Oil for new infrastructure in Iraq

Canadian engineering companies hoping to pick up contracts related to rebuilding infrastructure in Iraq were disappointed this week. A ruling from U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz dated Friday, December 5 and posted on a Pentagon web site said that only firms from countries which had helped the U.S. invade Iraq would be able to bid on contracts for the $18.6-billion rebuilding program. Canada did not participate in the war, but it has contributed $190 million to the rebuilding effort.
However, engineering contracts may trickle through to Canadian firms. A report in the Globe and Mail said a Pentagon spokesman indicated the directive did not exclude non-allied countries from being subconsultants on projects.
Also an international body related to the United Nations is administering the Development Fund for Iraq, the fund set up to use the country’s vast petroleum revenues for rebuilding the country including its infrastracture. The International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB) for Iraq was established by the U.N. Security Council last month and met for the first time December 5. Monies from Iraq’s petroleum exports amounted to $46 billion under the seven years of the pre-war “oil-for-food program,” and these will now partly be used for building and repairing assets such as power stations, water treatment plants and roads.
Members of IAMB are the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and the World Bank.