NIC Chairwoman: Returning 70 projects to the state and working to change the investment law

 
 
Baghdad-INA

Chairwoman of the National Investment Commission-NIC, Suha Al-Najjar, confirmed today, Saturday, the work to change the investment law to get rid of corruption and bureaucracy and balance the investment environment in the country, while she confirmed the return of 70 projects to the state, she outlined the most prominent goals achieved throughout the year.
 
In a statement to the Iraqi news agency (INA), Al-Najjar said that "Everyone is aware that the investment process had not been successful in Iraq, where investment projects were limited and not in the amount we aspire to," stressing that "the imbalance in this issue due to investment law and corruption."
 
She added, "Since we took the position and for a period not exceeding one year, it is difficult to change the investment situation in this short period, but we laid a strong foundation and worked on fighting corruption," noting that "the fight against corruption was achieved by achieving important goals, the first of which is stopping the granting of land and withdrawing licenses from the sluggish projects, This was not an easy task due to the legal procedures, but NIC was able to return 70 sluggish projects to the state".
 
She also added, "NIC was also able to reduce customs exemptions by 80% in 2021. Regarding visa entry , In 2020, NIC issued 12,000 visas, and in 2021 it issued about 10% of the visas only so as not to affect the work of Iraqi youth," explaining that " the commission  may be accused of slow procedures, but this matter was studied and it was confirmed that most of the visas go to the  traders and brokers, so we fought corruption and planned projects in an excellent manner.”
 
She indicated that "NIC’s plans are in the interest of the Iraqi economy and not relying on oil only, and the next stage will be a stage of gaining the fruitful results of our work," pointing out that "there is work to change the investment law for the next phase to cope with the investment environment in Iraq, as the current law contains a defect in its structure in addition to the corruption and bureaucracy".