Iraq Investment Policy and Promotion

completed

The Projects overall objective is to assist the Governments of Iraq and Basra enable resilient private investment through investment policy and promotion (IPP) reforms that address legal, regulatory and institutional barriers to investment. In this regard, the project will specifically focus on two inter-related objectives: - Primary Objective: Assist the Government of Basra in protecting and retaining its current investments, preventing potential withdrawals and investor-state disputes, through enhanced regulations and policies, the provision of aftercare services and investor grievance mechanisms. - Secondary Objective: Assist the Government of Basra in growing investment from existing investors and attracting new, viable investment through strategic promotion efforts and improved regulations, practices and policies. The project activities ensure the retention and growth of current investors, and the attraction of new investment that can capitalize on the market opportunities offered by Basra in the context of the current environment. The Project will comprise four key components, as follows: *Component 1: Development of Reform Memorandum Addressing De Jure and De Facto Legal and Regulatory Barriers to Investment: Building on the analysis conducted under the pre-Implementation stage, the Project will hone in on legal, regulatory, and policy barriers to investment in Iraq, focusing on the subnational implications to Basra. The outputs will identify targeted reform recommendations to foster private investment and increased competitiveness. *Component 2: Strengthening of Investor Protections and Grievance Channels : This component will target improvements in the quality of investor protection in the domestic investment frameworks, keeping in view the international and regional commitments (integrating the analysis from Component 1). The assistance will support in the provision of aftercare services and the development of a systemic investor response mechanism (SIRM). SIRM will essentially provide the minimum institutional infrastructure to enable the Government of Basra to identify, track and manage grievances arising between investors and public agencies as early as possible, ultimately preventing investor-State legal disputes. It will ensure that the Government responds to investor grievances in a suitable manner and in accordance with the countrys international investment agreements, laws and regulations. Reforms will need to be implemented to empower a designated Lead Agency within the government to manage the SIRM. In addition, an ICT-tool (either excel based or a software) will be designed to help the Lead Agency (i) record, track and monitor investor grievances; (ii) asses their potential impact on the investment; (iii) inform the grievance resolution process; and (iv) improve the functioning of SIRM through better workflow management. *Component 3: Institutional Strengthening and Development of an Investment Attraction and Retention Strategy for the Basra Investment Commission: Work under this component will assist the GOI to (i) define a viable Investment Attraction and Retention strategy for Basra based on sectors for which Basra can be competitive to attract and retain, and including a marketing and outreach plan to target potential investors; (ii) reform the structure and staffing of the Basra Investment Commission (BIC) to more effectively align with the new strategy and (iii) enhance the capacity and capabilities of the BIC to target viable and sustainable investments. *Component 4: Knowledge Transfer and Disseminations of Key Learnings from all of the above components: The Project will consistently build in stakeholder consultations to: - Ensure alignment on the activities, progress, responsibilities and timeline - Confirm client buy-in and ownership of the reform process - Verify pragmatic implementation of reforms in a complex security environment