A group of Iraqi businesses will invest $28 million for the construction of a five-star hotel in Abadan, Khuzestan Province which will begin soon after a plot of land is provided by the Iranian side. Jabbar Shoghit Mansour, a former head of the Basra Chamber of Commerce and current head of the South Iraq Trade and Tourism Companies Union, who has already invested in a building material production unit in Arvand Free Zone, is heading the project, IRNA reported. Referring to the benefits of investing in Arvand Free Zone (covering Khorramshahr, Abadan and Minoo Island in Khuzestan), Mansour said: “I was encouraged by the (Iranian) consulate in Iraq and Iraqi investors to invest in the hotel project in Abadan.” Foreign investors have been gradually warming up to Iran and have started financing hotel projects. France’s Accor opened two hotels last year in Imam Khomeini International Airport, while UAE’s Rotana and Spain’s Melia will open a total of 5 hotels by 2018 in Tehran, Mashhad and Salman Shahr (in Mazandaran Province). German and Turkish investors are also expected to build ten hotels in the next decade.
