Finance Minister: Iraq needs up to $150 billion for reconstruction

This $1 million building for the Mosul police headquarters was supposed to contain 10 showers, 12 toilets, 10 urinals, 10 sinks and a changing room. The project was paid for out of billions in reconstruction funds.

Iraq needs at least $100 billion to rebuild its shattered infrastructure after four years of violence and lawlessness following the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, Finance Minister Bayan Jabor said on Monday.

"The country is devastated and we are in need of at least $100 billion to $150 billion to restore infrastructure -- from sewerage to water to electricity to bridges and basic needs of the country," he told Reuters in Amman.

He said about $4 billion had been spent on infrastructure projects so far this year, more than in all of 2006, when internal violence and the limited capacity of the Iraqi private sector meant only about 40 percent of $6 billion allocated in the budget was used.


"What happened last year was ... a failure in the government's ability to execute," Jabor said.

Read the rest at Reuters

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