Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani inaugurated five docks on Thursday at a major new port the country is building on its narrow Gulf coast.
Grand Faw Port on Al-Faw Peninsula is intended to provide a new freight link between Asia and Europe via upgraded rail and road infrastructure through Iraq and Turkey.
Dubbed the Iraq Development Road, the mega project is expected to cost some $17 billion.
The first phase of work on the new port, intended to supplement the existing docks in the port city of Al-Faw, is expected to be completed next year by South Korean construction giant Daewoo Engineering.
Al-Sudani said the new port would make Iraq part of the “global trade and transport routes that pass through the Middle East”.
“The project will transform Iraq from a country dependent on the ports of others to a maritime state with a full presence on the Gulf,” he said.
Daewoo has built a nearly 16 kilometre (10 mile) long breakwater in the Gulf to protect the port — the world’s longest, according to Guinness World Records.
A tunnel connecting Al-Faw Peninsula to the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr is half complete, the Prime Minister said.
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