373 investment licenses, some of which were granted to major projects, were granted within one year

POSTED ON[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] BY [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

[size=52]373 investment licenses, some of which were granted to major projects, were granted within one year[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Mustafa Al-Jourani[/size]
[size=45]Over the past years, Iraq lost millions of dollars as a result of the stoppage or flight of the owners of companies contracted by the government to implement projects at several levels in all governorates, which prompted the responsible authorities to re-evaluate the licenses granted by the Investment Authority. Iraq ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world, as it ranked 157th globally, in the Corruption Perceptions Index issued by Transparency International in 2021.[/size]
[size=45]shocking numbers[/size]
[size=45]The head of the National Investment Commission, Suha Najjar, said that “the National Investment Commission granted, during the period (May 2021 to May 2022), 30 investment licenses in different sectors, including 6 strategic investment licenses worth more than $250 million, while investment projects were included. All over Iraq and in different sectors (residential, commercial, industrial and service).”[/size]
[size=45]In an interview with (Al-Mada), Al-Najjar added, “The number of investment licenses granted by investment authorities in the provinces except for the Kurdistan region and the provinces (Baghdad, Karbala, Kirkuk) and for the same period is (343) investment licenses in different sectors and under legal and technical supervision by the National Commission. for investment.” And she added, "The total number of investment licenses granted by the National Investment Commission and investment agencies in the governorates, except for the governorates excluded in the above, for the period from (May / 2021 until May / 2022) in different sectors is 373 licenses." And regarding the lagging companies, Al-Najjar indicated that “156 investment licenses were withdrawn for projects with zero achievement and lagging behind, a year after the Prime Minister’s directives in April of the year 2021.”[/size]
[size=45]And she explained that “the administrative order regarding the formation of a higher government committee to consider the withdrawal of investment licenses, the results of which resulted in the recovery of large areas of land and re-launching them in a deliberate manner throughout Iraq, and this decision was an important opportunity to separate the serious investor from the reluctant investor and to re-evaluate the ongoing investment process.” In Iraq, by looking carefully at the forms of disability and reluctance that it faces, which contributed to the re-working of lagging projects in all sectors.”[/size]
[size=45]new commission[/size]
[size=45]Al-Najjar concluded her speech by saying, “Based on Cabinet Resolution No. 94 of 2022, the Investment License Amendment Committee was re-formed, chaired by the National Investment Commission and with the membership of the relevant authorities to set approved controls that would organize the process of amending the investment license, which facilitates the investor’s obtaining approvals. necessary to proceed with his project in a fundamental manner and also supports the efforts of the Commission to withdraw investment licenses from lagging projects, which will reflect positively on the investment process in Iraq in general.” The head of the Investment Authority, Suha Al-Najjar, had previously talked about the recovery of more than 400,000 dunams of state land that was reserved under the umbrella of fictitious and unfinished investment projects, estimated at 90 trillion dinars (equivalent to 62 billion dollars).[/size]
[size=45]No new projects[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi, said that "the 2022 draft budget law will not include the inclusion of new projects, except for the utmost necessity and with the approval of the Council of Ministers." Al-Hindawi added, during an interview with Al-Mada, that "the focus of the budget will be on the completion of the projects that are under implementation, and they are not few," without revealing more details. It is noteworthy that the previous government formed the Supreme Anti-Corruption Council to follow up on various issues, including waste due to lagging projects, but it did not accomplish anything in this file, according to observers.[/size]
[size=45]Economic disadvantages[/size]
[size=45]In addition, the economic expert, Nabil Al-Ali, said in an interview with (Al-Mada), that "there are a series of government measures that must be implemented in order to obtain an investment license before contracting with the government to implement projects in Iraq."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Ali added, “Some parties are submitting invalid papers in order to obtain these licenses,” noting that “these companies are the ones who fall into corruption and work to obstruct and delay projects in the governorates, in addition to the presence of some corrupt hands that work to refer projects to these companies. “.[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that “there are companies that stipulate in their contracts with the government that operational advances be taken before starting the project, and this facilitates the possibility of these funds being embezzled by companies,” explaining that “the operational advances sometimes reach from 10% to 30% of the total value of the project.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Ali concluded his speech by saying that "there are companies working on taking investment licenses that use their advantages away from implementing projects, such as tax or customs evasion." According to a previous conference of the Ministry of Planning, the projects that are still under implementation amount to more than 7,000 projects, while the lagging projects amount to 1,452 projects, indicating that the ministry has developed several treatments for the lagging projects whose completion rates are less than 10%.[/size]
[size=45]He added that "work is continuing to modernize projects, and a group of projects has been deleted, and costs have been reduced to 23 trillion dinars, stressing the achievement of two thousand and 150 schools last year throughout Iraq."[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]