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Bureaucracy, clashing rules hinder Iraq investment
Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:36am EDT
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By Khalid al-Ansary
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - As violence subsides and Iraq awaits a wave of foreign cash needed to help it rebuild from years of war, investment remains hindered by conflicting regulations and a labyrinthine bureaucracy, officials said.
"Frankly speaking, the value of the investment in Iraq is not that big. Some provinces have managed to award investment licenses worth billions of dollars," Thamir Ghadhban, head of the investment committee, told Reuters on Sunday.
"But what is important here is not only granting licenses, but for investors to actually start executing projects," he said at an investment conference in Baghdad.
Ghadan said officials were mulling amendments to pre-2003 regulations that conflict with a 2006 investment law, which has hindered allocation of land for investment. They are also seeking to improve cooperation between local and federal powers.
Such steps are part of Iraq's efforts to ensure infusions of investor cash, needed to rebuild bombed-out buildings, overhaul decaying infrastructure and create jobs, actually materialize.
Major investors are lining up to take part in the oil sector -- Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves -- and officials are expected to clinch a spate of massive oil and contracts in 2009. But investment is coming slowly outside oil.
Aqeel al-Khazali, governor of southern Kerbala province, said there was more than $1 billion in stalled investment in his region. "We get these investment projects going, but then they get lost in the bureaucratic labyrinth," he said.
Investors who seek to break ground in Iraq must get the sign-off from various ministries whose regulations are often not harmonized; there is often confusion about proper procedures; the approval of the right paperwork can occur at a glacial pace.
Khazali urged the federal government to give provincial authorities greater autonomy to close investment deals.
Iraq has been hoping for this tide of investment since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 ended Saddam Hussein's isolated regime, but it needs foreign cash more than ever after a collapse in oil prices has weakened its own spending ability.
Oil exports account for more than 95 percent of Iraqi revenues, and officials are now revising spending plans after oil plunged over $100 a barrel from last summer's record high.
"The government cannot be responsible for all investment in Iraq," Deputy Prime Minister Rafie al-Esawi said.
The government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is hoping that improving security will turn years of talk about major foreign investment into reality.
The security situation is seen as far better than in the peak of sectarian violence in 2006-07, But violence continues in Iraq, especially in restive areas like northern Nineveh province, and the threat of resurgent violence looms.
That makes investors anxious when it when it comes to hunkering down billions of dollars for long-term deals.
(Writing by Missy Ryan)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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