Today there are up to 50 investors in the free zone; half are Arab, with the other half foreign, Radi says. Up until recently the only people investing in logistics projects for the oil industry were from the Iraqi government. But apparently this is now changing.
“Some of the projects being implemented are happening for the first time in Iraq,” says one optimistic businessman there, Mustafa Hussein Kamel. “For instance, there’s an Italian company’s project involving large tanks for oil with 5,000 cubic meters capacity, that will be used for analysis and loading at the port.”
Still, there remain a number of obstacles that foreign investors need to overcome. One of these involves work permits and visas. “The difficulties around obtaining a visa have driven some investors to despair,” says Zahra al-Bukhari, who is on Basra’s provincial council. “In the past residency permits could be issued by local authorities and the local investment authority. But now a residency permit can only be approved by the Prime Minister’s office. This is an extremely complex process and it is impractical. It causes a lot of confusion for foreign investors.”
Local officials and economic advisers believe this should be altered to make it easier for foreign investors to come into Iraq.
“Facilitating entry visas for foreigners working in the oil industry has become a priority for the oil ministry,” says Falah Hussein, an economic adviser. “There have been a lot of complaints from oil company representatives who got contracts during the licensing rounds, about getting their staff the right visas.”
To remedy this the Basra local authority has asked Baghdad for permission to start issuing visas themselves again, saying the process is hindering investment in the free zone. And it’s not only oil companies complaining about this issue; other firms involved in transport, port maintenance and communications have also run into this obstacle.
This story was prepared as part of the Media Academy Iraq’s mentorship programme for young Iraqi journalists, together with NIQASH’s regular correspondents around Iraq. The mentor for this story was regular NIQASH contributor Waheed Ghanem.
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