The head of the Wassit Investment Commission today laid the cornerstone for a $24m [29 billion Iraqi dinar] iron and steel factory.

This is the first factory to be established in the province in the last 40 years, the province’s media director stated.

Majid al-Attabi told Aswat al-Iraq that the factory will be established in Aziziyah area, 90 km north of Kut, by an Iraqi investor.

The last factory was build by the government 40 years ago for textile production.

The factory will provide 150 local jobs in addition to 15 percent of foreign workers with engineering specializations.

Wassit’s Investment Commission gave permission, since its establishment in 2007, for 10 investment permits in various sectors.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

Wassit local government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian company BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited) to build a 500 MW power station, according to a report from Aswat al-Iraq.

Taha Rudaini, a member of the local government’s Media Committee, told the news agency that the station will be powered by diesel (black oil).

“The province got the final permission from the Ministry of Electricity to build this station”, he added.

BHEL has reportedly implemented power stations in Sulaimaniyah, Beiji [Baiji, Bayji], Rumaila (Basra), Oman, Yemen and UAE, in addition to its responsibility of 70 electrical projects in the region.

Discussions to find a venue for the station are underway.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

The province of Wassit [Wasit] has blacklisted 19 general contracting companies for their slackness in implementign project, the province’s governor announced on Thursday.

“Nineteen were blacklisted and five of them had their licenses withdrawn for their delay in carrying out service projects,” Mahdi al-Zubaydi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

He noted that the local administration in the province has decided not to allow those companies to enter into tenders under their names or any other names and to notify the planning ministry and the trade ministry’s companies registering department on the names of those firms.

“The province will take whatever legal action available against those prohibited companies if they ever entered under other names or do work on a subcontracting basis,” Zubaydi added.

AKnews reports that over 600 companies work in the construction sector in Wassit province.

(Sources: Aswat al-Iraq, AKnews)

The chairman of the Wassit Investment Commission said that a number of Bulgarian companies visited the governorate on Thursday to discuss investment opportunities.

Sadeq Howeidi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Friday that the delegation discussed agriculture and industrial sectors, and signed a memorandum of understanding with the province relating to the medial sector.

They are reportedly also interested in infrastructural projects.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

Wassit Provincial Council met with a number of Turkish firms on Sunday to discuss possible investment ventures in the province, according to the chairman of its information committee.

The projects are in the fields of sanitation, water networks and “urban communities”, Sondos al-Dhahabi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

“The designs of four new cities in the province – al-Dabouni, al-Noamaniya, al-Hafriya and al-Suwayra – will be announced,” she said.

Dhahabi noted that the council has warned blacklisted companies against implementing service and urban projects in the province under other names.

“The names of those companies will be announced this week.”

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

The chairman of Wasit [Wassit] council’s media department has said that the council has called on its citizens not to pay their electricity bills because they are too high.

The economic commission in the federal Council of Ministers directed the ministry of electricity last year to gradually increase the cost of consumer electricity in order to encourage the Iraqi public to be more responsible in their domestic consumption.

The head of Wasit’s media department, Al-Dahabi, told AKnews that the new prices were not commensurate with the income of most households in the province and so the recently distributed bills have been returned to the ministry unpaid.

Dahabi said that the council had received a number of complaints from electricity consumers as the domestic rates had doubled, and were not considered to correspond to the poor levels of service that Wasit citizens receive.

“The council will discuss this issue during its next meeting,” he said, then coordinate with the Ministry of Electricity to come up with a pricing formula “that doesn’t overburden the Iraqi citizen.”

Iraq plans to increase the country’s capacity to 27,000 megawatts over the next four years requiring an annual investment of between $3bn to $4bn.

(Source: AKnews)

Wasit Investment Commission has announced that it granted its first investment licence within the health sector to an Iraqi company for the construction of a private hospital at a cost of around 6.5 billion Iraqi Dinars [$5.6m].

The new 100-bed hospital is to be equipped under the supervision of engineers from the investment board and will contain eight operating theaters. It is expected to be completed within 16 months.

The head of the investment board, Sadiq Huwadi, told AKnews that this project will motivate local and foreign investors to enter different fields of investment in Wassit, which enjoys stable security conditions.

Wasit Investment Board was established in 2007 and has granted six investment licenses over the past three years in the housing, industry, tourism, and agriculture sectors.

(Source: AKnews)

The Wassit Investment Commission (WIC) has granted an investment licence in the health sector worth more than 6 billion dinars [$5m], chairman of the WIC said on Tuesday.

“The licence was given to an Iraqi investor to establish a hospital in Kut, which will include 100 beds and five surgery rooms with modern equipment,” Sadeq Howeidi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

“The hospital will be built in 18 months,” he added.

Kut, the capital of Wassit, lies 180 km south of Baghdad.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)