Iraq has awarded contracts to two Chinese companies to build 1,000 schools at a cost of nearly $1.9 billion, a local news agency reported on Monday. 

Power China won a contract worth nearly $1.3 billion for the construction of 679 schools in various parts of Iraq, Aliqtisad News said, citing a government documents. 

The second project with a value of around $600 million was awarded to Sinotec for the construction of 321 schools, the report said. 

The schools are located in Baghdad, Najaf, Babylon, Nineveh, Saladin, Kirkuk, Alanbar, Dialya and other Iraqi governorates, it said. 

The report did not make clear if the contracts were awarded in line with an “oil-for-projects” agreement signed by Baghdad and Beijing in 2019 allowing Chinese firms to undertake projects in Iraq in exchange for crude oil supply. 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com) 

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