A post-war Iraqi economy may boom as oil exports leap and market forces are unleashed, but it must avoid becoming a US corporate protectorate, analysts said last night.
Once sanctions are lifted, a command-style economy is dismantled and cronyism is combatted, the Iraqi economy would enjoy a dramatic revival, strategists said.
The analysts were attending a forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC.
As the economy is opened up, however, the United States would have to steer clear of appearing to be in a corporate takeover, warned Mr Bart Fisher, a trade specialist at Bryan Cave.
"A year from now, hopefully, there will involvement not just from American companies but from Turkish companies, from European companies, also other countries," Mr Fisher said.
"This can't just be an American protectorate, this can't be an American directorate, this cannot be American multinationals taking over Iraq," he said.
"On the other hand, American multinationals have a legitimate interest to do joint ventures in Iraq, to help develop the economy of Iraq, from the oil sector to hospitals, roads, telecommunications, infrastructure," he said.
Iraq has the world's second-largest proven crude oil reserves, large gas reserves and a well-educated population, said Iraqi development adviser Mr Sarbi al-Saadi, co-author of a reconstruction scheme called "the Phoenix Plan".
From 1980 to 2001, Iraqi crude oil exports amounted to about $192.2 billion, of which an estimated $123.8 billion came in the 1980s, Mr al-Saadi told the conference.
AFP