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Legal Guide to Investment in Iraq

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LEGAL GUIDE BACKGROUND

As Iraq looks to increase economic growth and development, the need to attract local and foreign investment is ever more clear and present. From investing in infrastructure to the housing sector, energy to public services, one thing is clear: the opportunities in Iraq are abundant and the country is ready to welcome and engage investors from all over the world.

To this end, Legal Guide to Investment in Iraq, a bilingual Arabic-English publication, aims to increase investment in Iraq by providing a common-reference tool for use by public- and private-sector parties. Ultimately, the objective is to provide legal certainty to these parties by outlining relevant Iraqi legislation, underscored by the recently enacted Second Amended National Investment Law No. 13 of 2006, delineating critical investment procedures for key economic growth sectors, and providing a model investment contract to ensure equitable investment agreements and robust negotiation processes.

The Legal Guide is a collaboration between the U.S. Government, led by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP), and the Government of Iraq, led by the National Investment Commission (NIC). It was conceived as a means of memorializing a multiphase, capacity-building program, led by CLDP in 2013-2014 to train lawyers within the NIC and the Provincial Investment Commissions of Iraq in contract drafting and negotiations. The Legal Guide was officially launched in November 2015 by the Chairman of the NIC, Dr. Sami Al-Araji, and was immediately recognized for the important role it will play in helping mitigate risk, facilitate foreign investment, and support private sector growth in Iraq.

Contributors to the Legal Guide include the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as well as members of leading international and local law firms and private banks. The hope is that, by providing perspectives from all facets of the investment process, the Legal Guide can present the reader with a balanced understanding of the challenges involved in creating an investment contract and insight into the practical reality of overcoming these challenges when negotiating these complex agreements.
The Legal Guide is divided into the following Sections:

SECTION I. INVESTING IN IRAQ

SECTION II.  INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT CONTRACTS

SECTION III. INVESTING, LICENSING AND THE KEY LAWS IN IRAQ

SECTION IV. MODEL INVESTMENT CONTRACT

SECTION V.  MODEL INVESTMENT CONTRACT COMMENTARY

SECTION VI.  FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

DOWNLOAD the Arabic-English Legal Guide here in PDF format

The Legal Guide will be available in hardback in April 2016 with updates to include the Second Amended National Investment Law No. 13 of 2006. 
Special thanks goes to each and every one of the contributing authors and their respective teams that contributed to this Legal Guide. We are especially thankful for the hard work and effort of John Furlow, Lana Khoury and the rest of the team at Mayer Brown LLP (Legal Advice/Proofreading), Firas Jawhari, Dr. Abdeljabber Al-Hayani, Rasha Nadeem and the team at Bayt Al Hikma (BHC Firm) (Iraqi Legal Advice/Proofreading), Hussein Bazzi and Mohammed Loraoui at CLDP (Technical Support/Proofreading), and Osama Sadick and his team at Transword (Legal Translators). We would also like to recognize the funding of the US Department of State – Near East Affairs/Iraq, the support of the OECD, especially the leadership of Klaus Hachmeier, and the invaluable expertise of the NIC legal staff.

The following is the list of authors who contributed to the handbook:
Hamada Dara Zahawi
Managing Editor
Attorney-Advisor (International)
U.S. Department of Commerce
United States
Rashad Khalaf Hasham
Senior Legal Advisor
Legal Department
National Investment Commission
Iraq
Ahmed Dawood, Esq.
Managing Partner
BHC FIRM LLC
Iraq
Gassia Assadourian
Consultant
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 
France
Mohammed Shaikley
Director
Al Nowais Investments
UAE/Iraq
Tom Eldert
Partner
Mayer Brown LLP
United States
Thomas Jersild
Retired Partner, Mayer Brown LLP
Senior Commercial Law Expert
United States
**The Legal Guide is published under the Creative Commons License.
Areas of Expertise
Commerce
Countries and Regions
Iraq
The Middle East & North Africa
Attachment Size
Legal Guide to Investment in Iraq (2016).pdf 2.86 MB
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