Najaf’s media city project put up for investment

NAJAF / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi National Investment Commission in Najaf has put up the media city project in the province for investors, the INIC chief in the holy Shiite province said on Sunday. “The project will encompass the headquarters for satellite channels, radio stations, newspapers, publishing houses, news agencies, and media production in the fashion of Dubai’s Media City,” Fadl al-Fadl told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The INIC is working with the Finance Ministry to allocate a plot of land totaling 100 donums for the project,” said Fadl, adding Najaf would be a strategic center for such a project thanks to its location in the middle of the al-Furat al-Awsat provinces, as well as its media, political, and economic leverage. One Iraqi donum equals 2,500 square meters. Fadl noted that the INIC’s priorities focus on the fields of housing and religious tourism. Al-Furat al-Awsat, a geographical area in southern and central Iraq at the Euphrates River Basin, encompasses the provinces of Najaf, Karbala, Diwaniya and Babel and sometimes al-Muthanna. Najaf, about 160 km south of Baghdad, has an estimated population of 900,600 in 2008, though this has increased significantly since 2003 due to immigration from abroad. The city is one of the holiest cities of Shiite Islam and the center of Shiite political power in Iraq. Najaf is renowned as the site of the tomb of Ali ibn Abi Taleb (also known as “Imam Ali”), whom Shiites consider to be the righteous caliph and first imam. The city is now a great center of pilgrimage from throughout the Shiite Islamic world. It is estimated that only Mecca and Medina receive more Muslim pilgrims. The Imam Ali Mosque is housed in a grand structure with a gilded dome and many precious objects in its walls. AmR (P)/SR 1