Iraqi authorities invited worldwide personal sector corporations to submit bids for the enlargement and operation of Baghdad’s worldwide airport after years of disrepair within the conflict-scarred nation.
In September, the federal government signed an settlement with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) to ask personal corporations to improve Iraq’s foremost airport.
Iraq “is launching a two-stage public tender to select a private partner to rehabilitate, expand, finance, operate and maintain Baghdad International Airport under a long-term Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contract,” in response to the official doc calling for bidders and seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP) Tuesday.
It is the “first time that the Iraqi government, in cooperation with the IFC, opens its airports to private international investment,” Farhad Alaaldin, the prime minister’s international affairs adviser, advised AFP.
It is “a step that will elevate the aviation sector to international standards,” he added.
The deadline to submit bids is Sept. 12, and the winner “is expected to modernize and rehabilitate the airport infrastructure, expand passenger and cargo terminal facilities … and operate and maintain the airport in line with international best practice,” the doc added.
The IFC, in response to the doc, “is acting as the lead transaction advisor for this PPP project.”
Alaaldin mentioned the tender course of depends “on the IFC to have oversight over the project from its inception and to work on the economic model.”
The IFC’s involvement, it’s hoped, will “give more confidence to the world-class companies to bid”, Alaaldin mentioned.
“Iraq is open for business and inward investment is on the rise,” he added.
Last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani’s media workplace mentioned an IFC research confirmed “a compound annual growth rate of 15.7 % in air traffic” in recent times, with over 3.4 million passengers arriving in Baghdad in 2023.
It mentioned the IFC proposed constructing a brand new terminal to extend airport capability to as much as 9 million passengers per 12 months.
Baghdad’s airport has undergone no substantial renovations because it opened within the early Eighties underneath then-leader Saddam Hussein’s rule.
It was closed within the Nineteen Nineties because of worldwide sanctions, forcing folks to journey by land to neighboring Jordan to catch their flights.
Baghdad airport is shortly overwhelmed when journey peaks and its three terminals are geared up with solely fundamental facilities.
Source: www.dailysabah.com