Hanwha Engineering and Construction on Sunday said that the company has received $166 million from the Iraqi government as part of the Bismayah New City Project payment on Friday.

Hanwha has already received $210 million in 2015 of the $8 billion-project.

The Bismayah project is to design, procure and construct a 1,830 hectare-city in the 10 kilometer southeast of Baghdad including 100,000 housing units, 300 social infrastructures including schools, hospitals and public spaces by 2019. It is the largest project by a Korean builder and is the first export case of a new city creation model.


It is regarded as one of the most important project under the current Iraqi regime, allowing Hanwha E&C CEO Choi Kwang-ho to be the first Korean businessman to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi last month to report on and discuss about the ongoing processes.

“The construction of residences for 3,120 households have been completed and we are awaiting people to actually move in. This will grow into a large city with eight towns, 59 blocks and 834 units of buildings once completed,” a Hanwha official stated. 

By Bae Ji-sook
(baejisook@heraldcorp.com)