Summary

Iraq’s Development Road project aims to create an Iraqi transborder transportation network connecting the Persian Gulf with Türkiye. This network would enhance Iraq’s geopolitical status as a trade corridor and provide financial returns, reducing the state’s reliance on hydrocarbons. However, the project faces obstacles, including challenges of financing and implementation, widespread corruption, the potential for insecurity and instability in Iraq, and the fact that rival transborder projects in the region mean countries may work against its success.

Key Themes

• The Development Road is an Iraqi project seeking to create a road and railway infrastructure connecting the Persian Gulf with Türkiye through Iraq, thereby benefiting from Iraq’s geography and multiple borders.
• The Development Road is an attempt to introduce a new development model to stabilize Iraq politically and mitigate the harmful consequences of its rentier economy.
• The main hinderances to the project’s success are the difficulty of securing sustainable funding for such a megaproject and rampant inefficiency and corruption in Iraqi state institutions.
• The potential for insecurity and instability may discourage investors in the Development Road and countries seeking to benefit from it.
• Iraq must find a place for the project amid regional geoeconomic and geopolitical rivalries and as competing trade connectivity projects are being put forward.
• Several countries have the ability to disrupt Iraq’s plans to implement the project, notably Türkiye, Iran, and Kuwait.

Findings/Recommendations

• The Iraqi government did not conduct an adequate feasibility study to ensure the Development Road’s strategic value, nor does there seem to be a consensus among government institutions over the project’s scope, objectives, and cost.
• There is some question as to whether some of the dominant political parties in the parliament will allocate funds for the project, as they do not want to strengthen Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
• Given the Development Road’s multiple challenges, Iraq will find it difficult to enroll regional support for the project, let alone tempt other countries to invest in it or take advantage of it themselves.
• There is still room for the government to address the skeptics’ views about the Development Road, as well as issues that may turn into future hinderances. This will require institutionalizing management of the project, developing partnerships with potential donors and the private sector, and ensuring transparency in advancing the project.
• The idea of transforming borders into connecting points between countries and continents has flourished in recent years. But many such projects, driven by internal calculations and wrapped in nationalist populist rhetoric, may ultimately increase competition and fuel conflicts rather than promote economic integration.

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