Work on a $17 billion new major trade route for the transport of goods between the Arabian Gulf and Europe is expected to start in the middle of next year, Iraq's Transport Minister has said.
Baghdad will host a meeting in two months to discuss progress on the Development Road project, Razzaq Al Saadawi said at a press conference in Istanbul after a four-way meeting between Turkey, Iraq, the UAE and Qatar on Thursday.
“The first phase of the strategic development road project will be implemented in the middle of next year, after the completion of the detailed design phase of the project,” Mr Al Saadawi said during the press conference with Turkey's Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
“Work to complete the requirements of the Development Road is proceeding well, with great support from our government, which looks forward to a strong economy and diversification of sources of income, in a way that serves Iraq, the region and the world.”
Officials from the four countries met at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss the rail and road infrastructure stretching from Iraq’s southern port of Faw on the Arabian Gulf to its northern border with Turkey, and a railway across Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait bridging Europe and Asia.
The port will be linked to Turkey and onward to Europe through an intricate network of railways and highways.
It was first such meeting since the countries signed a memorandum of understanding to co-operate on the project during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Baghdad in April.
“The meeting discussed ways to complete the terms of the quadripartite memorandum of understanding, the most important of which is establishing a co-ordination entity from which three levels emerge. The first is ministerial [the four ministers], the second co-ordination [general managers] and the third executive [experts and technicians],” Mr Al Saadawi said.
Mr Uraloglu said the meeting also tackled topics such as foreign trade and the transport and communications sectors of the four countries, INA reported.
“Compared to other projects, this road will shorten the distance compared to the rest of the roads, canals and international passages between the continents of Asia and Europe,” he said.
“The Development Road will be shorter and important, and will contribute to developing the economies of the countries included in it.”
The project will focus on building road and rail links along a 1,200km route from Faw, south of Basra on the Arabian Gulf, to Iraq's border with Turkey in the north.
From there, goods can be transported by road and rail to Turkey's western city of Edirne, near the country's borders with Greece and Bulgaria.