For every story about the latest explosion in Baghdad, there ought to be at least one more on what's going right. Like this, from Knight Ridder.

Pepsi is rebuilding its old bottling plant. Mitsubishi is planning a new car dealership. A Kuwaiti firm envisions a $500 million hotel and shopping complex in the heart of Baghdad.

Nearly a year after bombs, tanks and looters wrought devastation on Iraq's already awful economy, the country is teeming with commerce, real and anticipated. Stores are filled with new products, foreign investors are circling, and unemployment - while painfully high - has fallen by half.

'It may not be palpable, but Iraq is booming,' said Maria Khoury, chief of research for Atlas Investment Group, a Jordanian investment bank. 'We're seeing a big increase in consumer goods flowing into the country.'

Though still very low, Iraqi living standards are higher than at any time since the 1990 Gulf War, economists say, despite the ongoing bombings and killings.
Oil revenues, which fund the government and its social safety net, are near prewar levels. The World Bank estimates that the economy will grow by 30 percent this year, after shrinking last year.

There are still PLENTY of challenges on the economic front in Iraq, as the full story (link above) makes clear.

.....Then there's the Sultan Center, which operates some of Kuwait City's biggest malls. That firm is answering a request for proposals by Iraq's trade ministry seeking plans for a shimmering hotel and shopping complex, complete with a modern cinema, in Baghdad's al Monsour neighborhood.

'We think this can be open in two years,' said Muthunna Darwish, the Sultan Center's Iraqi-born company representative, who is betting security will be much improved by then. 'We see huge potential here.'

Via Iraq The Model.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at March 18, 2004 10:31 AM

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