About 100 private companies, mainly from Britain and the United States, gathered in London this week to discuss investment opportunities in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
The companies, mainly oil and banking, are being invited by the US and British governments to move in as soon as security is restored. McDonald’s was predicted by the conference organisers to open in Baghdad next year.
Brian Wilson, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s special representative on trade and reconstruction in Iraq, told the conference: ”A major drawback for companies wishing to visit Iraq is, of course, the continuing problems with the security situation.”
He added that the bombing of the Baghdad hotel last Sunday had ”provided another grim reminder of the dangers which exist”. The British government would send trade missions to Iraq ”when the time is right”.
Among the Americans attending were ExxonMobil, Delta Airlines and the American Hospital Group.
McDonald’s is to attend a follow-up conference next month. Rubar Sandi, Corporate Bank chairperson and founding director of the US-Iraq Business Alliance, said McDonald’s was ”not yet” ready to go to Baghdad.
He said of McDonald’s: ”I have spoken to the top management but probably [they will not go until] next year. That would be a sign of normality.”
The conference was organised by the US-Iraq Business Alliance, which was set up in June last year and which, its supporters say, has attracted the support of 145 multinationals. The alliance has close contacts with the Pentagon.
About two dozen people from Voices UK, a group opposed to the war in Iraq, protested outside. Spokesperson, Emma Sangster said: ”A neo-liberal economy is being imposed on an already impoverished country with unprecedented haste and with absolutely no democratic process.
”Instead of a reconstruction process that involves Iraqi companies, who have the necessary experience to do the job properly, foreign companies will be buying up sectors of the Iraq economy for a quick profit.”
But Wilson said outside the conference: ”What they are essentially saying is that Saddam should still be there and, in that case, no one would be talking about investment and reconstruction.” — Â