Al-Bayan newspaper has recently quoted Iraq's Telecom Minister, Muhammad ‘Ali al-Hakim, as saying that his ministry will begin to implement the project to develop the national telephone system. This project includes the addition of about one million telephone lines by the end of 2006, and the addition of another million new lines annually by 2015.

He estimated that, at this rate, there will be ten million phone lines in Iraq by the end of 2015, an addition of 8.8 million lines over the 2.1 million lines existing at the end of 2004. He estimated that this project will supply four thousand additional jobs.

© 2005 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)