Sami al-Araji, head of the National Investment Commission which is spearheading the Bismayah home-building initiative, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Baghdad, February 25, 2015. On a main highway south of Baghdad, dozens of buildings rise up from the Iraqi plains, the first blocks of a multi-billion-dollar city emerging from a landscape more accustomed to conflict and crisis than glitzy new development. Bismayah New City, which aims to house half a million people within four years, dwarfs any construction project Iraq has attempted in a generation. Picture taken February 25, 2015. REUTERS/Khalid al-Mousily (IRAQ - Tags - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS REAL ESTATE)