Aiming at finding successful solutions for Electricity problems in Iraq
NIC Participates in the Conference of the Central Plan of the Ministry of Electricity Held in Istanbul

NIC participated in the works of the conference of the central plan of the Ministry of Electricity through a high level delegation headed by NIC Vice Chairman, Mr. Salar Muhammad Ameen, the conference which was prepared by the Ministry of Electricity in cooperation with Parsons Co. was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Hussein Al- Shahrestani and a big number of companies and figures specialized in energy sector.
Dr. Shahristani referred in his speech to the most important projects being achieved and the Ministry’s plan to rehabilitate the available stations and the importance of solving the electricity problem through investment noting that work to connect Iraq with the regional power grid had started referring to the plan suggested to transfer the Gulf countries excess capacity to European countries through Iraqi Grid.
The Deputy Prime Minister added that Iraq is keen to open doors for investors to build new power stations referring to the new investment opportunity announced to build four power stations to be closed at the end of February.
On the same context, NIC Vice Chairman stressed the commission’s readiness to submit all support, facilities and guaranties mentioned in investment law No. 13 for the year 2006 and its amendments presenting the most important privileges and incentives guaranteed by the law.
Mr. Ameen also referred to the active role of the NIC within the committee in charge of supervising investment activities in the Ministry of electricity saying that the National Investment Commission is giving special attention to investment in energy sector as it forms the fundamental base to develop the Iraqi economic base.
The participating investors showed their willingness to enter the Iraqi market through investing in electricity since it represents a promising sector. Opinions and suggestions were exchanged between the commission’s delegation and the participating companies about ways of developing the vital sector and ending the energy problem in Iraq.

NIC Participates in the Meeting Held by the Ministry of Transport to Discuss Designs submitted to build Iraq Grand Port in Basra

NIC participated in the meeting held in the Ministry of Transport to discuss designs submitted to build Iraq Grand Port in Basra by the Italian company. The meeting was headed by the Minister of Transport Mr. Hadi Al- Amiry and attended by the ministry deputy ministers, a number of the Parliament members on behalf of Basra governorate, the Marine leader assistant, Ministries representatives and experts from the Ministry of Planning.
NIC representative Mr. Abdulla Al- Bander said that the meeting had elaborately discussed the designs submitted by the Italian company to build Iraq Grand Port which shall be considered as the twelfth globally and the first in the Middle East.
He added that the port site, its capacities and economic merits which will benefit Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Jordan through the dry channel was also discussed during the meeting, Mr. Bander assured that NIC in conjunction with the Ministry of Planning will invite the biggest global specialized companies to participate in implementing this huge project referring that the project will be implemented over two stages within 4 years proposed.
Abdullah al- Bander also referred that the project will save costs and time through the dry channel which transport goods to Turkey, Syria, Jordan and the GCC countries in addition to the merits Iraq will gain by providing job opportunities regardless of the huge revenues which will contribute to supporting the general budget beside the oil revenues.

For the Purpose of Establishing Investment Projects that Serves Basra province
Basra Investment Commission continues its Efforts to obtain some Tracts of Lands to be announced as Investment Opportunities

Basra Investment Commission held a meeting to discuss obtaining the required approvals and ways to obtain the largest tracts of lands that belong to the General Directorate for the State Owned properties in order to be announced as investment opportunities.
Haidar Ali, Chairman of Basra Investment Commission said that it was agreed during the meeting to announce some lands as investment opportunities for industrial sector in some of Basra’s areas like (the North Orcaly, Al- Sabach lands, Talha, Khor Al- Zubair) in addition to the empty tracts of the real estate adjacent to the duty free area in Khor Al- Zubair , Mr. Ali also added that Basra Investment Commission had formed a joint team of the General Directorate for State Owned properties in Basra and specialized engineering staff and surveyors in order to make the field survey on the lands allocated and getting assured of its being ready to embrace the industrial projects.
The meeting was also attended by the DG of the General Directorate for State Properties in Basra, Mr. Mazin Hasan Karboon and his assistant Ms. Layla Hameed Madhloom. It is also worth to mention that Basra Investment commission had previously held intensive meetings with the Minister of Municipalities and Public works and the Minister of Planning and the Minister of Finance in addition to a number of other Ministries and other concerned sides in order to establish the investment projects, develop the governorate’s economy and obtain the required approvals so as to grant all facilities important to attract foreign companies to invest in Basra.

With a Cost amount of more than 220 M$
Dyala Investment Commission Grants a License to Construct a Tourists City

Dyala Investment Commission announced licensing the construction of a tourist’s city to a local company to be constructed in the North of Baquba with a total cost amount of 220 million $.
Dyala Investment Commission Chairman, Mr. Mijwel Al- Tae said that the commission had granted one of the local companies a license to construct a tourist’s city in Sad al – Adhem area North to Baquba to be built according to the best international specifications on an area of 20 thousand Dunam.
Al- Tae also added that the total cost of the project is more than 220 Million $ with in an implementation term of 5 years referring that the project will contribute to upgrading the tourism side in the province and reinforcing the local economic growth and providing thousands of job opportunities.

For the Purpose of Attracting International Companies to Invest in Transport Sector
NIC updates the Transport Projects within the Investment Map

NIC in coordination with the Ministry of Transport are preparing to update the transport projects within the investment map since they will be presented as investment opportunities represented by constructing airports, railways in addition to rehabilitating and upgrading the big seaports in Basra.
Faw Grand Port is considered as the most important project in this sector, An NIC reliable source said, which lays in the Faw Peninsula south of Basra and covers an area of 30 KM², the project includes constructing a seaport ready to yearly receive 5000-6000 large ships carrying cargo containers, the project will be implemented in two stages with a total cost amount that exceed 47 Million Euro and hopefully it will be one of the biggest 10 seaports in the world on the Arabian Gulf exploiting the distinguished site of Iraq which connects east Asia, Gulf and Europe.
Regarding the air transport projects announced for investment, the NIC source said that there are two new projects will be announced within the new version of the investment plan, the first is represented by Al- Furat Al- Awsat Airport which aims at facilitating transport within the middle Euphrates area and activating the religious tourism in the holy sites (the area allocated for this purpose is 47km²) while the second project is Al- Mosul International Airport with estimated cost amount of 700 million $.

Aiming at Upgrading the Agricultural Sector in Iraq
NIC Chairman .. Statute No. (7) Facilitates Starting Strategic Agricultural Projects

NIC Chairman, Dr. Sami Al- Araji assured that Statute No. (7) for selling and leasing state owned lands and properties for investment purposes (amended) ensured big support for investors willing to invest in the agricultural sector to establish strategic agricultural projects that can develop this vital sector in the country.
NIC Chairman declared that the statute had classified agricultural lands into two types, the first are the reclaimed lands that have water share where the lease amount will be estimated to receive 20% of the original lease value from investors, while the second type are the non reclaimed lands which do not have water share where only 1% of its original estimated lease value will be received from investors willing to invest in these lands.
Meanwhile, a number of provincial investment commissions had recently held some seminars to promote agricultural investment, for instance Babil Provincial Investment Commission held a seminar through which assured the importance of developing the agricultural investment status in the province in every possible means and showed the readiness to cooperate with Babil Agriculture Directorate in order to show the importance of investment in this sector and its influential role in the economic growth and providing the job opportunities for unemployed graduates and achieving the food safety for Babil province through starting strategic agricultural projects relying on the most modern scientific basis and internationally used technologies in this sector.
On the same context, officials and experts in Dyala seminar discussed the strategy of the agricultural investment map and how to grant licenses for investors in the agricultural sector and results expected out of granting these licenses in addition to explaining the importance of agricultural investment in the province for the purpose of achieving the food safety for people.
All attendees assured that agriculture sector in Iraq is facing big challenges represented by water scarcity and high prices of pesticides and agricultural production requirements stressing that investment is the most successful solution to save the agriculture status in the province and get it back to reoccupy the pose of being Iraq’s food basket.

According to continuing the demand of people, NIC decided to extend the offer of reducing the down payment of Bismayah housing units to (10%) instead of (25%).

NIC Chairman, Dr. Sami al-Araji said that many requests had reached to NIC through email and phone calls demanding to keep the offer on to enable them to reserve the units in the biggest project in the Middle East, adding that the work in this project is progressing according to schedule prepared by NIC and the executing company” Hanawah Group for Engineering & Construction).

Al-Araji added that people can visit the project’s registration center on the land of Baghdad International Fair to see the models of housing units in the normal size and to get answers about all questions that come to mind every day except Friday from 9:00 am till 16:00 pm, indicating that NIC will organize a field visit to the project location for people who are registered and those who wish to register.

As a part of its quest to create fully trained cadres

NIC organized in cooperation with the investment program in the Middle East and North Africa of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the U.S. embassy in Baghdad a training course for drawing up the country’s image and building reputation to attract foreign investments in the period (24-25-2013)at the headquarters of NIC for the purpose of making participants acquire the expertise necessary for the process of designing and implementing strategies to build and manage Iraq’s reputation as an important location for foreign investment.

The NIC Economic Advisor, Dr. Abdullah al- Bandar, in the opening speech on behalf of NIC Chairman, Dr. Sami al- Araji, welcomed the attendees who represent provincial investment commissions and NIC as well as a representative from the Office of Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Salih al – Mutlaq, stressing that NIC has taken a new approach to build an advanced cadre who is familiar with international expertise to contribute in reconstruction and development process of Iraq.

Al- Bandar added that the (OECD) played a great role in working to activate capacity building to attract foreign investment and change the investor’s viewpoint towards Iraq from a country of conflicts to an investment attracting country , adding that advantages have been taken from the experiments presented by the OECD through a series of seminars and meetings which have been held since 2007 indicating that this is the second course held by (OECD) in cooperation with the U.S. embassy in Baghdad where participants received lectures about new methods in attracting investors through new practices to influence investors decisions concerning the location as well as putting a plan to build and manage Iraq’s reputation with the necessity of activating partnership with the private sector through (PPP) program .

For his part Mr. Anders Johnson, Iraq project coordinator in (OECD) expressed his happiness to launch such a training course in Iraq after it was held in the neighboring countries , praising the NIC role to create an advanced cadre who have a clear vision on how to attract investment companies to Iraq and change their viewpoints about it because Iraq is a highly attractive investment destination for enjoying a strong consumer market as well as the availability of raw materials , and labor force which can lead in the end to diversifying the national economy.