Billions needed to rebuild Iraqi industry

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BAGHDAD, July 22 (AFP): Improved security is allowing Iraq to rebuild its shattered industry but up to seven billion dollars is needed to help the sector recover from years of war and sanctions, the industry minister told AFP.
"At the present estimate, I would think it will require between five and seven billion dollars (3.9 to 5.5 billion euros) of investment" to "re-invent the industrial sector in Iraq in a modern way," Fawzi Hariri said in an interview.
"What has been spent to date has been less than one billion dollars," said Hariri, a 52-year-old Christian member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party who has held the post since 2006.
Iraq's industrial sector, which was once among the region's most advanced, has been decimated by 30 years of destructive wars and sanctions.
"Probably 97 percent" of government revenue over the past several years has come from oil," Hariri said.
Iraq fought Iran from 1980-88, invaded Kuwait in 1990 and was expelled in 1991. It was then targeted by crippling UN sanctions until the 2003 US-led invasion, which unleashed a wave of internecine violence that persists to this day.