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Iraq and South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering and Construction Company have reach an agreement to revive the stalled Bismaya City, the country’’s largest housing project, after a stoppage of more than a year, newspaper said on Friday.
The two sides agreed to restart the project after several round of negotiations in Baghdad over the past month, they said, quoting a statement by the Parliament’s Investment and Development Commission.
“The National Investment Commission has reached an agreement with Hanwha to resume work on Baismaya project after a series of meetings,” the statement said without providing details of the agreement.
Hanwha halted Bismaya work in late 2020, saying the Iraqi government has failed to pay outstanding dues for nearly two years.
The Company had built nearly 30,000 of the project’s 100,000 houses before it decided to quit the project, one of several planned post-war housing schemes in Iraq.
Bismaya near Baghdad will accommodate nearly 600,000 people and it is estimated to cost at least $7 billion.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
