Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani chaired, today, Sunday, the thirty-fourth regular session of the Council of Ministers, in which they discussed the latest developments in the country, and a number of economic and service issues, in addition to considering the topics on the agenda and taking the necessary decisions regarding them. A statement from the Prime Minister's Office stated that, within the government's efforts to organize the million-person visits to the holy shrines, and provide their requirements, through the Permanent Supreme Committee, the Council of Ministers agreed that the Prime Minister's Office would assign the ministries, governorates and other relevant authorities to implement the components of the million-person visits project, including the procedures for announcing, referring, contracting and supervising the implementation of the work, according to each case directed by the Prime Minister, and based on the availability of allocation and financial liquidity. It also agreed that th e procedures for auditing the dues of the companies implementing the components of the Million Visits Project shall be the tasks of the sectoral bodies of the ministries, governorates and other relevant bodies, and that disbursement, allocation and funding requests shall be the powers of the Prime Minister's Office in coordination with the Ministries of Planning and Finance. It was decided that the Supreme Committee for Million Visits, in coordination with the Ministries, governorates and other relevant bodies, shall select the projects and complete the requirements for including the components of the Million Visits Project with the Ministry of Planning, and the bodies preparing these components shall bear the legal, accounting and technical responsibility in terms of preparing the plans, designs, specifications and prices according to the nature of the work. It was also decided that the Supreme Committee for Million Visits shall follow up on the components of the project during the announcement, referral, contracting and implementation stages. Within the framework of the government's vision for economic reform and activating the investment and development movement in the country, the Council approved the National Strategy for Bank Lending prepared by the Central Bank of Iraq, including the recommendations and programs included therein. The strategy aims to stimulate the growth of the Iraqi private sector by improving the business environment, attracting local and foreign investors, and increasing credit granted to it from the non-oil GDP by 2029, in addition to increasing credit for small projects from the non-oil GDP, and financing approximately 100,000 projects. The Council of Ministers voted that the customs demarcation for containers larger than (40 feet) would be 4 million dinars in lump sum. In order to proceed and expedite the implementation of urgent service projects and complete infrastructure projects, it was approved to exempt the Ministries of Construction, Housing, Municipalities, Public Works , Health, Higher Education and Scientific Research from the contracting methods stipulated in the Instructions for Implementing Government Contracts (2 of 2014) to implement infrastructure projects and establish educational hospitals based on solid and specialized companies. With the aim of providing service and entertainment facilities for the people of the capital, Baghdad, the Council approved the referral of the project to transform the land of Rashid Camp, east of Baghdad, into sustainable and tourist forest areas, according to high specifications that are compatible with the environment, and to invest the area designated for recreational activity only, and to grant the investor an investment license to establish a residential complex of (12) thousand housing units, instead of the camp land, in the districts of Dahna, Hekteria and Shaar, and 19 Ghazaliya, and to cancel all previous allocations on it. On the service side of the capital as well, it was approved to allocate the Ministry of Finance an amou nt of (21,980,040,000 dinars) from the emergency reserve to the Baghdad Municipality, regarding the direct implementation works of the Karkh/Albu Aitha sewage water purification project based on the provisions of the Federal General Budget Law (13 of 2023). As part of the ongoing preparations to conduct the general population census next November, the Council approved the special requirements to equip the Kurdistan Region of Iraq data center with the necessary devices, equipment, licenses and servers to transfer the general population census data in the region's governorates from and to the main center in Baghdad. Source: National Iraqi News Agency