Iraq to Allow Foreign Owners Outside Oil

[Khephra]

Iraq to Allow Foreign Owners Outside Oil
Sun September 21, 2003 03:34 AM ET

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraq was set to unveil on Sunday sweeping economic reforms that include giving foreign investors full access to all sectors of the economy except oil after three decades of almost total state control.

A statement by U.S.-backed Finance Minister Kamel al-Keylani scheduled for release in Dubai later on Sunday said the reforms "will be implemented in the near future."

"The reforms will significantly advance efforts to build a free and open market economy in Iraq, promote Iraq's future economic growth (and) accelerate Iraq's re-entry into the international economy," Keylani's statement said.

A senior U.S. official involved in oil-rich Iraq's reconstruction said the new proposals were agreed upon on Saturday and were now effectively the law of the land.

The list of steps to liberalize foreign investment, the banking sector and the tax and tariff code reads like a recipe devised by Washington for a free-market Iraq.


more........

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3479818

Yep, I'm SUUUUUUURE that "Iraq" is going to allow this, aren't you all?

[FloridaPat]

1. Puppet governments are so friendly to the puppet masters.

The real looting has begun. I don't know how they can do this without an Iraqi government that is recognized by the rest of the world.

[Fish Eye]

6. Good point

I wonder what the puppet goverment clause in the UN charter looks like.

all the "investors" will be tentacles of a few multinationals anyway.

[punpirate]

2. One can be assured that...

... there will no announcement on the privatization of the oil fields, although that process must surely be proceeding apace.

Wonder when we'll begin to hear about ordinary Iraqis complaining about $50 water bills when their monthly income is $80. There were riots in the street in Bolivia when Bechtel did this. How will we be able to tell the difference between the attacks by Iraqi nationalists from those by irate utility payers?

[izzie]

3. Kenny Boy go for it,

This and oil is the real reason for this stuped take over of a country. I am not calling it a war. In wars the army fights back. This army went underground for a reason.

[priller]

4. Well, they can kiss any future prosperity goodbye now

It used to be that soldiers did their own pillaging and plundering. Now they cleared the way for the big corporations to do it instead, on a massive scale, all nice and legal. Before taking this big step, maybe the Iraqi rulers ought to talk to other countries that have "liberalized" their economies, just to see how it turned out.

[0007]

5. The modern day pirate -

junior should be made to walk the plank

[Bridget Burke]

8. "Take what you can...give nothing back!"

Somehow, it sounded better coming from Captain Jack Sparrow.

I prefer the pirates of earlier days--they did far less damage.

[cthrumatrix]

7. Liberation at it's finest....did we do this for Japan & Germany ...?

Where the hell is the UN... ? Is this even legal?

[Jack Rabbit]

9. Correction

Iraq Bushies to Allow Foreign Owners Outside Oil in Iraq

Iraq is not a free country and does not speak for herself. Iraq is a PNAC colony.