speeches

Ambassador to Kuwait, Richard Jones, says Iraq is open for business. Read what he has to say. We thinking he's smoking something.

Coalition and Iraqi efforts have set the stage for an economic rebirth. As a catalyst, the U.S. supplemental budget of $18.7 billion for Iraq will pave the way with projects that will boost the Iraqi economy and create 50,000 well-paid jobs within 2-3 months and, according to U.S. Treasury estimates, more than 1.7 million jobs over the life of the program*. These new jobs will all but eliminate unemployment in Iraq’s 6-million member labor market.

Furthermore, the initial injection of the first $5 billion dollar investment will have a multiplier effect of $7-8 billion dollars within 12-18 months. Non-oil GDP will increase by 50-to-100 percent during that same time period. Business leaders are starting to realize that long-term prospects are only slightly dimmed by the current violence.

*How long is "the life of the program"?