Al-Sudani summarizes his government’s achievements two years after its formation
Economy News – Baghdad
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani explained on Tuesday the most prominent achievements of his government two years after its formation.
Al-Sudani said in an interview followed by “Al-Eqtisad News”: “The government’s achievements touched the reality of the people and suited the nature of the stage and the requirements of development,” noting that “the government apparatus worked to correct the state’s paths throughout the past two years.”
He added, “During two years, we stopped more than once to evaluate the work and issued 3 reports related to the outcome of the follow-ups,” adding that “the government has achieved a transition in most of the files and our achievements are not in one sector or one city or one governorate, but rather at the level of all of Iraq.”
He added, “What the government has achieved is greater and more than what will be presented,” indicating that “the engineering effort was tasked with completing rapid services in neighborhoods that were not repaired by infrastructure projects.”
He said: “We have dealt with stalled projects since 2005 and work has resumed on many of them, 1471 stalled projects and more than 555 have been resumed,” adding that “442 contracts have been resumed with regard to projects.”
He explained that “more than 8,000 projects have been resumed at the governorate and ministries level,” noting that “the government has completed projects that have been stalled since 2005.”
He added: “We have not decided on the Basra water desalination project yet,” noting that “the service at the airports is still below the required level.”
He added: “We were late in preparing residential plots of land and distributing them to those who deserve them, as we allocated 500,000 plots,” continuing: “We achieved the highest electricity production and reached 27,000 megawatts.”
The Prime Minister pointed out that “the government is planning projects to resolve energy bottlenecks,” indicating that “there are 15 solar energy projects that the government has worked on over the past period.”
He pointed out that “the government has shortened a lot of the red tape related to the housing sector and we will work to expedite the settlement of residential cities,” stressing: “We have made significant progress in various school building projects and we will complete the Iraqi-Chinese agreement project.”
He added: “We have taken important decisions regarding sending students abroad and the Study in Iraq project in the education sector,” noting that “his government has taken a series of steps to combat poverty that have led to the inclusion of more than 7 million individuals in social protection.”
He explained that “the government provided facilities for people with disabilities, those covered by social protection, and full-time employees,” noting that “the government’s measures contributed to reducing poverty by 17.6%.”
Regarding the files of job opportunities and contracts, Al-Sudani pointed out that “the government provided job opportunities and reviewed the Riyada initiative to provide work for those who deserve it, which reduced the unemployment rate to 14.4 percent.”
He continued, “The government has taken effective steps to reform the country’s economic structure,” adding, “We have raised tax revenues to 23% and entered the field of electronic payment.”
He stressed that “the total amounts collected from electronic payments exceed 7 trillion,” noting that “the government has allocated a budget item for the Iraq Development Fund and its role in supporting the private sector.”
Al-Sudani pointed out that “his government succeeded in the industrial sector file and we were able to meet the local need by 35%,” adding that “we face a number of challenges in the new outlets and the revenues have not reached the required level.”
He also said, “We have achieved self-sufficiency in the strategic crop,” adding, “We announced the development road project and signed a memorandum of understanding with Qatar, the Emirates and Turkey, and we are working with specialists to complete the design.”
He pointed out that “130 million food baskets have been distributed monthly since the formation of the government, and over a period of two years.”
He said: “We have completed the joint dialogue with America to end the mission of the international coalition in Iraq, and we have also ended the Iraqi political guardianship over Iraq, represented by ending the work of the United Nations mission.”
Regarding the economic aspect, the Prime Minister explained that “Iraq faces many financial, legislative, monetary, institutional, regional, international and technical challenges,” concluding by saying that “the region is going through dangerous developments that directly affect Iraq.”