Zaidi orders a new town built in every governorate

BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has ordered a new integrated city built in each governorate, covering 10,000 to 15,000 dunams — 2,500 to 3,750 hectares apiece — with designs reflecting local identity and each carrying its governorate’s name.

He gave the directive at a meeting with the heads of all governorate investment commissions, attended by the finance minister, the Central Bank governor and the chairmen of the Higher Coordination Commission for Governorates and the National Investment Commission, his media office said. He called for a new vision for investment and urban development to expand investment, absorb population and economic growth and promote balanced development, with the cities serving as growth centres drawing residents, investment and services.

Investment commissions are to receive loans specifically for infrastructure in the new cities and have one week to submit plans setting out their proposals and requirements. A specialist committee will study implementation, and the Finance Ministry was told to speed up subdividing and allocating the land.

It follows the separate scheme to distribute a million residential plots outside the Kurdistan Region, where applications opened Sept. 1 with more than 250,000 plots secured for the first phase and financing for recipients to build still under discussion.