At a Glance

• Iraqi Finance Minister held high-level talks in Baghdad with a senior World Bank delegation.
• The delegation was led by Dahlia Khalifa (Middle East Division Director) and Emmanuel Salinas (Country Manager for Iraq).
• Accelerating financial reforms, upgrading public management tools, and transitioning digital automation initiatives into live, practical steps.

Iraqi Finance Minister Faleh al-Sari met with a senior World Bank delegation to advance financial reforms and Ministry automation projects aimed at boosting institutional transparency and efficiency.

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Key Statements and Focus Area

• Faleh al-Sari stressed “the importance of the World Bank's role in supporting the automation project and leveraging its technical expertise to develop financial systems.”
• The World Bank representatives “praised the measures taken by the Ministry of Finance to develop the financial and banking sector.”
• The officials convened to discuss financial reform, the advancement of public financial management tools, and the ministry’s ongoing implementation of automation projects.

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Al-Sari held talks with a delegation led by Middle East Division Director Dahlia Khalifa and Country Manager for Iraq Emmanuel Salinas in Baghdad on Thursday.

The Minister emphasized that the ministry is advancing automation projects into practical phases, noting that “this transition aims to improve workflow procedures, increase the efficiency of resource and data management, and enhance oversight and transparency across financial institutions.”

He emphasized that “cooperation with the bank encompasses several vital sectors linked to financial and economic reform.”

Reaffirming its commitment to long-term bilateral cooperation, the World Bank delegation pledged continued support for the ministry’s joint initiatives, noting that global corporations are showing heightened interest in the Iraqi market.

FYI

The high-level talks between Finance Minister Faleh al-Sari and the World Bank are part of a coordinated push by Baghdad to radically overhaul its oil-dependent economy. Under the administration of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who assumed office in May 2026, the Iraqi government has enacted aggressive domestic financial and institutional reforms aimed at shedding its reputation for fiscal opacity and bureaucratic inefficiency.

A core pillar of the current government strategy is the sweeping digitization of state finance. Minister al-Sari's talks centered on moving digital initiatives out of planning stages and into live, practical steps. 

Iraq is implementing UN-backed digital customs systems and automated financial networks to reduce manual corruption, optimize resource allocation, and enhance data tracking. 

These efforts are designed to streamline non-oil revenue collection—a primary demand of the World Bank to cushion the state from volatile global crude oil fluctuations.

The World Bank's engagement in Iraq has expanded into heavy infrastructure and development corridors, including multi-million-dollar financing packages like the Iraq Transport Economic Corridors (ITREC) project approved in mid-2026. 

To sustain this high-level international backing, the Ministry of Finance has committed to overhauling its banking laws and strictly monitoring non-compliant banks. 

The ultimate goal is to transition Iraq into a viable "economic corridor" connecting Asian markets to Europe through major logistic upgrades like the Development Road Project. 

The meeting with the World Bank comes directly on the heels of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi's first major European tour, which concluded earlier this week with diplomatic stops in Paris and Berlin. 

Building on Prime Minister Al-Zaidi's strategic tour to the United States in mid-July, the diplomatic missions successfully transitioned bilateral relations toward long-term commercial partnerships by securing 48 separate business deals and major infrastructure agreements to modernize the nation's energy grid and banking sectors. 

By aligning these international investment commitments with the ministry's current digital automation and transparency initiatives, the administration is actively working to stabilize the market and integrate Iraq into the global financial system.

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