Key Points from Kuwait Conference

With a few exceptions, the coverage of the “Kuwait International Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq” has been confusing at best, ranging from those who thought it was a failure for raising far less than needed to those who thought that that it was a reasonable success for raising a third of what was needed.

These thoughts were not helped by an Iraqi delegation that was focused on presenting a shopping list of projects that would need $88bn in financing. In the end, it was reported that Iraq received pledges of $30bn in loans and guarantees, just over a third of the required total.

Lost in all of this is the significant document “Reconstruction & Development Framework” that the World Bank Group (WBG) prepared with the Iraqi Ministry of Planning (MoP), as well as the IMF’s work on Iraq and its presentation at the conference.

The first is a comprehensive analysis of the reconstruction requirements across all sectors of the country and provides plans for short-, medium- and long-term reconstruction needs within the framework of a long-term recovery for the country. In combination with the second, they provide the structure for funding the reconstruction effort.

The key takeaway is that the Government of Iraq (GoI) is realistic in its expectations that external sources of financings will be small, and therefore it expects to utilize its own resources over the next five years for the required reconstruction.

Mr Tabaqchali (@AMTabaqchali) is the CIO of the AFC Iraq Fund, and is an experienced capital markets professional with over 25 years’ experience in US and MENA markets. He is a non-resident Fellow at the Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani (AUIS). He is a board member of the Credit Bank of Iraq.

Article Credit: https://www.iraq-businessnews.com
Special Thanks to Charles Bright!