The Bismayah New City project in Iraq, which was put on hold in 2022 due to outstanding construction fees, has now resumed. The project gained attention in December 2014 when the Chairman of Hanwha Group, Kim Seung-youn, personally airlifted 600 servings of flatfish sashimi to motivate local employees.
On Feb. 25, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport announced that they had sent an order support team to Iraq. The team, led by Minister Park Sang-woo, will be attending a ceremony to commemorate the resumption of the Bismayah New City project and will be providing support for Iraq’s reconstruction projects, which include the subsequent development of new cities.
The Bismaya New City project, led by Hanhwa, is a large-scale urban development project with a total investment of $10.1 billion to build 100,000 housing units and public facilities on an area of 18.3 ㎢, which is as big as Bundang New City in Korea. The project is being executed by Hanwha’s construction department, and it represents Korea’s first new city export case. The entire city, including roads, power grid, and public institutions, was ordered as a package centered on housing.
Construction began in 2012, but was suspended in October 2022 due to unpaid receivables. However, President Yoon Suk-yeol’s order to revitalize overseas construction, the remaining projects were resumed through active government support efforts, including a bilateral joint committee held in June last year for the first time in six years, dispatch of a ministerial order support team, ministerial visits, and a bilateral summit.
Minister Park acknowledged the Iraqi government’s willingness to resume the project and requested their continued cooperation to ensure the completion of 100,000 housing units during a meeting with the chairman of Iraq’s National Investment Commission. In particular, he cited Korea’s experience in new city development and smart city technology and requested that Korean companies with excellent technology participate in the 15 follow-up new city projects modeled after Bismayah New City.
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport plans to strengthen step-by-step support for additional new urban development projects in Iraq, from project identification through intergovernmental cooperation to policy funding such as ODA.
