Shafaq News / The first phase of the large port of Faw project located in the Faw Peninsula south of Basra governorate, the far south of the country, is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, to be one of the economic tributaries of the budget and a key pillar of the Iraqi economy, as well as providing at least 150,000 job opportunities for the people of Basra governorate and the rest of the Iraqi governorates.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani announced on Thursday the receipt of the five berths that represent the backbone of the Al-Faw Grand Port project in its first phase, describing the port as “Iraq’s most prominent project, and the people’s project.”

Al-Sudani said during the ceremony of receiving the sidewalks from the Korean company that his government faced “great challenges” in starting the implementation of the vital development road project, considering the Al-Faw Grand Port project that it would transform the historical geographical situation of Iraq.

For his part, Transport Minister Razak Muhaibs Al-Saadawi said in a speech during the same ceremony that: FAO Port and Development Road are the gateway to economic growth in Iraq and the region.

On September 14, the Sudanese stressed the need to intensify research and explanations on the two projects of the Great Port of FAO, the development path and the opportunities they will provide, pointing out that these two projects are a basic gateway for economic growth in Iraq and the region, and an important pillar for the expansion of the non-oil economy.

In this context, the spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Transport, Maitham Al-Safi, said that “the port of Al-Faw is an important strategic port that will be the lungs of the development road and its beating heart, and this port will allow Iraq to have a view of the sea and benefit from its waters.”

Speaking to Shafaq News Agency, Al-Safi pointed out that “there are future prospects related to this giant project, which consists of five other projects representing the port’s infrastructure, most notably the five berths that have been completed by 100%.”

He also added that “the road linking the port of Al-Faw and Umm Qasr reached a completion rate of 92 percent, and the submerged tunnel, one of the important projects, and the wonderful urban planing in the large port of Al-Faw, has also reached a high completion rate.”

He added: “The ten pieces of the submerged tunnel project were also flooded in the tunnel basin in order to pull them to the Khor Al-Zubair canal and place them in the trench dedicated to it, so that there is a process of completing the connection of the two sides of the road leading from the port of Al-Faw towards the city of Umm Qasr and then the city of Safwan.”

Regarding the third project, Al-Safi explained that it is the “navigation channel”, which reached 77%, as well as the “container yard” project, and its completion rate reached 88%, and there are multiple projects such as breakwater, and this is complete with the port entrance by 100%.

He stressed that “the importance of FAO port is consistent with the nature of benefiting from it, as this project is dedicated to large and medium-sized tonnages, and there will be a link between Asia and Europe through this port,” noting that “FAO port is related to a larger project, which is the Development Route project, as the FAO port is one of the components of this project, considering that the development route project as well as the railway and land line represent three main components of the Development Road project.REPORT THIS AD

He pointed out that “there are field visits from Turkey to the port, as well as from specialized committees from advanced foreign countries in port work, and there are also continuous visits from Arab and Asian delegations to see the work of the port,” stressing that “the port of FAO will represent a fundamental pillar of the Iraqi economy, which will go to economic diversification instead of unilateralism by relying on oil and the renter economy.”

Al-Safi concluded by saying that “the port of FAO will be dedicated to the development of future projects, including the establishment of the largest industrial zone in the Middle East in line with global technological development, and the port’s coasts will be used for tourism issues and others.”

For his part, the Chairman of the Finance and Administrative Committee in the Basra Provincial Council, Dr. Shukrak Mahmoud Al-Amiri, explained that “the receipt of the five berths, which are one of the projects in the large port of Al-Faw, is of strategic importance for Iraq and the beginning of realizing its dream of having an independent port overlooking the Arabian Gulf with a large submerge receiving giant ships.”

Al-Ameri said during his talk to the agency, “this stage, in which five berths with a length of 1750 meters were completed, will be followed by the furnishing of these piers and at the same time the arrival of specialized companies to manage the operation process.”

Four other projects are in the process of being completed, namely the road linking FAO and Umm Qasr, which reached a completion rate of about 90 percent, the submerged tunnel, the navigation channel, excavation works, marine landfills and the container yard, according to Al-Amri.

He warned that “the above projects will be completed as planned in 2025, and at the end of 2025, the port may be opened as a first stage of receiving ships and operates in five berths, and during this stage, the Ministry of Transport may start completing the completion of the rest of the berths, as the port has 99 berths distributed in three phases, all of which end according to the plan in 2038.”

He stressed that “it is possible to start with the five berths to be strengthened successively, as the area of the Faw port is 54,000 dunums, and throughout this area there will be work that attracts labor at all levels.”

He pointed out that “it is planned for the port to achieve 200,000 job opportunities if it works at full capacity, and it was agreed in the Basra Provincial Council that the Iraqi worker should have priority in working while giving way to the foreign worker, the condition of specialist, while normal labor must be Iraqi.”

In turn, the president of the Union of Iraqi Businessmen in Basra, Sabih Al-Hashemi, said that “the great port of Faw is considered an important economic event and one of the economic tributaries of the Iraqi budget in general, as well as a vital and strategic port and will be the artery of the Iraqi economy.”

During his talk to Shafaq News, Al-Hashemi predicted that “the port will provide at least 150,000 job opportunities for the people of Basra and the rest of the Iraqi provinces, including the Kurdistan Region,” expressing his hope to “speed up its completion and attention to it by the concerned authorities.”

The cost of the FAO port is about 4.6 billion euros, with an estimated capacity of 99 million tons per year, to be one of the largest ports bordering the Gulf and the tenth in the world, and the foundation stone for this project was laid on April 5, 2010.

The issue of the large port of FAO, and the slowness in its completion, sparked a wide controversy in Iraq, and the deputies of successive governments were accused of making deals with neighboring countries that exaggerated the establishment of the port for the benefit of the ports of those countries. The project also witnessed some looning after the “suicide” of the technical director of the South Korean company Daewoo, which implements the Faw Grand Port project, for mysterious reasons.

Shafaq.com