Barzani said, according to Kurdish news agency Rudaw.