Iraq: Reconstruction will cost $88.2bn

Rebuilding Iraq after years of war and economic turmoil will cost $88.2 billion, the director-general of the country’s planning ministry, Qusay Abdulfattah, told an international conference in Kuwait today.

About $22 billion will be required in the short term and $65 billion in the medium term, Reuters reported Adulfattah saying at the conference, which was arranged to discuss Iraq’s reconstruction. The housing sector has the most urgent need for funds, he added.

Since the US-led “War on Terror” and the subsequent invasion of Iraq in 2003, the country has suffered constant unrest and division, most recently as a result of fighting to recapture land held by Daesh.

Millions of people were displaced, in particular in the Sunni north, as a result of the battles and thousands were killed.

The government has announced plans to hold elections this year however Sunni blocs have called for these to be postponed until internally displaced persons are able to return to their homes and registered to partake in the voting.

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