Photo By Rick Rzepka | The manager of an Iraqi fertilizer plant gives Provincial Reconstruction Team member...... read more read more
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By Spc. Rick L. Rzepka
1st Brigade Combat Team
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
SUNIYAH, Iraq — It's not hard to wrap your head around the idea. The idea that security and economic growth correlate positively, maybe even symbiotically is one in which many Iraqi workers have been trying to get across to their American counterparts for some time.
Recently, on the dusty outskirts of the town of Suniyah, American representatives from the U.S. State Department, the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) along with local Iraqi leaders, met to discuss the proposed revitalization of a fertilizer plant here which could provide jobs for more than 3,000 Iraqis.
The re-opening of the plant is part of a larger effort by Paul Brinkley, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense and his task-force, known as the Brinkley group, to reopen many of the more than 200 state-owned factories which manufacture and produce a vast array of goods, from fertilizer to buses, flour and carpets.
"The Brinkley group will really spur growth in the area," said Mike Berard, a Provincial Reconstruction Team member who works in the Salah Ad-Din province. "The area is primarily an agricultural area, hence the need for fertilizer."
Agriculture should be the source of about 20 percent of Iraq's economy, said U.S. Ambassador Charles P. Reis, during a recent press conference in Baghdad.
"This is a country in the Middle East blessed by flat land with water and certainly lots of sun. It is possible to imagine quite the breadbasket between these two ancient rivers," he said.
The plant, which produced more than 392,000 tons of fertilizer per year before the ousting of the Ba'ath party in 2003, is in desperate need of parts and power. According to the plant's manager, $100,000 is needed immediately for emergency repairs and parts, while 5 million will be needed in the immediate future.
"We need support quickly to continue our operations here," said a senior administrator at the plant, who wished to remain nameless for fear of reprisals by insurgents. "God willing, we can produce fertilizer by Jan. 2008."
With nearly half of Iraq's workforce unemployed, some Iraqis find themselves doing al-Qaida's dirty work in order to feed their families.
They'll pay someone $300 to plant an improvised explosive device, said Berard.
"The people in the parts of this country that have suffered so much from war and the insurgency need to see a noticeable difference," said Reis. "They need to see activities, services and construction," he said, which will be coordinated and implemented by PRTs and the Brinkley group.
To date, Brinkley's efforts have helped re-open 16 factories in Iraq, which have created more than 5,000 jobs for the nations unemployed who won't have to plant a roadside-bomb to support themselves.
Ultimately, says Reis, "It will be up to the government of Iraq to decide how and what to do with these factories, but we are trying to provide them with the tools and the initial startup capital to get going again and take people off the streets into viable jobs."
| Date Taken: | 11.15.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 11.15.2007 11:03 |
| Story ID: | 13928 |
| Location: | IQ |
| Web Views: | 648 |
| Downloads: | 572 |
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