Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

Turkish minister hints UAE and Qatar joining mega project

By Pramod Kumar
Turkish minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said the Development Road project is in the final stages Abdulkadir Uraloglu/X
Turkish minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said the Development Road project is in the final stages

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar are considering joining the mega Development Road project, which will link southern Iraq to Turkey, a senior Turkish minister has said. 

“We will implement the project hopefully, in collaboration with Iraq. The UAE and Qatar also seem to be interested in this process,” transport and infrastructure minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu told Anadolu Agency, Turkey’s state-run news agency.

The minister said the project is in the final stages, adding that the investment will be around $15 billion.

“When we transfer cargo from the sea route to the railway here, we will be able to reach every corner of Europe by railway or ensure re-transfer from any port in Turkey to the sea,” he added.

In September 2023, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lauded plans for a $17 billion infrastructure and transportation project linking southern Iraq to Turkey as an opportunity to “build a new world.”

The Development Road project will link Grand Faw Port, a commodities port in Iraq, by rail and road to the border with Turkey. It will transform the country into a transit hub by reducing travel time between Asia and Europe in a bid to rival the Suez Canal.

The project was announced in May and is expected to be completed in 2025.

The corridor will pass through the Gulf countries and Iraq and go to Europe through Turkey, Daily Sabah newspaper reported citing an Erdoğan speech at the Concordia Annual Summit in New York.

Latest articles

The SPA report highlighted a number of metrics as being on target, including home ownership of 53.7 percent

Third of Vision 2030 projects ‘completed’ government says

One third of 1,064 planned projects have been completed so far under the Vision 2030 economic transformation plan, the Saudi government said in its annual progress report on the reform programme.   The report also said 561 initiatives were on track, according to the state-owned Saudi Press Agency, publishing its major findings. It was not […]

Tawfik Alzaidi

Saudi director’s labour of love takes the kingdom to Cannes

For the first time a Saudi film has been selected to compete in the Cannes film festival, catapulting its little-known self-taught director into the limelight. Tawfik Alzaidi was so surprised that he’d managed to break through to the big time that he kept the news that his film Norah had been accepted for the ‘Un […]

Migrants attempting to reach Italy from Tunisia. About 270,000 so-called irregular migrants arrived in the EU via sea crossings last year

EU reveals total aid to North Africa to combat migration 

The European Union provided €673 million ($718 million) in funding to four North African countries from 2021-23 to help the quartet reduce what it calls irregular migration to the 27-member bloc, official data shows. Last year about 270,000 “irregular migrants” arrived in the EU via sea crossings, 64 percent more than in 2022. Crossings from […]

Joby Aviation's CEO JoeBen Bevirt (2nd left) at the signing of a multilateral agreement with the three Abu Dhabi government departments

Abu Dhabi signs multiple deals to launch air taxi services in 2025

A commute from Abu Dhabi to Dubai could take only 30 minutes next year, with the introduction of air taxi services significantly slashing travel time between the emirates. The electric aircraft manufacturer Joby Aviation signed agreements this week with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipalities and Transport, Department of Economic Development and Department of Culture and […]