Chinese companies will build a massive ‘Science City’ in Iraq under a landmark oil-for-projects agreement signed with Baghdad in 2019, the official daily Alsabah has said. 

The project is located in the Northern Nineveh Governorate and will also comprise shopping malls, swimming pools, parks and other facilities, the paper said. 

Work is underway to clear the site for the project, the largest of its kind in Iraq, it said, quoting Ukail Al-Araji, President of the government Hamdaniya University. 

“The concerned authorities have approved this project, which will be executed under the oil-for-projects agreement with China,” he said. 

Araji said the project would be spread on an area of nearly 215,000 square metres and that more facilities would be built at a later stage. 

He did not mention costs or name the Chinese firms involved in the project.