The National recently ran an article “What is Iraq’s Development Road and will it challenge US and China trade routes?” The piece went into the huge potential of several connected projects Baghdad is currently working on. The first is the Grand Faw Port which could be one of the largest in the Persian Gulf. Then there is the Development Road which will build a highway and railway system from Faw to Turkey to allow trade from Asia to reach Europe. A telecommunications route has also just been added. This has received the backing of companies from South Korea, Kuwait, Turkey, Qatar and the UAE.
The problem with these plans are multi-fold. First, the Iraqi government has little capacity to handle such large projects. The bureaucracy has always been severely understaffed with skilled workers as most get their positions out of patronage rather than competence. Speaking of the government, Iraq has a top down system where even the smallest decisions like issuing passports to foreign workers has to go through ministers and sometimes even the prime minister. This is a lasting legacy of the Ottoman era. One only needs to look at the history of the Grand Port to see how debilitating this can be.
The original Faw plans were announced in April 2010. In 2012 construction started and things quickly stalled because no company was given the task of completing the major work. It took eight years until 2020 for it to resume but then things were delayed once again. It wasn’t until 2024 that construction really started moving again.
Third is the fact that Iran is not included in these discussions. Tehran is the dominant power in the country and it has its own plans to build transportation routes into southern Iraq. It could use its political influence to slow or foil the work if it is not included in some way.
Pro-Iran groups already tried to derail the process back in 2021 when they demanded that a Chinese company with no experience building ports be given the main contract. Asaib Ahl Al-Haq also claimed there was major corruption involved in the project. There always is and that’s the last major barrier to the plans.
There have been several stories involving graft at Faw already. On April 13 Al Aalem reported that a group was calling for protests in front of parliament because of corruption with the Grand Port. April 25 it was announced that a parliamentary committee would be formed to investigate the Ports Company and its work at Faw with allegations that billions had already been stolen. The next day MPs complained that the ruling parties were blocking attempts to look at the port. Corruption is a major way of life in Iraq and how the ruling parties maintain their power. It is inescapable and leads to many projects being delayed and some never being finished because the sole purpose is to steal money not to actually accomplish anything.
SOURCES
Al Aalem, “Al-Faw Port corruption deepens. Calls for a demonstration in front of Parliament to prosecute those involved,” 4/13/24
Bas News, “Iraq Launches Committee to Probe Alleged $20 Billion Corruption Scandal,” 4/25/24
Halligan, Neil, Mahmoud, Sinan, “What is Iraq’s Development Road and will it challenge US and China trade routes?” The National, 4/26/24
Al Rafidain, “Influential Parties Obstruct Investigations Into Iraqi Port Corruption Files,” 4/26/24
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