American Businessmen Coming Back to Iraq!

Published in Le Figaro
(France) on 8 October 2010
by Georges Malbrunot (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Kathryn Sanderson. Edited by Heidi Kaufmann.
Watch out: American businessmen are coming back to Iraq. That’s the message being passed around by Iraqi diplomats to their contacts in Europe.

A major delegation of business leaders from across the Atlantic are staying in Baghdad right now and are also supposed to tour the country’s Kurdish regions.

Until now, the Americans were omnipresent, even omnipotent, in Iraq’s military markets. But they had left the rest of the country’s reconstruction to European, Turkish or Korean companies. “Water purification, roads, cement plants — they weren’t too interested in that stuff,” admits a French businessman who’s been advised by Iraqi authorities of his American competition’s comeback. “But now the Americans don’t want to be left out of those markets.”*

The reconstruction of Iraq is valued at over $400 billion, and more than seven years after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, much remains to be done — which obviously whets many appetites around the world.

* Editor’s Note: These quotes, accurately translated, could not be verified.


Les hommes d'affaires américains reviennent en Irak !

Le Figaro
Par Georges Malbrunot le 8 octobre 2010

Attention : les hommes d’affaires américains reviennent en Irak. C’est le message que font passer des diplomates irakiens auprès de leurs interlocuteurs en Europe.
Une importante délégation de chefs d’entreprises venus d’outre-Atlantique séjourne actuellement à Bagdad et devrait se déplacer également dans les régions kurdes du pays.
Jusqu’à présent, les Américains étaient omniprésents – voire même omnipotents - sur les marchés militaires irakiens. Mais ils avaient laissé le reste de la reconstruction du pays aux sociétés européennes, turques ou coréennes. « L’assainissement des eaux, les routes, les cimenteries, tout cela ne les intéressaient pas trop », confesse un homme d’affaires français, averti par les autorités irakiennes du come back de ses concurrents américains. « Mais aujourd’hui, les Américains ne veulent plus être écartés de ces marchés-là ».
La reconstruction de l'Irak est évaluée à plus de 400 milliards de dollars, et plus de sept ans après la chute du régime de Saddam Hussein, beaucoup reste à faire. Ce qui aiguise évidemment l'appétit de beaucoup à travers le monde.
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