Why did 12 foreign companies abandon investing in “Middle East Transit”?

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]Why did 12 foreign companies abandon investing in “Middle East Transit”?[/size]

[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
08/05/2024
About 50 km east of Diyala, the ruins of Al-Mansouriyah Military Airport, which was established in the 1980s, loom. It was built to form a link between several military airports near Baghdad towards the east. It is also a defensive and offensive point at the same time due to its high flexibility and the ability to receive emergency flights for the military sector in general. While the airport was subjected to looting after 2003 like other military sites, it still maintains the runway and infrastructure that make its rehabilitation not complicated.[/size]
[size=45]Former member of parliament Abdul Khaliq Al-Azzawi said, during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed”, that “Al-Mansouriyah Airport was proposed as a project to convert it into a civilian airport in 2012 with the improvement of the security situation and Diyala’s transition from one situation to another more relaxed one. The Ministry of Transport was actually contacted, and it sent several high-level engineering and technical teams with experts to conduct a field assessment.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Azzawi added, “All the results confirmed that converting the airport from a military to a civilian one and developing it is possible, but financing remained the cornerstone of the decision and it was declared an investment opportunity. Twelve companies, most of them foreign, including American companies, applied to invest in the airport, which indicates the importance of the site as it is located within the paths of hundreds of flights from Southeast Asia towards Europe and Africa.”[/size]
[size=45]He points out that “the project was suddenly halted and there were those who were obstructing its progress for unknown reasons, even though it is a vital project and could be transformed into an alternative to Baghdad International Airport due to the short distance from the capital.”[/size]
[size=45]Over the past years, many governorates have announced their intention to establish airports, including Karbala Governorate. According to the Investment Authority, it is planned to be implemented in four stages: the first for three million passengers annually, the second for six million passengers, the third for 12 million passengers, and the final stage for 20 million passengers. It is hoped that it will open its doors to passengers as a first stage no later than the end of next year.[/size]
[size=45]In turn, MP Mudar Maan acknowledged, during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed”, that “the Ministry of Transport was approached several times regarding the Mansourieh Airport file in order to proceed with resolving any problem that prevents its conversion into a civilian airport, especially since it enjoys an important location according to studies by specialists.”[/size]
[size=45]Maan confirms that “the airport can be transformed into an air port for transporting goods and logistical materials, especially since Diyala is turning into an oil province with several fields being transferred to foreign and Arab companies. There are plans to build an integrated industrial city near Mansouriya or within the Hamrin Basin east of Diyala, and thus the airport becomes Diyala’s window to the outside world.”[/size]
[size=45]He points out that “the economic feasibility is present in establishing the airport. For example, Diyala receives approximately half a million visitors annually through the Al-Mundhiriyah border crossing with Iran to perform religious visits, and the airport could be a window for religious tourism in general.”[/size]
[size=45]The MP stresses the “necessity for the Ministry of Transport to decide the fate of Mansouriya Airport, as it is the competent authority, because we believe that it is the most important in the eastern sector of Iraq, and all the factors for success are available.”[/size]
[size=45]The former Minister of Transport opened Kirkuk International Airport in the middle of last month, and then the airport began operating international flights, especially with Turkey.[/size]
[size=45]In Anbar, the basic designs were developed in cooperation with a Turkish company specializing in airports, and a site was chosen outside the city of Ramadi, the center of the province, while the Maysan government has not yet revealed the details related to the airport that is scheduled to be built in the province.[/size]
[size=45]In addition, former Diyala Council member Sadiq Al-Hussaini pointed out, during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed”, that “Al-Mansouriyah Airport was proposed on several occasions, and since the matter was related to the federal government, it was left to the federal Ministry of Transport.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Hussaini points out that “the reports produced by the technical committees during their repeated visits to the airport in the past years all indicated that converting it into a civilian airport is not impossible and all means for its success are available, especially the runway and some other infrastructure.”
He notes that “the Diyala Council supported the file more than once, but the decision was ultimately within the walls of the Ministry of Transport, and we do not know the reasons for the delay in its completion, despite what we heard that it is located within an important geography on the map of global airlines’ passage from the East towards Europe and Africa.”[/size]
[size=45]It is noteworthy that the former Minister of Transport, Kazem Finjan Al-Hamami, opened Nasiriyah International Airport on March 10, 2017, and the first plane landed there, but it is still only local, and is witnessing a stumbling block in flights due to its weak capabilities, while the construction work of Kirkuk International Airport was completed in February 2021 as part of a plan to build new airports in the country, but the airport, which aims to transport about three million passengers annually, did not operate due to technical problems related to requests from the Civil Aviation Authority for the investing company to complete them before allowing the airport to operate, as they are important notes related to flight safety.[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the former head of the Mansouriya Judicial Council, Ragheb Al-Anbaki, explained during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed” that “the presence of an airport in Diyala will enhance economic prospects and provide job opportunities, in addition to the fact that Mansouriya is a safe and stable environment, and we consider the establishment of the airport a priority.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Anbaky added, “Al-Mansouriyah, like the rest of Diyala’s regions, needs major development projects such as the airport, and we do not know the reasons for not moving forward with it all these years.”[/size]
[size=45]It is worth noting that Iraq has five international airports, namely Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Basra, but the provinces of Dhi Qar, Kirkuk, Anbar and Maysan have moved towards announcing projects to establish new airports, some of which have used former military airports to develop them into civilian ones.[/size]
[size=45]In this context, a government source, who preferred not to be named, explained during an interview with “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed” that “the security situation and political disputes hindered the progress of the Mansourieh Airport project before 2014, and after that the well-known security disturbances began, which caused extensive damage to Mansourieh due to the activity of ISIS cells, and the project remained in the office drawers.”[/size]
[size=45]He concludes by saying, “There was a move in 2021 to continue pushing the project into the spotlight, but nothing new has happened, despite the fact that all the factors for success are available, and there are indeed efforts to present it to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani during his visit to Diyala at the earliest opportunity by some representatives.”[/size]
[size=45]The Ministry of Transport announced in January 2018 that it seeks to establish 8 new airports by investing in eight regions: Maysan, Habbaniyah, Kut, Diyala, Babylon, Salah al-Din, Kirkuk, and Nasiriyah, with the exception of Mosul Airport, which the ministry considered its establishment to be the responsibility of donor countries to rebuild cities liberated from ISIS, but these projects have not yet seen the light of day.[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]