Schools and an airport are among the projects

China contributes strongly to the reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure

• Iraq's money in China is invested according to specific conditions.

  archival

• Beijing develops the energy sector in Iraq.

  archival

• Iraqis receive Chinese language lessons

picture

In Iraq, rich in oil and poor in infrastructure, China has found a foothold.

In addition to the work of its companies in the field of oil, Beijing is building schools and an airport, in projects that this country needs, but it puts it in the face of the risk of falling into a debt trap not so long ago.

The Chinese presence in Iraq is not new, but Beijing has recently diversified and expanded its projects in this country that has suffered wars and conflicts for more than 40 years.

And John Calabrese, director of the Middle East and Asia Project at the Middle East Institute, told AFP that "Iraq is in dire need of foreign investment, especially in the field of energy infrastructure."

Here, China found the opportunity. The People's Republic needs to secure its energy needs and diversify its sources, and it has become the first importer of Iraqi oil.

It alone imports 44% of Iraq's oil exports, the Prime Minister's advisor, Mazhar Salih, told the Iraqi News Agency.

In the field of energy, "the situation is active," says the Chinese ambassador, Cui Wei, in response to a question by AFP at a press conference, but he adds, "We are still in the stage of entering Iraq and we are cooperating with the Iraqi side, as well as with foreign companies operating in Iraq."

Cui explains that "in terms of the number and value of projects in the field of energy, the Chinese side is still at the beginning stage."

For his part, Calabrez believes that behind the clear commercial goals "also lies China's ambition to showcase its work, polish its image, and deeply entrench itself in a country and region dominated by the West, especially the United States" for a long time.

Belt and Road

In 2019, Iraq became one of China's partners in the "Belt and Road" initiative, with the two countries signing an agreement in this regard.

The "Belt and Road" initiative aims to build marine and land infrastructure projects that better connect China with Asia, Europe and Africa.

But the West sees it as a tool to enhance China's influence in poor countries, denouncing, in particular, the fact that these projects have accumulated large debts on those countries.

Westerners also suspect corruption and human rights abuses.

A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry told AFP that "China is actively participating in the reconstruction of the Iraqi economy," stressing that Baghdad is an "important partner" in the "Belt and Road" initiative.

Within the framework of this initiative, "Iraq remained the third most important partner" for China in the energy sector "between 2013 and 2022", as stated in a report by Christoph Nidobel, for the benefit of the Center for Development and Green Finance at Fudan University in Shanghai.

For example, in Maysan Governorate, southern Iraq, the Halfaya field is being developed with a consortium of companies led by the Chinese state-owned PetroChina, along with the French Total and Malaysian Petronas, as the director of the Maysan Oil Company explained in a statement to the agency. Iraqi news.

As for the trade exchange between the two countries, it is booming and amounted in 2020, to 30 billion dollars, as the Iraqi News Agency quoted an official at the Chinese embassy.

Given the importance of infrastructure reconstruction, many projects undertaken by China in this field fall within the framework of the agreement signed between the two countries in 2019 under the title “Reconstruction for Oil.”

Among these projects are 1,000 schools and an airport in Nasiriyah.

In the city of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, Power China is working on one of these schools, and it is one of two Chinese companies that are implementing a project to build a number of schools in three phases, and the first phase of which includes 1,000 schools in 15 Iraqi governorates.

language lessons

These projects are financed by Iraq's sale of 100,000 barrels of oil per day to China, the revenues of which are deposited in an account managed by the Central Bank of Iraq in China.

These proceeds can only be used for projects carried out by Chinese companies exclusively in Iraq.

Chinese companies should also work with local Iraqi contracting companies “to provide manpower and raw materials,” as Haider Majid, a spokesman for the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, explains to AFP.

The economist at the Middle East Economic Survey, Yasar Al-Maliki, considers that providing job opportunities for the Iraqi workforce is a "positive thing", but "there are rumors that the majority of Iraqi companies are politically connected, and are unknown, so there are fears of corruption."

Majeed said that there are plans to include "roads, bridges, railways, energy, oil and health projects" as well in the agreement.

But al-Maliki warns that "the Iraqi authorities use the agreement in useless projects, and end up with many debts, as is the case with many African countries."

China, too, is attracting Iraqis who want to learn its language.

From here, the "Iraqi-Chinese Friendship Society" established an institute to teach the Chinese language, the only one in Iraq, with the exception of the Kurdistan region, less than a year ago.

On the study benches here are students who want to complete their education in China, and merchants who import their goods from this country.

As for the teacher, Sajjad Al-Qazzaz, 25, he learned the language during the six years he studied medicine in China.

"When I came back to Iraq from China, I found that many people want to learn Chinese," says Al-Qazzaz.

The majority of the students are merchants, like Laith Ahmed, who says, “I own a company that imports electrical appliances from China.”

"I always go there and find it difficult to deal with the Chinese, because most of them do not speak English, so I decided to learn Chinese in order to facilitate communication with them," he added.

 China needs to secure its energy needs and diversify its sources, and has become the first importer of Iraqi oil.

The oil revenues exported to Beijing can only be used for projects carried out exclusively by Chinese companies in Iraq.

100,000

A barrel of oil that Iraq sells daily to China to finance projects.

30

One billion dollars, the value of trade exchange between China and Iraq in 2020.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news