WASHINGTON (AFP) - Ten US companies have been asked to submit bids for a plan to reshape the Iraqi economy into a free-market system with a major privatization program.
The US Agency for International Development selected the 10 firms for a streamlined bidding process in an effort to accelerate the restructuring the Iraq economy, USAID spokesman Luke Zahner said Thursday.
Zahner said the bids were requested earlier this month and that the number of firms selected was limited to 10 to "compress the timetable" in an effort to get the project going in six to eight weeks.
The program "will foster economic rehabilitation and reform for Iraq to stimulate the country's international trade and employment," said a USAID statement released this week.
The 10 firms in the competition are: BearingPoint; Booz, Allen and Hamilton; Nathan Associates; IBM Global Services; Development Alternatives, Inc.; Carana Corp; Abt Associates; Chemonics; Deloitte and Touche; and Financial Markets International.
The companies were invited to bid under the terms of a 163-page document describing the project "Economic Recovery, Reform and Sustained Growth in Iraq."
The winning bidder "will provide macroeconomic reform advice, with a focus on tax, fiscal, exchange rate, monetary policy, and banking reform," according to the document.
The contractor "will also seek to change policies, laws and regulations that impede private sector development, trade and investment."
The firm also will help draft plans "to allow for the privatization of state-owned industries and firms and/or establishing a privatization entity."
In Baghdad on Thursday, a top US official said the US-led coalition plans to privatize the first of Iraq's 100 or so state-owned firms within a year as it begins overhauling the centralized economy.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that BearingPoint, which received a similar 40 million dollar job to do economic work in Afghanistan, had been approached on drafting a plan for Iraq.
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Thursday sent its expert on international economic issues to Iraq and other countries in preparation for a conference to secure financial commitments to rebuild Iraq.
John Taylor, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for international affairs, was scheduled to make a quick stop in Paris on Friday before flying on to Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Jordan, Treasury spokesman Tony Fratto said.
Taylor was scheduled to return to the United States for a June 24 meeting of potential donor countries. The meeting in New York is being jointly sponsored by the United States and the United Nations.
Fratto said the administration hopes the June 24 discussions will lay the groundwork for a conference of actual donors later this summer.
The United States is looking for sizable support from other rich countries as well as international lending organizations to contribute resources to rebuild Iraq's shattered economy.
International Monetary Fund spokesman Thomas Dawson told reporters Thursday that the 184-nation international lending agency currently has its own fact-finding mission in Baghdad gathering information on reconstruction needs. He said other IMF officials working outside Iraq were trying to get an accurate account of the size of the nation's foreign debt.
Dawson said the IMF teams hope to present a preliminary report to the agency's executive board within the next two weeks.
In addition to new loans from the IMF and World Bank, the Bush administration is negotiating with other wealthy nations to restructure Iraq's outstanding loans on more favorable terms that would give the country breathing room.
In Baghdad, Taylor was expected to met with the administration's financial point man on Iraqi reconstruction, Peter McPherson, as well as the top overseer of the entire coalition reconstruction effort, L. Paul Bremer.
Taylor will "review progress and discuss planning going forward," Fratto said.
In Afghanistan, Taylor will check on that country's progress in rebuilding. In Jordan he will attend the World Economic Forum, where regional economic development issues and Iraqi reconstruction will be discussed, Fratto said.