Hundreds of businesses across Asia are preparing to invest in Iraq despite the dangers, US officials on a regional roadshow to promote investment in the war-torn country said here yesterday.
Singaporean, Chinese, South Korean, Japanese and Australian investors have all shown strong interest over the past two months in grabbing a share of the US$18 billion in US government contracts on offer, they said.
The Iraq Reconstruction Project Opportunities roadshow, comprising officials from the US government and Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority, has also stopped in Seoul and Sydney, as well as European and Middle East nations, since the beginning of March.
The communication and planning director with the Coalition Provisional Authority's program management office, Jonathon Thompson, said that more than 600 business people from North Asia attended the Seoul briefing.
A further 100 businesses were represented at each of the Singapore and Sydney briefings, with Thompson reporting unanimous enthusiasm among the delegates for venturing into Iraq.
"I have not experienced any company in all of these meetings who are reluctant to participate. They wouldn't be here if they were," Thompson said on the sidelines of the Singapore seminar.
Ted Tan, the assistant chief executive officer at International Enterprise Singapore, the city-state's trade promotion board, also said many local firms were poised to invest in Iraq.
"A lot of companies are really serious about going to Iraq. They are looking at working out concrete plans with the primary contractors," Tan said.
Tan said a number of Singapore companies had already set up operations in countries neighboring Iraq and were waiting for the security risks to subside before venturing across the border.
The director of Singaporean construction firm Wee Engineers, Liew Chee Kian, attended yesterday's seminar and said his firm hoped to set up operations in Iraq in the next six to 12 months.
"US$18 billion is a lot of money and the country is so big," Liew said. "It's going to take many years to rebuild the country so the opportunities are definitely there."
Asked about the dangers of working in Iraq, Liew said he did not believe it was as dangerous as made out in the world's press.
"The media is always giving reports on the negative side. There are a lot of good sides that aren't publicized. There are a lot of areas that are quite safe," he said.
The regional sales manager for Singapore-listed Dayen Environmental water treatment company, Ang Kwee Huat, also said his firm was keen to set up operations in Iraq but he was more circumspect about the dangers.
"We see so many people being kidnapped and Singapore is one of the countries that supports the Americans so we could be a target too ... maybe I'd say I am from China instead," he said.
The US officials speaking at the seminar touched on Iraq's security problems but their main focus was business, highlighting the US$18 billion the US Congress recently approved for reconstructing the country.
"The sheer breadth of these funds will touch virtually every sector of the economy in Iraq," Thompson told the delegates, adding everything from major infrastructure projects to health care and supplying police uniforms needed foreign investors.
"The rebuilding of Iraq, in the most basic of terms, is the single largest construction project for one country in the world's history."
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS