The Iraqi government is in discussions to implement a legal framework for enabling public-private partnership (PPP) investment projects in the country’s main industries, MEED’s Iraq Energy Projects conference was told on 26 February.

“We already have a draft PPP law to regulate this. [The government] is planning a procurement law to enable PPP,” Thamir Ghadhban, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Commission in Iraq, told the conference, which was held in Dubai.

The PPP legislation would enable private participation in Iraq’s ambitious development programme, which was set out in the Integrated National Energy Strategy (INES), revealed in mid-2013. The INES is a 350-page blueprint drawn up by the Oil Ministry along with the country’s electricity, planning and finance ministries, the World Bank and US consultant Booz & Co, which outlines a $620bn investment plan in Iraq’s energy and power sectors up to 2030.

Included in the INES is an outline for total capital expenditure of $90bn on electrical power schemes over the period of 2012-30. In 2010, the government announced it was planning to launch an independent power project (IPP) programme due to the significant $4.5bn a year that was required to fund power stations planned in its short-term generation programme. However, in June 2011, the bidding round was cancelled and the Electricity Ministry said it was restructuring its IPP programme.