Investing in Iraq faces a “heavy battle” with corruption and bureaucracy

Investing in Iraq faces a “heavy battle” with corruption and bureaucracy

Posted: December 11, 2013

Iraq’s government is not doing enough of the fragile efforts to support investment and foreign companies, which face a constant battle against corruption and bureaucracy, as experts say.

The annual report of the World Bank on completion of annual business, which measure the commercial systems throughout the world, puts Iraq in the bottom of the list with his report for the year 2012, by three orders of Afghanistan.

According to local businessmen and foreign investors are facing a tough time in the country, citing terrorism and dependence on oil revenues and the complex administrative procedures, corruption, and poor communication with the authorities.

The owner of the company and the logistics of shipping has work in Iraq, who requested anonymity, that “the problem is that everyone wants to share.”
He added that the Executive Director is common that companies pay bribes to officials for the purpose of obtaining government approval on registration procedures and other commercial matters.
The study was released, earlier this year by the United Nations on the public sector in Iraq, has found that half of those asked surveyed almost said they had paid bribes in order to speed up administrative procedures, while the refuge for more than a quarter to bribery in order to get the level of better services.
Walid al-Hilali, a member of the political bureau of the Islamic Dawa Party, led by al-Maliki, acknowledged that the government “needs a lot of work” to combat bribery and illicit payments. He added Hilali Arab News, “We do not say that there is no corruption in Iraq, but we are fighting corruption.”

The author of the shipping company Arab News that circles the Iraqi provinces and rising costs also added to the Playa bureaucracy faced by companies. For example, the capital Baghdad and the Kurdistan region safer and better administration in northern Iraq, with each business registration procedures are separate from each other.
He added that “until last year, was the expected time to register a company in Iraq about six months, and costs nearly 10 000 dollars.”

In turn, says Ghassan al-Attiyah, the director of the Iraq Foundation for Development and Democracy and has headquarters in Baghdad and London, said that the country’s dependence on oil money the government makes no incentives for the development of alternative sources of income and makes more of its production.
Al-Attiyah said that “Iraq, 15 years ago, or before the fall of the regime, when 65 large industrial complex, and now maybe there are only 5 of them are still working.”

It is believed al-Attiyah said Iraq needed to run an efficient and effective “even more than he needs to democracy,” pointing out that the soft authoritarian regime in Singapore and Atoukratih China pursues a successful economic policies of government.

And saw Iraqi researcher said, “In the economic level, we are a society parasites living on oil revenues,” noting that the government of Iraq has a heavy outlays on workers such as police and armed guards who do not contribute directly to the economy by about through their work.
And poor communication with investors is the biggest issue for the government, according to said Michael Flanagan, an expert who provides consulting services to companies entering the Iraqi market and based in the United States.

Flanagan said: “I think that the Iraqi government is making a great effort to paint a good picture of perhaps as much as you can, and to the extent that sometimes overdo it, and this is not helpful at all.” He noted that the Iraqi government experience relatively useless, because it was formed after 30 years of authoritarian rule under Saddam Hussein.

Flanagan said that “the Iraqi government does not know about a good deal with the businessmen, and businessmen want to know the absolute truth, even if they are bad, they can deal with a range of conditions.”
For his part, says confident al-Hashemi, the Iraqi Group for Strategic Studies, said the security situation and weak political competition on investments between government ministries has hampered the country’s efforts to attract investment.

Hashemi told the Arab News that “the government preoccupied with the next election and struggled to stay in power.”

But the Attorney-Hilali downplayed these allegations that the government Atbzl hard enough to support the business. He said, “We have how many companies come to Iraq, and many companies are now operating oil fields, in many areas of Iraq, and we attract the companies to build refineries.”
Experts also say that the lack of infrastructure and even the lack of translation activities in the institutions of government sites on the Internet is a matter of concern.

He says Jabbar Kadhim, a business consultant in Iraq, that “the websites of the provinces in Arabic, and exposure opportunities for foreigners in them.”

And the lack of service to the Daily Mail in the level of the whole of Iraq makes is to get the documents within the country something very difficult, according to Flanagan mentions. He adds by saying “for signing on one sheet of paper inside and outside Iraq, anything that requires arduous efforts.”