Shakir al-Zameli, the head of the Investment Commission, Baghdad has stated that Iraqis have a lot of money and they need a lot more malls to spend the money.
Zameli has added that his commission has provided license to foreign companies for building 46 new shopping malls in Baghdad, but that is not going to enough, because the city needs a lot more of them.
He said that at present the commission is going through the fresh offers made by foreign companies regarding the construction of malls.
He has also claimed that, the existing number of malls is not enough for satisfying the power of purchase by the Iraqi citizens.
Zameli has said that a lot of the malls are half done and the rest are almost ready to start business.
He has not revealed the cost of these malls and neither the terms of the contract prepared by the commission on the basis of which the malls are being constructed by the foreign companies.
The purchasing power of the country depends a lot upon the income of the civil servants, and the income has seen a lot of hikes in the last year due to the rise in the amount of oil royalties. In the last year the royalty was estimated about 100 billion dollars.
Till now the largest amount of employment in Iraq is provided by the government.
Source [Azzaman]