Iraq says in dire need of $80 billion to reconstruct liberated areas, improve services
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi attends the Kuwait International Conference for Reconstruction of Iraq, in Bayan, Kuwait, February 14, 2018. Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office/via REUTERS
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi government announced on Monday that the country is in dire need of nearly $80 billion to reconstruct cities liberated from Islamic State and improve services in other cities.
Speaking to the Egyptian Akhbar el-Yom newspaper, spokesman for the prime minister’s media office Saad al-Hadithy said that the sum allotted for the reconstruction process is “still being assessed by the competent Iraqi bodies, such as the National Investment Commission, the Reconstruction Fund for Areas Affected by Terror Operations and the cabinet’s National Crisis Management Cell.”
However, al-Hadithy warned that “the deteriorating economic conditions in Iraq make it impossible to provide such funds.”
“The government was keen on cooperating with the international community via the donors conference, which was held in Kuwait,” al-Hadithy pointed out.
Kuwait hosted an international donors conference for the reconstruction of Iraq after the damage sustained during the war against Islamic State militants since 2014. At the end of the conference, Iraq had acquired nearly USD30 billion, much less than a previously projected USD100 billion.
The investors mulled ways to rebuild Iraq’s economy and infrastructure following a three-year war with Islamic State militants who seized almost a third of the country.
The war against IS had displaced nearly five million people both inside and outside the country, and dealt a severe damage to the country’s infrastructure.