Oil alone won’t bring Iraq stability, security: Former KRG PM Barham Salih

Oil alone won’t bring Iraq stability, security: Former KRG PM Barham Salih

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Barham Salih, leader of the Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ) and former KRG prime minister, speaking at the Iraq Energy Forum 2018. Photo: Rudaw TV

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Speaking on a panel at the Iraq Energy Forum 2018 in Baghdad on Wednesday, former KRG prime minister Barham Salih said Iraq’s reconstruction and future can’t depend on oil revenues alone.

“Iraq is an amazing paradox. It has all the elements of a spectacular success. It has an amazing potential. Yet because of poor governance and inherent problems in our political system, this potential is yet to be realized,” Salih told the gathered policy makers, politicians, and industry leaders on the first day of the two-day event. 

The country’s large youth population is resource that can compel Iraq towards a prosperous future, he said, but they must be assured job stability and good governance that goes beyond the oil sector. 

“This country has an amazing challenge of job creation for its growing youth population – 70 percent of our population across Iraq is below the age of 30 and there is no way the dependence of oil alone can create those job opportunities that can provide for a stable political environment and a secure environment for IOCs to work. So this is like chicken and egg situation,” he said. 

Last fall, Salih left the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and formed the Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ) looking to shed the politics of “corruption and monopoly.”

As Iraq heads towards parliamentary elections in May, Salih said the next government must focus on this issue. “We have huge resources in Iraq, we have an amazing amount of reserve. This should be the tool, this should be the magnet by which we can attract investment,” he said.

He called for major investment in the infrastructure and job creation, rebuilding Iraq from within while keeping in mind its location – “surrounded by powerful neighbours who are looking at Iraq as a zone for defining their balance of power.”

“Can Iraq turn this to its advantage? Can Iraq become the hub for pipeline networks, railway networks, trade routes between the Gulf and Turkey, between Iran and other Arab countries? Iraq’s geopolitics is really conducive to that,” he said. 

Key to this domestic and regional progress is political stability, warning that Iraq “cannot afford to go from a crisis to a crisis as has been the norm.”

Iraq must learn the lessons from the past and recognize its natural resources and human capital, he said. 

“Good leadership, good governance, can really turn this into a magnet for investment in this country instead of me just looking at the small pie, a small part of the pie in Kurdistan, I should be looking at the larger market of Iraq – huge opportunities, the same for Basra, the same for Anbar – and let these different regions of Iraq compete. This is the way to defeat extremism,” Salih concluded. 

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