ASSESSMENTS

The Tricky Business of Rebuilding Iraq

Feb 13, 2018 | 18:40 GMT

Children who lived in Mosul play at their temporary home in a camp for people displaced from the war-scarred city.

Displaced Iraqi children fly kites, made from plastic bags, at the Hamam al-Alil camp for internally displaced people south of Mosul.

(KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Iraq’s development needs and its poor economy mean Baghdad will depend heavily on external funding, whether in the form of aid, loans or investment from private companies.
  • Corruption and poor security will plague development projects in Iraq, although global interest in shoring up the country’s stability is guaranteed.
  • Arab Gulf states are keen to increase their participation in Iraq’s reconstruction in part to help stabilize the country and in part to use connections there to challenge rival Iran.

Years of conflict, corruption and neglect have left major portions of Iraq's infrastructure in tatters. Now, with a semblance of stability returning to parts of the country, an international scramble is on to help Iraq rebuild, one railroad, highway and oil refinery at a time. To this end, representatives from almost 2,000 companies have gathered in Kuwait City for a conference highlighting scores of projects that span a breadth of sectors including agriculture, oil and natural gas production, and transportation. Like any other construction-based conference, this one, hosted Feb. 12-14 by the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce, features the typical crush of contractors and vendors. But the projects they may be competing for come with an added layer of complications created by Iraq's geopolitical position....

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