USA Today reports:
Iraq is poised to receive a flood of foreign investment, thanks to improved security. More than $74 billion in projects have been submitted for government approval in just the past five months, according to Iraq’s state investment regulator.
The investors include companies from the U.S., Europe, and Gulf Arab states. Their proposals all involve sectors other than oil, including a $13 billion new port for the southern city of Basra, several hotels and thousands of housing units nationwide, says Ahmed Ridha, the chairman of Iraq’s National Investment Commission.
But there’s this dismaying item:
Only one of the projects has broken ground, while most others are still awaiting government approval, which has been difficult to obtain.
Maybe Iraq is modeling itself after the West too much.
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