Thursday, July 1, 2010

Announcement Sunday ~ Housing tops Iraq’s priorities in next five-year development plan ...

July 1, 2010

Housing tops Iraq’s priorities in next five-year development plan

Under Iraq’s next five-year development plan two million housing units will have to be built in the country, a senior government official has said.

Anwar Jameel, a director-general at Iraq’s Housing and Reconstruction Ministry, said the details of the 2010-2014 development plan will be announced on Sunday.

“The plan includes the implementation of projects to solve the housing crisis by building about two million housing units,” Jameel, who heads the ministry’s Planning, construction and housing department, said.

She said the ministry with its nearly 14,000 employees is currently in charge of constructing scores of housing projects across the country.

Jameel did not say how much the two million housing units will cost and the amount of money Iraq intends to allocate for development in the next five-years.

Apart from housing, the ministry is in charge of roads, bridges and public buildings.

The ministry’s 12 state-owned firms were the construction and building arm of the former regime of Saddam Hussein.

The ministry’s building was burned and looted shortly after the 2003-U.S. invasion. So were the offices of its 12 companies along with their equipment and machines.

Azzaman