Infrastructure

Iraq expects road and rail project to provide 20,000 jobs

January 7, 2025, 3:00 PM

A tunnel being constructed at Iraq's Faw Port will take traffic under a river and onto the Road Of Development, which will cross Iraq up to the border with Turkey — A tunnel being constructed at Iraq's Faw Port will take traffic under a river and onto the Road Of Development, which will cross the country up to the border with Turkey

UAE and Qatar back $17bn plan
Motorway, rail and industrial zones
Route from south to Turkey

Iraq’s planned $17 billion project to build a rail line and motorway up to the border with Turkey aims to create at least 20,000 jobs for citizens, officials said.

Transport minister Razzak Al-Saadawi said the Road Of Development project, which is backed by the UAE and Qatar, will include the construction of several industry cities along the 1,200km motorway.

It will also incoporate the Middle East’s largest industrial zone, under construction at Faw Port in southern Iraq.

In statements carried by the official Iraqi news agency late on Monday, Saadawi said the line is “not a mere rail and asphalted road but an integrated economic project”.

“Besides the rail network and the parallel motorway, this project comprises numerous industrial cities all along the way up to the border with Turkey,” he said.

“One of the main goals of this project is that it will provide at least 20,000 jobs to Iraqis. This will have a large, positive impact on the Iraqi youth.”

The Road Of Development, one of the largest rail projects in the Middle East, will start from Faw and pass through 11 Iraqi governorates to the northern border with Turkey.

Iraq hopes that the project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2029, will turn it into a vital commercial transit route linking the Middle East and Europe.

The Opec producer has already secured Turkey, the UAE and Qatar as partners and it hopes other countries and companies will subscribe.

Iraq is suffering from relatively high unemployment rates due to rapid population growth and slow GDP growth.

Unemployment stood at around 15.3 percent at the end of 2023 according to Statista. Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani said in October last year that it had improved to 14.4 percent.

Saadawi said 69 percent of the design studies for the rail project and 61 percent for the road project have been completed.

“Besides the numerous industrial cities to be constructed along the highway, we have plans to build the Middle East’s largest industrial city near Faw Port. It will also include houses, business and tourism facilities.”

An Iraqi official said last month that Faw Port would be among the world’s top 20 largest container terminals, capable of handling 99 million tonnes of cargo per year.

Farhan Al-Fartousi, director of the General Company for Ports in Iraq, said the Grand Faw Port would be commissioned in early 2025.

South Korea’s Daewoo Company completed the construction of the port’s five main berths in December under a $2.6 billion contract it was awarded in 2020.