Urban concentration and economic growth in Iraq

Economic growth and urbanization are often positively linked. Urbanization is an inevitable force of development. Cities provide efficient infrastructure, services, communications and skilled labor forces. They can achieve the economies of scale, agglomeration and urbanization. they are the driving forces of national economic development. They generate positive externalities of agglomeration, scale, diversity and specialization. The aim of this paper is to examine the changes in urban and economic Concentration in Iraq . Based on the results that can be deduced from the spatial development experiment in Iraq, there is a clear duality in development. There are major developed and underdeveloped centers in the cities and governorates. The study indicates that the city of Baghdad is still the dominant city in Iraq on both the urban and economic sides, despite the decrease in the urban concentration rate from 25% to 21% , the decrease in the number of industrial projects from 52% to 18%, and the decrease in the proportion of the labor force, from 60% to 37%.Moreover, poverty and unemployment rates are high in the less urbanized governorates. This is due to the absence of a comprehensive policy for urbanization and spatial development in Iraq. To reduce the impact of urban concentration on economic development in Iraq it is important to put comprehensive strategy for spatial development and urbanization.