The Iraqi government signs 3 investment contracts for industrial production with the private sector
The Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Minerals signed, on Thursday, three partnership contracts with the private sector to establish a fertilizer production plant in Basra, rehabilitate a fertilizer plant in Salah al-Din, and another in Babylon.
The media office of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stated, as reported by Shafaq News Agency, that the latter sponsored the signing ceremony of three partnership contracts for industrial projects with the private sector, in the presence of the Minister of Industry and Minerals, Khaled Batal.
The projects include the establishment of a plant to produce urea nitrogen fertilizers in Abu Al-Khaseeb district in Basra Governorate, with a production capacity of one million tons per year, a project to rehabilitate and operate the Baiji fertilizer factory in Salah Al-Din Governorate, with a production capacity of 672 thousand tons per year, and a project to expand the soda and chlorine factory in Babil Governorate, with a design capacity of 90 tons per day of caustic soda, and 80 tons per day of chlorine.
Al-Sudani reiterated the government’s focus on the industrial sector to cover the needs of the local market and export the surplus, pointing to the three projects that will meet Iraq’s full need for fertilizers, especially the Baiji fertilizer project, which was rebuilt after being destroyed by terrorism.
He stressed the government’s keenness to secure operating gas at subsidized prices for these projects, in order to provide the necessary chemical products for the oil industry, which used to require hard currency to import them from abroad.
Al-Sudani urged the implementing companies to shorten the contractual period for completion, and instructed those in charge of the work to present the problems and obstacles facing the projects in order to expedite their resolution. He also directed the administrations of public companies to support the investors implementing these projects.
He stressed that the government has no intention of privatizing government companies, but rather to achieve partnership with the private sector in a productive manner, and in order to achieve added value, which is the real reform, in addition to supporting the private sector, as the success of any ministry in these partnerships will be an incentive for other ministries, in addition to the reform measures taken in the banking sector, which represent a pillar for supporting successful projects in the private sector, and preparing economic feasibility studies.
The signed contracts include the establishment of a urea plant in Abu Al-Khaseeb, based on dry gas in cooperation with the Southern General Fertilizer Company, as well as the rehabilitation and operation of the Baiji fertilizer plant, in partnership with a Qatari company, and the technological foundations of a leading Swiss company in the field of ammonia and urea. As for the expansion of the soda and chlorine plant in the Euphrates General Company, it adds the product of soda flakes and some chemical products to meet local needs.
Shafaq.com