Posted on 01/19/2007 4:59:54 PM PST by SandRat
“The United States seeks to partner with the government of Iraq to create a stable, secure, peaceful, free-market, prospering society, founded on democratic principles, employment, and the promise of economic prosperity being delivered to the Iraqi people, is a key element of that overall strategy,” said Brinkley.
During the press conference, Brinkley expressed his views on the overall situation of Iraq’s economic capabilities and the overall strategy on how to improve, or “kickstart,” certain key facilities needed in Iraq.
“We came with a set of expectations that essentially expected to find a Soviet-style, older industrial base.” he said. “From the very beginning we have found a more complex situation -- factories that in many cases had very modern equipment, modern automation that manufactured goods that could be competitive in a world market and, in many cases, some factories that, in fact, are not positioned to be competitive but did employ large numbers of the Iraqi people.”
“Our intent is to get these factories started, re-employ the Iraqi people, create viable enterprises that have customers, that make goods and deliver services that can then be engaged by private-sector investors,” he said.
One of the issues Brinkley addressed was where to start the revitalization of the Iraqi economy through the already existing factories which employed the Iraqi population before the war.
“Of the factories we’ve looked at so far, we have prioritized, American vernacular, our top 10 list of where we want to focus initially,” Brinkley said. “They’re geographically distributed, they employ the most people the fastest, and they also have the fewest constraints to being able to go back into full production, which means the investment up front is relatively low.”
“Under $10 million for those first ten factories,” he said.
Brinkley also addressed some of the methods in which these factories would be restored.
“This is kind of the process we see: stimulating demand where we can through direct U.S. government contracts, as appropriate -- through the normal process, transparent competitive process -- but then also bringing outside industry in and re-forging intra-Iraqi business relationships,” he said. “All these factories had customers in Iraq, and recreating those relationships and links serves as a unifying force in the country.”
Approximately 200 factories in Iraq served significantly to the country’s economy by employing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens. Brinkley is not expecting instantaneous results, however, with evaluation and assessment through various teams from the United Nations and other organizations, he feels confident that restarting the factories will restore employment “fairly quickly.”
Brinkley was also fascinated about the innovative people who ran the factories.
“One of the most interesting things we’ve learned is that in almost every factory we visited, there were some extremely savvy business people who used to run these factories,” he said.
Brinkley, however, mentioned some of the constraints which hindered the potential of getting some of the factories up and running again.
“I find in many cases businessmen who are just ready to get their factory running again if we could just get power restored or secure their supply of raw material or secure their shipment of finished goods, or generate demand for them,” he said. “They just want that, and they can take care of it from there.”
The overall economic situation in Iraq is hopeful and full of potential. The constraints that hinder restoration are currently being dealt with.
The allocation of U.S. funds is going to support activities with restoration of sewer, water, and electricity, Brinkley said. “That continues to be a huge undertaking.”
“We’ll be constantly assessing and reporting” on the restoration of employment, he said.
(By Spc. Carl N. Hudson, Combined Press Information Center)
In other developments throughout Iraq:
Hmmmm, not bad, not bad at all for an initial investment for 10 workplaces. A USA regional airline was purchased for about half that amount recently.
Must be the weak Iraq dinar vs. the US dollar
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.