WASHINGTON, March 23 (UPI) -- The role oil could play in reviving Iraq's economy was conspicuously absent in a presentation by a Bush administration official Friday.
Although more than 93 percent of Iraq's government revenue last year came from oil sales, the U.S. Commerce Department's undersecretary for international trade did not say specifically how the petroleum industry could rebuild Iraq's shattered economy.
Franklin Lavin was part of a U.S. delegation to advise the Iraqi government on how to jump-start its economy, and added that Iraqi exports have steadily increased between 2004 and 2006, largely on the back of higher oil prices worldwide in recent years.
But rather than analyzing exactly how petroleum dollars could be used in the country's reconstruction effort in the future, Lavin said a list of general long- and short-term proposals was presented to the Iraqi government as guidelines towards building a functioning economy.
The public tends to view Iraq through a "security lens" and focus on the ongoing violence in the country, rather than on its potential, Lavin said.
"There is an economy there," he said. "It is an economy under stress, but it functions. The more we can help folks in Iraq develop merchant consciousness, the better off we'll be."
As such, Lavin said the United States proposed three goals to be achieved by the year end, namely to pass investment legislation as well as a hydrocarbon legislation and to focus on one specific "marquee investment," or project that they can fund to immediately stimulate the business market.
For the longer term, Lavin said Iraq should establish a solid banking sector, stabilize land ownership, and develop an educational system that allows businesses to flourish.
