Shafaq News/ A multi-billion dollar project in Iraq might collapse with the Chinese companies' consortium in charge failing to commit to financial and deadline agreements, Iraqi contractors revealed on Sunday.
In December 2021, Iraq signed agreements with two Chinese companies to build 8,000 schools in the country in the space of two years.
The deals were signed by former Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's government, with Power China to build 679 schools and Sinotech the remaining 321.
Construction of the schools is due to be completed in two years, with a first batch delivered a year after work begins.
"As we speak, the project's completion rate is less than 7% in less than six months," one contractor told Shafaq News Agency, "we are past half the total duration of the project as stipulated by the agreement."
"Power China has informed us that it would not be able to pay us before 2023," another contractor said, "the deal it signed with the company stipulates that it should pay us 10% of the 1.8 billion dollar project's value as an operating advance."
"The Chinese companies have violated the terms of their agreement with the Iraqi government... This might put the entire project at risk," a contractor said.
"We are burdened by the project's expenses, but we cannot stop working because of the penalties the government has introduced," the contractor added.
The contractors demanded that the Iraqi government intervene to address the situation in order to avoid the disruption of the entire project.
