By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
March 28, 2007 – With straight unemployment running at 20 percent nationwide, there is no wonder that Iraqi men would be sympathetic to violence and insurgency, the Defense Department's point man for Iraqi reconstruction said today. Paul Brinkley, deputy defense undersecretary for business transformation, acquisition, technology and logistics, said Iraqis want work, normalcy and security. He is working with the Iraqi government and coalition officials to open factories and create jobs for those unemployed and those underemployed, said during a Pentagon news conference today.
Getting Iraqis back to work, he said, takes groups of people out of the recruiting pool of al Qaeda in Iraq and insurgent factions.
"It is the belief of our command ... that this economic factor goes hand in hand with security, and as security is established, it is critical to follow and to restore economic opportunity for the population," Brinkley said.
The coalition already has helped open three factories in Iraq, and officials plan on opening dozens more in the future. Brinkley said that in 2003, 200 large factories were doing business in the country. For a variety of factors - including security, lack of raw materials, lack of transportation and lack of electricity -- these factories have closed.
DoD has undertaken a comprehensive effort to engage industrial operations -- some idle, some state-owned, some private sector -- across Iraq in an effort to identify potential sources of goods and services, he said. This survey will allow Iraqi factories to reopen and connect Iraq with the rest of the Middle Eastern and international marketplace.
Most of the 200 large factories were state-owned, he said. Restoring these factories will spur growth in other related areas, Brinkley said. Secondary benefits will accrue to the economy not just for large factories, but also for all of the surrounding private businesses.
"This will begin to create an uplift of economic opportunity for the Iraqi people," he said. And that uplift will take potential recruits out of terrorist or insurgent recruiting pools, he added.
A reopened Iraqi clothing factory is making uniforms for the Iraqi army and Iraqi police. It also is producing goods for export, and Brinkley said some of these clothes should be on shelves in the United States in time for Christmas. "We have major American retail distributors who have engaged in that operation," he said.
Another reopened factory near Baghdad manufactured buses. It now makes armored vehicles for the Iraqi security forces.
Another reopened factory in Ramadi illustrates a different problem. The factory made bathroom fixtures and ceramic tile, but has no one to sell the goods to.
"It's hard to put U.S. government contracts for ceramic tile; we don't buy a lot of ceramic tile in the DoD," he said. "These Iraqi factories used to sell to other Iraqis. Sunnis sold to Shiia; Sunni sold to Kurds; Shiia sold to Kurds; businessmen did business with each other. It's the same anywhere in the world."
As the factories were idle, the commercial ties died, he said. "In this particular case, Kurdish construction firms have committed to buy anything that particular factory can make," he said. "Why? Because they need these goods, and they're having to import them from outside the country today, and they can get them cheaper."
Brinkley said this type of success breeds other successes and that he expects to see acceleration in factory opening and concurrent employment.
The Iraqis obviously want this to happen also, Brinkley said. He said that even in areas of the greatest unrest, idled factories have been untouched. "We've gone to factories where literally gunfire has been going off in the surrounding neighborhood, and one would expect the factory to have been looted," he said. "Yet you go in and there's computer equipment, robotics, brand new production machinery sitting idle.
"The doors are chained and dust has settled over everything and the workers aren't working, and yet the factory hasn't been damaged, which is indicative of the fact that there is a level of control and a level of awareness even in areas of great unrest that future economic prosperity is critical to the population."
Article sponsored by Criminal Justice online leadership; and, police and military personnel who have written books.
Showing posts with label factories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label factories. Show all posts
Friday, March 30, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
U.S. Restoring Iraqi Factories
By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service
Jan. 18, 2007 – In an effort to bolster Iraq's economy and employ thousands of Iraqis, the United States is working to restart operations at several factories around the country. A team from the Defense Department's Office of Business Transformation has been visiting Iraq since May to evaluate the situations at the country's roughly 200 former state-owned factories and determine what is needed to restart operations.
So far, the team has visited and done detailed assessments of almost 40 factories, and has a list of 10 priority facilities it will focus on, Paul Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for business transformation, told reporters in Iraq today.
"Our intent is to get these factories started, re-employ the Iraqi people, creating viable enterprises that have customers (and) that make goods or deliver services that can then be engaged by private-sector investors," Brinkley said.
The 10 priority factories are geographically distributed throughout Iraq and represent a variety of industries, Brinkley said. They were chosen because they will employ the most people quickly and will require less investment up front to get started, he said.
The overall U.S. investment for these Iraqi factories will be relatively low, about $10 million for all 10 factories, Brinkley said. The United States is partnering with the Iraqi government, which will make the bulk of the initial investments, he explained. This is important symbolically, because it shows action and commitment by the Iraqi government, he noted.
"The core effort right now is to restore employment to as many of the Iraqi people as we can, to encourage stability, and to return to normalcy areas that have waited for economic stimulus and prosperity to take hold," he said.
The 200 factories once employed more than 300,000 people, who now don't work but receive stipend checks from the government for about 30 or 40 percent of their former pay, Brinkley said. When the initial 10 factories are restored completely, they will employ about 11,000 people -- a welcome boost to a country where 48 percent of the population works less than 15 hours a week.
Brinkley emphasized that the reopening of these factories won't happen instantaneously, but he said the first 10 should be nearing their full employment capacity in the next two or three months. One factory is already up and running, supplying products to the U.S. Defense Department, Brinkley said. Using Iraqi companies for DoD contracts is an easy way the U.S. can stimulate Iraq's economy and drive down its own costs, as well, he said.
"Our first and foremost priority is the security and the well-being of our armed forces, but as long as we have assurances -- and our assessments do that -- then we will buy directly from Iraqis, and that will stimulate demand," he said.
One of the biggest challenges in restarting these factories is transitioning them to a privatized financial system, Brinkley said. The Iraq ministries used to pool all the annual profit, which was then distributed among the factories. Now each factory will need a privatization strategy that will give it financial autonomy, based on its needs and situation, he said.
The United States also is working to encourage private-sector investment in Iraq's factories, Brinkley said. In the last two weeks, the DoD team took a large group of international business executives to Iraq to talk about how interest in investment can be stimulated, he said. In cases where the factories have been damaged by military operations, the United States will invest to fix the problems, he added.
Brinkley stressed that economic restoration in Iraq involves a lot more than restarting factories. U.S. funds have gone to restoring sewer, water and power services, reconstruction projects, and many other activities to stimulate the economy, he pointed out. As these factories are reopened, they will stimulate further economic growth, he added.
"Every factory is not an independent entity," he said. "Not only do the workers employed spend money in the local community and stimulate economic activity, but the goods it (sells) and (acquires) stimulate economic activity."
Article sponsored by criminal justice leadership; and, police and military personnel who have become authors by writing books.
American Forces Press Service
Jan. 18, 2007 – In an effort to bolster Iraq's economy and employ thousands of Iraqis, the United States is working to restart operations at several factories around the country. A team from the Defense Department's Office of Business Transformation has been visiting Iraq since May to evaluate the situations at the country's roughly 200 former state-owned factories and determine what is needed to restart operations.
So far, the team has visited and done detailed assessments of almost 40 factories, and has a list of 10 priority facilities it will focus on, Paul Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for business transformation, told reporters in Iraq today.
"Our intent is to get these factories started, re-employ the Iraqi people, creating viable enterprises that have customers (and) that make goods or deliver services that can then be engaged by private-sector investors," Brinkley said.
The 10 priority factories are geographically distributed throughout Iraq and represent a variety of industries, Brinkley said. They were chosen because they will employ the most people quickly and will require less investment up front to get started, he said.
The overall U.S. investment for these Iraqi factories will be relatively low, about $10 million for all 10 factories, Brinkley said. The United States is partnering with the Iraqi government, which will make the bulk of the initial investments, he explained. This is important symbolically, because it shows action and commitment by the Iraqi government, he noted.
"The core effort right now is to restore employment to as many of the Iraqi people as we can, to encourage stability, and to return to normalcy areas that have waited for economic stimulus and prosperity to take hold," he said.
The 200 factories once employed more than 300,000 people, who now don't work but receive stipend checks from the government for about 30 or 40 percent of their former pay, Brinkley said. When the initial 10 factories are restored completely, they will employ about 11,000 people -- a welcome boost to a country where 48 percent of the population works less than 15 hours a week.
Brinkley emphasized that the reopening of these factories won't happen instantaneously, but he said the first 10 should be nearing their full employment capacity in the next two or three months. One factory is already up and running, supplying products to the U.S. Defense Department, Brinkley said. Using Iraqi companies for DoD contracts is an easy way the U.S. can stimulate Iraq's economy and drive down its own costs, as well, he said.
"Our first and foremost priority is the security and the well-being of our armed forces, but as long as we have assurances -- and our assessments do that -- then we will buy directly from Iraqis, and that will stimulate demand," he said.
One of the biggest challenges in restarting these factories is transitioning them to a privatized financial system, Brinkley said. The Iraq ministries used to pool all the annual profit, which was then distributed among the factories. Now each factory will need a privatization strategy that will give it financial autonomy, based on its needs and situation, he said.
The United States also is working to encourage private-sector investment in Iraq's factories, Brinkley said. In the last two weeks, the DoD team took a large group of international business executives to Iraq to talk about how interest in investment can be stimulated, he said. In cases where the factories have been damaged by military operations, the United States will invest to fix the problems, he added.
Brinkley stressed that economic restoration in Iraq involves a lot more than restarting factories. U.S. funds have gone to restoring sewer, water and power services, reconstruction projects, and many other activities to stimulate the economy, he pointed out. As these factories are reopened, they will stimulate further economic growth, he added.
"Every factory is not an independent entity," he said. "Not only do the workers employed spend money in the local community and stimulate economic activity, but the goods it (sells) and (acquires) stimulate economic activity."
Article sponsored by criminal justice leadership; and, police and military personnel who have become authors by writing books.
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