Iraq deals with South Korea’ Daewoo about the long-delayed Grand Faw port

Shafaq News / The Iraqi Minister of Transport announced, on Tuesday that a deal with the Korean company Daewoo was approved.

"The cabinet agreed today to authorize the Ministry of Transport to contract with Daewoo to begin implementing the Faw port project." The Minister Nasser Hussein Al-Shibli said in a statement

He stressed, "We will sign with the company to establish the long-delayed Grand Faw port project, which is a dream of Iraqis." Adding, “Al-Faw projects will help to employ thousands of workers as it will be the forefront of the ports in the region."

The total cost of the project is estimated at 4.4 billion euros (5.06 billion dollars).

Iraq’s Grand Faw mega port scheme has been successively delayed largely because of the wars Iraq has lived through -- with Iran in the 1980s, the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the war and sectarian conflict that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam, who was hanged in 2006, and lately The project also delayed after Director of Daewoo has committed suicide in Iraq.

 Constructing a new port is part of a drive to modernize public infrastructure and kick-start Iraq’s economy now that major new oil contracts have been signed.

According to Iraq’s plan, goods unloaded at the new port would then be loaded onto a new railway system and reach Europe overland more quickly than ships might reach Egypt’s Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.