Iraq puts a five-year plan to diversify its economy

Iraq puts a five-year plan to diversify its economy



Ali Salman - 09/20/2013

The Iraqi government announced a five-year plan to diversify the economy away from dependence on oil and the development of the industrial sector.
The face of the plan announced by Iraq this week, significant obstacles, including the escalation of sectarian violence and political infighting within the coalition government.

But may be in the case of implementation of the plan ushered in a new phase of recovery from the effects of war and international economic sanctions, which lasted for decades.

The recovery was limited since the U.S. invasion in 2003 on higher oil production.

Hussain al-Shahristani said Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister for Energy, said the government had taken a decision to focus on non-oil resources and that the new plan will focus on the industry.

Under Al_khash which covers the period from 2013 to 2017 to invest about 357 billion dollars in development projects across the country and focus on five sectors are construction, services, agriculture, education, transportation and energy.

And about 79 percent will come from these investments from the government and the rest from the private sector.

Oil will remain the largest source of government revenue in that period.

It is expected that the oil revenues 768.7 trillion dinars (662 billion dollars) in five years and non-oil revenue amounting to 43.5 trillion dinars.

The Iraq aspires to raise oil production from 3.2 million barrels per day in 2012 to 9.5 million barrels per day in 2017 and the promotion of exports of 2.6 million barrels per day to six million barrels per day in 2017, assuming that the average price of a barrel of oil is $ 85 over five years.

And many analysts believe that these goals may be dumped in optimism because of logistical problems and the impact of sectarian violence on oil production and government activities.

Observers say that corruption in Iraq is the biggest obstacle to any real economic development.

The Iraqi and international reports that corruption in Iraq is rampant from top to bottom, especially since the government of Nouri al-Maliki is not yet able to implement the most rudimentary laws to combat corruption, but originally refused to respond to it.

Iraq is seeking to increase the storage capacity of crude oil for export from 10.987 million barrels to 30.057 million barrels in 2017.

The five-year plan also includes efforts to promote agricultural production to reduce Iraq's dependence on grain imports.

Sami said when the technical agent for the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, said the plan aimed to produce about six million tons of wheat in 2017, which will cover domestic consumption and raise the average barley production of 820 thousand tons in 2011 to 1.2 million tons in 2017.

The plan aims to increase the total Iraqi production rate of 13 percent per year on average and reducing the poverty rate from 19 percent in 2012 to 16 percent in 2017.

The government also hopes that the plan will help to narrow the economic gaps between rural and urban areas.

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