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Iraqi donors gather for conference
18.7.2005
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Iraq and donor countries
are to begin a two day conference in Jordan aimed at
creating a new momentum to rebuild the war-ravaged
country.
The meetings come in the wake of some of the worst
violence in months.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and the
Planning Minister, Barham Saleh, are among those
attending the meeting on the shores of the Dead Sea.
Delegates from some 60 countries and organisations
including the UN and the World Bank, will also
participate.
The gathering follows on from an international
conference on Iraq held last month in Brussels.
Japanese example
Some say Iraq faces a make-or-break situation to
guarantee its political transition.
An official from the US embassy in Baghdad told the
BBC that this donors' meeting is about looking at
actual reconstruction projects agreed upon and
asking that donors put forward the money they
promised in order to implement them.
But the question for a number of people is whether
donors will want to take the risk of investing in
Iraq as the violence escalates and insecurity
abounds.
The special adviser to Iraq's Minister for Industry
and Minerals, Munkuth Jassim, urged donors ahead of
the gathering to follow the lead of Japan, which has
already invested $260m in the country.
"We have to make something on the ground otherwise
things will be worse and worse. The Ministry of
Industry is the largest employer of workers in Iraq
and the Iraqi government. So we have to cater to the
people, the employers for their well-being. We have
to work otherwise we will end in a catastrophe," Mr
Jassim said.
Short term assistance
A World Bank official, John Speakman, said that
security and investment had to go hand in hand, but
that even in a climate of insecurity, investment was
taking place in Iraq.
"It's clearly not as much as you would get if the
situation was good, but investment is happening,
particularly in the attractive sectors, in the
petrochemical sector, that's attractive."
The conference organisers - Canada, the UN and the
World Bank - hope Iraq will submit a few short-term
projects that will tackle the immediate needs of the
Iraqi people and attract attention to their plight.
Some two years ago, donor countries pledged $33bn
dollars in aid to Iraq. Of this amount, $1bn has so
far been committed.
www.bbc.co.uk
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