Iraq too dependent on oil, must diversify - govt

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5844493&cKey=1117970429000

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq relies far too heavily on oil exports for generating revenue, a senior government official said on Sunday, as he urged Iraqis to diversify production and create alternative sources of income.

"Ninety-five percent of Iraq's national income is dependent on oil and that's an oddity," Laith Kubba, spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, told a news conference.

"If we take a country like Saudi Arabia, it's 60 percent, and in another oil producing country it might be 40 percent. Iraq is in an exceptional situation," he said.

Last year, Iraq's government had revenues of around $20 billion, nearly $18 billion of which came from oil exports.

[Deja Q]

1. They have their own oil, why do they need to import?

[Pepperbelly]

2. I think they believe their INCOME is too dependent upon exports

of oil, not importing.

[NashVegas]

9. And We're Taking the Oil to Pay for the Cost Of War, So ...

Yup, they're way too dependent on oil for income.

[Systematic Chaos]

3. How about snow globes full of depleted uranium?

I bet those would be a hot item! *giggle, snort* GET IT? HOT ITEM? *guffaw, slap knee*

:sarcasm:

[truthisfreedom]

5. just one second faster and i would have been first. 8^)

[MadisonProgressive]

12. Kind of like a 'pet rock' that glows in the dark!

[truthisfreedom]

4. they could export depleted uranium...

there's tons of it there now. with haliburton's help, perhaps the US would buy it?

[NNN0LHI]

6. Bwana gonna teach Iraqis to make baskets for the tourists? n/t

[mbperrin]

7. Not really an oddity for "developed" countries to dig up

resources in a foreign land, and then leave behind a huge mess, poverty, and no future.

Not really an oddity at all....

[Mom_and_Dad]

8. The EHM have moved in

I'm reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and this sounds like a typical scenario.

Is there anyway that this diversification will provide benefits to the individual Iraqi?......No
Will the US Admin move in companies that are part of the Bush Cartel?.....Almost Certainly
Is the quoted "senior official" looking for a cut? or maybe just his life?....Probably

[expatriot]

10. diversify with sweatshops.... nt

[madrchsod]

11. "to dream the impossible dream"

well it sounds like a good idea but the problem is that the united states blew the fuck out of the country. it will cost at 100 to 200 billion dollars to rebuild the oil fields and develop new ones to get the revenue to start to rebuild the electrical,roads,water,sewage systems.

[Coexist]

13. Didn't we think that about Iran once?

and give them blueprints for nuclear power plants? The ones we want to destroy now?
http://www.payvand.com/news/03/oct/1015.html

<snip>
"Iran's foray into nuclear research and development began in the mid 1960s under the auspices of the US within the framework of bilateral agreements between the two countries. The first significant nuclear facility built by the Shah was the Tehran Nuclear Research Center (TNRC), founded in 1967, housed at Tehran University, and run by Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI). This Center has always been one of Iran's primary open nuclear research facilities. It has a safeguarded 5-megawatt nuclear research reactor that was supplied by the US in 1967. The reactor can produce up to 600 grams of plutonium per year in its spent fuel.

Iran signed the NPT on July 1, 1968. After the Treaty was ratified by the Majles, it went into effect on March 5, 1970. In the language of Article IV of the Treaty, the NPT recognized Iran's "inalienable right to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful proposes without discrimination, and acquire equipment, materials, and scientific and technological information." The events of the early 1970s were, however, instrumental in shaping and accelerating the development of Iran's nuclear program. The 1973 war between the Arab countries and Israel, and the subsequent huge increase in the price of oil, provided the Shah's government with considerable resources for Iran's development. At that time, a study by the influential Stanford Research Institute concluded that Iran would need, by the year 1990, an electrical capacity of about 20,000-megawatt."

THE BIG PARAGRAPH!!!!!!!!!!!!
<SNIP>
"According to declassified confidential US Government documents posted on the Digital National Security Archive (see the article, "The US-Iran Nuclear Dispute: Dr Mohamed El Baradei's Mission Possible to Iran," by Drs. A. Etemad and N. Meshkati, published on July 13, 2003, in the Iran News), in the mid-1970s, the US encouraged Iran to expand her non-oil energy base, suggested to the Shah that Iran needed not one but SEVERAL nuclear reactors to acquire the electrical capacity that the Stanford Research Institute had proposed, and expressed interest in the US companies participating in Iran's nuclear energy projects. Building these reactors, and selling the weapons that the Shah was procuring from the US in the 1970s, were, of course, a good way for the US to recover the cost of the oil that she was buying from Iran."

(on edit - in re: the issue of what they can do for income, the point I sorta missed in my knee-jerk response at the title- maybe they can REBUILD THEIR OWN COUNTRY, instead of giving the profits to Haliburton. That should keep them busy for a while - until they can build the spas and casinos for rich American tourists)