Government attempts to rescue Iraqi industry from imports.. Will local support succeed?

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[size=52]Government attempts to rescue Iraqi industry from imports.. Will local support succeed?[/size]

[size=45]The government is striving to revive local industries in an attempt to eliminate imports, which became the only solution after 2003, when government and private factories and plants closed their doors.[/size]
[size=45]Experts believe that government attempts have contributed somewhat to reviving the local industry, while others believe that this sector still suffers from many obstacles, which are not limited to imports only, but also to routine procedures that hinder its recovery.[/size]
[size=45]Economic researcher Manar Al-Abidi says, “The industrial sector’s contribution to the GDP is very low, and may not exceed 6 percent, which is a very low percentage that does not serve the national economy.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, “As for the obstacles that prevent the advancement of Iraqi industry, they are primarily corruption, bureaucracy, and the absence of strategic industrial projects that produce raw materials, and thus even the manufacturing industries depend on foreign imports. Also, the high operating costs such as energy and salaries, and the lack of a customs tariff that contributes to the development of the industry.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Ubaidi added, “But there is doubt about these numbers because Iran announced an increase in its iron exports to Iraq in the first quarter of this year by $220 million, and China also mentioned an increase in its iron exports, so I expect that most of this news is inaccurate and its purpose is to glorify the Iraqi Federation of Industries in the media.”[/size]
[size=45]The head of the Iraqi Federation of Industries, Adel Akab, announced on July 14 that Iraq will soon achieve self-sufficiency in iron production, indicating that most construction materials have achieved self-sufficiency, such as cement, gypsum, bricks, and others, and that iron will also soon achieve self-sufficiency after the opening of a number of factories.[/size]
[size=45]In turn, another economic specialist, Mustafa Hantoush, says, “The initiatives launched in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, which supported some industries, are the main reason for achieving self-sufficiency, as we see some cement factories and some soft drink factories beginning to achieve self-sufficiency after being supported during the time periods mentioned above.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, "In reality, if Iraq begins to move towards the model of industrial cities in every governorate, the Central Bank of Iraq has a budget plan to lend to the government to support industry and agriculture at the level of Iraq."[/size]
[size=45]“If we control customs and border crossings by linking transfers between the central bank, the crossings and customs, and prevent the exit of currency without inspected goods coming from abroad, but rather they are inspected at the border crossings, I believe that industry and agriculture can rise within the next three years and employ no less than one and a half to two million unemployed workers, and we will have food security, and Iraq will turn into a productive country, and it is indeed productive because it has the raw materials and has the real demand for goods,” Hantoush added.[/size]
[size=45]He points out that “among the most important current obstacles that prevent the rise of local industry are: the lack of industrial cities, the absence of easy industrial loans, the failure to grant industrial licenses smoothly, and the lack of product protection in particular.”[/size]
[size=45]On April 4, 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Minerals announced that it was studying the restructuring of public companies and preparing accurate statistics on the status of factories. This was in a statement issued after the Minister of Industry and Minerals, Khaled Batal Al-Najm, chaired an expanded meeting that included the head and members of the Supreme Ministerial Committee formed to study the restructuring of public companies, and in the presence of the boards of directors of the General Company for Textile and Leather Industries, the General Company for Food Products, and members of the restructuring committees formed in them.[/size]
[size=45]According to Batal, the two companies were chosen because they are among the largest public companies affiliated with the ministry, and they constitute 25 percent of the total number of ministry employees.[/size]
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