WB Calls for Investment in Iraq

The World Bank’s private sector arm urged international companies on Sunday to overcome concerns about funding reconstruction projects in Iraq and seize high-yield investment opportunities in the country, Reuters reported. The International Finance Corporation’s country manager for Iraq, Ziad Badr, was speaking in Kuwait ahead of an international conference this week for donors and investors to rebuild and revive Iraq’s economy as the country emerges from a devastating three-war against Islamic State. “I don’t think that in any other part of the world there are such investment opportunities,” Badr said in a speech at the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry, giving as an example a Lebanese firm making a 24% return on its stake in a luxury hotel in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The IFC has about $1.2 billion in investments in different Iraqi ventures including banks, cement plants and telecommunications, and is preparing to announce a $250 million investment in a telecommunication venture, he said.