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Iraq to build 3 million housing units in 15 years, says minister
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Azzaman - [12/20/2005]
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Iraq is facing a huge housing crisis which will aggravate unless at least three million housing units are built in the coming 15 years, said Housing and Reconstruction Minister.
Jassem Jaafar said the country would need to liberalize its construction industry as domestic construction firms, whether state-owned or private, do not have the capacity to meet rising demand.
“We have plans to construct three million housing units in 15 years and plan to allocate $120 billion for their building,” Jaafar said.
He said the outgoing government has built 20,000 housing units since assuming power early this year.
“We will build 5,000 more housing units in 2006,” he added.
He said the country was passing through “an acute housing crisis” and one way to alleviate it was to open the market for foreign construction firms.
There has been little construction in the country since the early 1980s due wars and U.N. trade sanctions, the minister said.
“We are exerting huge efforts to persuade Arab and foreign investors to construct housing complexes in the country,” Jaafar said.
He said the World Bank and other international financial institutions were willing to finance housing projects in the country.
Asked whether oil rich Arab Gulf states were interested in investing in the housing sector, Jaafar said: “So far we (Iraq and Gulf states) have not coordinated our efforts in this regard. We ask our Gulf brethren for joint meetings to discuss the issue.”
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