PM says $25b appropriated for housing projects

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday said that the cabinet has appropriated the sum of $25 billion for housing projects. “The sum was allocated to rehabilitate housing units and also for electricity and higher and elementary education,” Maliki said in a speech he delivered at the conference on legal framework of investment in Baghdad on Sunday (May 17). “Huge sums of money of strategic nature were allocated for investment. The cabinet endorsed the disbursement of $18 billion in the field of agriculture, a harmed sector that employs many working hands,” Maliki said. He pointed out that the state affords to repay these funds from the oil proceeds, adding “The wheel of investment is already rolling after security and order were imposed in the country in 2008,” the Iraqi premier noted. AmR (P)/SR 1