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In Iraq - Local Entrepreneurs are only Open to Bid on Sub-contracts
EFL -This article is anecdotal, but if it is representative, the situation needs to be remidied immediately. Fri October 24, 2003 10:30 AM ET By Suleiman al-Khalidi BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi businessman Sabah Issa gazes from his window at the walls of the palace which once protected Saddam Hussein and now shelter the foreign occupiers who will shape Iraqâs capitalist future. "The Americans are hiding behind the fence," said Issa in his lavish office in Baghdadâs Masbah district, where satellite connections link him to a global market hungry for a slice of potentially lucrative opportunities in the new Iraq. "The fence between them and me is too high, I canât reach them," he said. Issa echoes the frustration and disappointment of many Iraqi businessmen in this sprawling city where communications remain difficult and fear rules the streets. Businessmen willing to swallow their national pride in the hope that the U.S.-led occupation would at least generate billions of dollars in work for Iraqis are increasingly disillusioned. It may just be either be too conservative about the Bathist connections of existing companies or the bid process may be too rigid - i.e. Iraqi companies have never participated as US government contractors before so there may be a bureaucratic Catch 22 in play. Middlemen are thriving, but there is little access to U.S. contractors, and local businesses complain that foreign firms are being favored. "You will not find anyone more capitalist than I am," said Faisal al-Kedairy, chief executive of Dofar Pharmaceutical Industries. His family once plied trade routes from the Gulf to India for the British empire. "All we are asking for is to be able to compete on a level playing field (with foreign firms)." Prominent Iraqi businessmen said Washington was riding roughshod over local interests in its effort to attract global business. They said allowing access to foreign investors without providing safeguards for Iraqi businesses was a recipe for disaster and reneged on earlier promises of support. "There are rights which Iraqis are entitled to have," Bunnia said. "We were made to understand that this was taken into account in the laws being promulgated but what we have seen is the opposite." Iraqis wanted the U.S. administration to limit foreign ownership in Iraqi concerns to 49 percent, something that has not happened. The only sector in which foreigners cannot own companies is natural resources, which in Iraq means oil. Many Iraqis feel that the U.S.-backed moves to lift controls on foreign ownership in most sectors except oil leaves them at the mercy of Western firms and other highly capitalized companies in the Gulf well placed to snap up undervalued assets. They say Iraqâs reconstruction can succeed only with strong Iraqi involvement. "If the Iraqis themselves donât do the new Iraq, no great power will do the new Iraq," Bunnia said. "Iraqis have to be given a chance to rebuild their country." For the medium to large firms that are working with U.S. contractors, small subcontracts to rehabilitate schools across the country are simply not enough. They are waiting for lucrative multi-million dollar tenders to revamp many of the public buildings that were bombed or looted in the war to overthrow Saddam. "Let the Americans get the lionâs share, but we aspire to become partners so that they can develop us -- but not by owning concerns 100 percent, with us ending up as mere workers for them. "Itâs very difficult for the Iraqi to stomach this. Itâs like you have kicked out the Iraqi from his house without giving him anything in return." If this is prevalent experience, we need to do some immediate tinkering. Discouraging Iraqi participation in a capitalist economy sends an extremely wrong message. Roger Trilling of the Village Voice (hattip to Global Security) thinks the resoning may be more sinister.Bushâs Golden Vision: President Sees Election Cash in Rebuilding Iraq Posted by: Super Hose 2003-10-25 |
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