Iraq needs to spend a staggering $233 billion to fund projects to achieve sustainable development targets, according to the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

“According to the latest IFC study, Iraq needs nearly $233 billion to finance sustainable development projects until 2040,” IFC representative in Iraq Bilal Al-Saghir said at a financial conference held in Iraq’s Northern Kurdistan region last week.

In his comments, published by Shafaq News and other Iraqi publications on Monday, Saghir said: “There is a need for the establishment of a credit information office in Iraq...this will provide financial data for companies that will fund those projects.”

OPEC’s second largest oil producer needs to enact laws to encourage non-bank financial institutions to contribute to funding such projects, he said.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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