Over $50 billion in foreign direct investment exits Iraq in 2023

Shafaq News/ On Saturday, Manar Al-Abidi, head of the Iraq Future Foundation, revealed a recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report showing that over $50 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) left Iraq in 2023.

According to Al-Abidi, the report indicates that Iraq has lost more than $52 billion in foreign investments from 2013 to 2023, highlighting the critical role of foreign investments in driving economic growth, creating job opportunities, and transferring knowledge.

Mentioning several key reasons for the exit of these investments, Al-Abidi included a deteriorating business environment, lack of transparency, bureaucratic red tape, and conflicting decision-making sources.

"There are no clear laws protecting foreign investors' funds as a contributing factor to this decline." He said.

Al-Abidi criticized government programs supporting the private sector as "empty slogans," noting that "a socialist and centralized mindset prevails in government institutions. This has negatively impacted investment goals, which have largely focused on local real estate rather than energy, infrastructure, and productive projects."

He warned that the continuation of this way of thinking in government “would likely lead to the ongoing depletion of foreign investments from Iraq. “calling for genuine efforts to improve the business environment through three essential elements: “transparency, facilitation, and protection, to attract foreign investors and boost the Iraqi economy.”