Al-Faw port to provide up to 15,000 jobs : Ministry of Transport

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A port to be built south of Basra will provide 10 to 15,000 jobs, the Ministry of Transport announced on Saturday.

“The large port of Faw will soon open the doors of employment for thousands of unemployed people, as it is one of the largest projects and will provide between 10 to 15,000 job opportunities,” ministry spokesperson Hussein al-Khafaji told Iraqi state media.

In December, Iraq’s transportation minister announced they had signed a deal with South Korean Daewoo E&C to build the port.

The building of the port spells good news for Iraqi youth in the area, with unemployment one of the key grievances of young protesters who have taken to the streets across central and southern Iraq since October 2019. 

In April, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi set the foundation stone of the long–awaited project.

Al-Faw is located south of Umm Qasr, Iraq’s main seaport. The new port will be deeper than Qasr to allow larger container ships.

The construction deal is worth $2.625 billion for the first phase of the port, Reuters reported in December. Farhan al-Fartousi, Iraq’s director general at the General Company for Ports, said construction is expected to take less than four years and they are willing to sign contracts with other companies for the second and third phases.

The port has been a dream for decades, but has been repeatedly delayed because of successive conflicts.