Photo By 1st Sgt. Brent Williams | Lt. Col. Timothy Watson, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment,...... read more read more
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Sgt. 1st Class Brent Williams
1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq - "True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence," said President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd U.S. President. "People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."
Job creation is the number-one priority for the senior business development advisor of the 1st Brigade Combat Team's Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team, said Edward Walter Koenig III, the economic advisor for the 4th Infantry Division's "Raider" Brigade, deployed in support of Multi-National Division – Baghdad.
Creating successful businesses and, ultimately, jobs in southern Baghdad involves opening up institutional lending, repatriating high network Iraqi businessmen and regional investors and building upon infrastructure to facilitate markets and commercial zones in southern Baghdad, said Koenig, who hails from Melbourne Beach, Fla.
"I think that really what we're trying to achieve here is a business environment where individuals invest their own money in their own business," Koenig said.
The Rashid District can be considered a microcosm for Iraq, he added, since there are lots of small businesses, an agricultural business sector and a capacity for light and medium industrial business as well as the Doura Oil Refinery.
Koenig outlined three basic elements to a strategy to rebuild the Rashid economy and provide an environment where people can establish a successful business, which ultimately translates into jobs for the Iraqi people.
"In this capacity, we have been meeting with commercial banks and are launching programs to facilitate micro-lending and working to transition certain microgrants to small business loans to move the economy toward self sustainability," he said.
Koenig said that the Raider Brigade is working to get the highly networked and successful business owners, who fled Iraq during periods of civil unrest and insurgency, to return to Iraq.
"They know the market," he explained. "They have factories and capital investment currently here, and it is their home.
"The second wave of offshore investment will come from Arab countries in the region, particularly the Gulf States," Koenig said. "All have interest in investing money in Iraq. Because these countries share a common language, culture, family relations and a method of doing business, it's easier for these investors to joint venture, and partner with, and invest in Iraqi business."
Another key component to building the economy lies in infrastructure development, said Koenig, a corporate executive officer of an electronics company, who has spent more than 15 years working in Europe and the Middle East as a regional vice president for major communications corporations.
"It is a difficult challenge for business to move in and establish themselves, so we have been working on projects and programs to develop infrastructure that will support business investment on the part of business owners," he added. "A lot of commercial or businesses zones were destroyed from an essential services standpoint during periods of sectarian violence."
The business in the Rashid District runs from the corner baker to the large industrial enterprise, which is the greatest opportunity as well as the biggest challenge for the Iraqis, said Koenig.
The team accomplishes this task by working with the banking sector, building upon the small business loans and working to make capital available to medium- and large-sized enterprises, said Thomas Lynch, team leader of the group of specialists hired by the U.S. Department of State to address the needs of the Iraqi people in Rashid.
"Economic conditions make jobs, and the effort is to arrange the pieces in such a way that the economic conditions will support employment," he explained. "We have in the EPRT supported the transformation of this economy with the steps which make investment capital more transparently available and more predictably available."
The Iraqi banking system needs to be integrated into the world banking system and requires development of accounting reserve requirements and modern services, such as electronic funds transfers, said Lynch, a native of Fairfax, Va., who has more than 25 years experience as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer.
Lynch said he looks forward to redeveloping the local markets to help restart the business in Rashid, putting money in circulation throughout the market streets, and opening the accessibility of the areas by easing security measures.
"So access, plus money, plus redevelopment in this small space should equal by about February or March an explosion of economic activities," said Lynch, who earned a master's degrees in European History and Soviet Military Strategy.
Rashid is an area that has been relatively overlooked since the conclusion of "intense and savage" ethnic conflict since 2005, stated Lynch.
"The precondition for it all of course is security," said Ambassador Marc Wall, minister for Economic Affairs and Coordinator for Economic Transition, working out of the U.S. Embassy – Baghdad.
The Raider Brigade has made great progress in establishing security for the Rashid District, and with security established, the focus can change to power generation and raising capital to expand business – "the ingredients for private sector success," said Wall, who hails from Virginia Beach in Norfolk, Va.
"If security can take root, then the Iraqis have the know-how and the creativity to make it happen, and we can provide just a little bit of the expertise and a little bit of the seed capital to make it happen," he explained.
Wall also reinforced the point of the partnership between 1st BCT Soldiers and the EPRT, working with the Iraqi business men and local officials is very encouraging.
"It's a great example for the rest of the country and an example for our higher effort," Wall said.
One Rashid business in particular, a soda bottling plant in southeastern Baghdad, is a unique case study in how far the nation's capital has developed since the widespread violence more than six months ago, said John Bass, the Baghdad Provincial Reconstruction Team Leader.
"[The Dijla Soda Bottling Plant] took a risk, came back after the big wave of violence subsided in April, and restarted operations," said Bass, a native of Upstate New York. "... they invested their own money in restarting their operations; they weren't asking for hand-outs."
The Rashid District is doing better than other areas and has the potential to grow, said Bass, who visits the area, home to approximately 1.6 million Iraqis monthly.
The 1st BCT EPRT is really creative and innovative at finding new solutions to problems, said Bass.
"The PRTs are unique organizations, and in many respects are an experiment in post-conflict civil-military joint operations," Bass said. "If they work well – and this one here works very well – it's a true partnership, where each half of the organization, the brigade and the EPRT, are bringing their expertise and resources to bear, together, collaborating to fix a problem, to tackle a challenge, and to get us down the road."
There must be a good relationship between the military and the EPRT to be successful, said Lt. Col. Richard Caya, deputy EPRT leader and executive officer for the 1st BCT, 4th Inf. Div.
The concept of a provincial reconstruction team dates back to the Civil Operations and Rural Development Support program started in Vietnam and revised in Afghanistan in 2003, said Caya, an infantry officer born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa.
Specializing in local government, energy distribution, agriculture, culture, economics and health services, the 1st BCT EPRT increases the brigade's ability to build civil capacity in the Rashid District, said Caya.
"They take the services out to the district and provide it to the citizens," he added. "They can run a literacy campaign; they can stand up a bank or a local business, and then get management for that to make it grow."
Each member of the team focuses on a specialty, bringing with them years of experience in an area of expertise from the civilian sector, which from a brigade combat team's perspective, Soldiers don't have, explained Caya.
"It's awesome; you can't bring a price tag on what these guys bring to the brigade and allow us to accomplish," Caya said. "Us military guys, we train to fight and close with the enemy and hold the ground. The Army's whole mission is to hold terrain, and while we're holding terrain and gaining momentum, they help us to increase those gains. It's invaluable what they bring to us."
Economics is important but not the only thing that makes the Rashid District work, claimed Caya, who said that the people must have security and essential services.
"It all has to grow comparably," Caya said. "Each is a piece unto itself and supports the whole brigade effort. Without power or water, jobs or money, then the system fails."
The 1st BCT EPRT is currently tracking 41 projects, estimated at a total of $5.1 million, mostly sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development, an independent federal government agency dedicated to providing overseas federal assistance to countries, such as Iraq, said Caya.
| Date Taken: | 11.19.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 11.19.2008 09:20 |
| Story ID: | 26529 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 401 |
| Downloads: | 287 |
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