Reuters reported that efforts to transform Iraq into a diversified free market model for the Middle East are bogged down and the country still depends on a struggling oil industry 6 years after Mr Saddam Hussein’s overthrow.
As it clutches at stability, Iraq needs to broaden economic growth and create jobs. Yet the oil sector rich with untapped reserves but weighed down by a legacy of sanctions, war and underinvestment still provides virtually all revenue.
Exports of dates, a historically important crop provide a tiny fraction of the tens of billions of dollars that oil sales bring Iraq each year along with small amounts of unworked leather, handicrafts and materials used for fertilizer.
Government calls for investment in farming and industry have gone largely unheeded and it has met resistance from lawmakers and the public as it seeks to privatize state run industries that were a mainstay of Mr Saddam’s Arab socialist model.
Mr Husam al-Din who heads the Trade Ministry’s export development division said that “There is kind of stillness in our industries.”
He said that “We still lack a clear industrial and agricultural strategy. All we have is theories. 5 years have passed and we have nothing but theories.”
Security has improved sharply since the darkest days of sectarian violence in 2006 to 2007 but a series of recent attacks has raised questions about whether resurgence in violence can be avoided as US troops gradually withdraw.
Mr Safaaeddine al-Safi acting trade minister of Iraq said that “In the current situation, Iraq is working to rebuild itself and countries at this stage are importing rather than exporting countries.”
Today the country imports the bulk of its food and ranks among the world’s top wheat buyers, buying around 3 million tonnes per year to feed its massive state food rations program. The once renowned date industry, too has been hit hard by drought, blight, war and a lack of proper management. Many groves were cleared in the 8 year Iran and Iraq war in the 1980s and more than 6 years of insurgency and violence since 2003.
Mr Faroun Ahmed Hussein head of the national date palm board said that date production today is around 300,000 tonnes per year to 350,000 tonnes per year about a third of what it was in 2000.
Another important feature in the free market transformation envisioned by the Mr Bush administration when it invaded in 2003 was membership in the World Trade Organization.
Iraq began its accession process in 2004 but it has taken only a few of the steps required before it can become part of the Geneva based club. Candidates must cut support for domestic industries introduce food standards regulation and so on.
(Sourced from Reuters)
