Iraqi government will spend an unprecedented $19 billion on capital projects across Iraq in 2008, including $900 million in Baghdad, senior Iraqi officials said Wednesday, even as they warned that the fight against insurgencies, gangs and militias was far from over.
But Salih, who is also in charge of economic development for the Baghdad security plan, which began in February, added, “We still have a lot of security challenges.”
The government reached agreement late Tuesday on a $40 billion budget for 2008, including capital and operating costs, and sent it to the Parliament for review, said Salih, who made the announcement at the gathering. Among those present were the two vice presidents, Adel Abdul-Mehdi and Tariq al-Hashemi; General Aboud Qanbar, the military commander in charge of the security plan; and the United States ambassador, Ryan Crocker.
Although the city would get more money than ever for capital projects as well as at least $300 million for its operating budget, it is not clear whether it could spend the capital funds. American development experts say that, at best, only 60 to 65 percent of the $450 million in capital funds allocated for 2007, half as much as for 2008, was actually spent. Spending has been slowed by security problems, a lack of expertise in contracting projects and inexperience in delegating tasks — when a project manager is away, others are often afraid to make decisions, and work stops.
“People need to feel the value of peace,” said Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, describing the government’s intention to increase capital spending. “There needs to be quick improvement in electricity, in water, in health care.”
“The destruction of Baghdad has not been just a matter of its infrastructure, the damage to streets and buildings,” he added. “It is the social fabric that has been damaged. This is the greatest problem, and this will remain the principal obstacle to safety and security.”
But he said that even though the social fabric cannot be patched together overnight, reconstruction can be a sort of peace dividend that gives people hope for better times and encourages them to eschew the violence that has traumatized the capital.
Hashemi’s presence at the forum was a signal itself of the efforts at rapprochement. The bloc he leads in Parliament had been boycotting cabinet sessions, but it appeared that an end to the boycott was under negotiation. Vice President Abdul-Mehdi, a Shiite, said that bringing back the Sunni Arabs would “give strength to reconstruction nationwide.”
In another development, the Cabinet has forwarded to Parliament for debate a draft of a law that would overhaul the way the current de-Baathification rules work. The rules as they stand have discouraged many Sunnis from seeking government jobs. The draft is a version that has been agreed to by the five most powerful political leaders, who represent the most influential groups in the political process, including the Shiite parties Dawa and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the two largest Kurdish parties and Tawaffuk, the Sunni Arab bloc.
The conference about the budget on Wednesday was well attended despite the explosion of a roadside bomb just outside the gates of the city’s heavily protected Green Zone about 90 minutes before it was to begin inside. The bomb killed two civilians, wounded three more and threw two police officers from their guard towers 150 feet away, the police said. International Herald Tribune
