Iraq’s Al-Saqr Al-Jareh Wins $245 Million Housing Project

Iraq’s al-Saqr al-Jareh company won a $245 million contract to build 1,857 housing units in the southern region of Basra, said Khalaf al-Badran, president of the Basra Investment Commission.

The project will be built within five years on the northern outskirts of Basra city, al-Badran said in a telephone interview from Basra yesterday. Basra province needs 200,000 residential units, he said.

Iraq, which holds the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves, is seeking foreign investment to help rebuild an economy and infrastructure damaged by years of conflict, sanctions and underinvestment. In March 2010, the government approved plans to build 1 million apartments by 2014 for lower- and middle-income families to reduce the housing shortage.

To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad, Iraq, through the Dubai newsroom at kalansary@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net