2007年VOA标准英语-Iraq's Northern Kurdish Area Offers Business Op

（单词翻译）

By Bill Rodgers
Washington
12 April 2007
 
Watch Iraq Prospects¹

Few foreign companies, aside from those dealing² directly with the military, are contemplating³ business in Iraq until the security situation improves.  Yet despite the violence, U.S. officials say opportunities do exist, primarily in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region where the economy is expanding rapidly.  As VOA's Bill Rodgers reports, U.S. officials are touting⁴ the northern Kurdistan area as a gateway⁵ for eventually doing business in the rest of the country.

 
Construction in Iraq's northern Kurdish region
Construction is one sign of the economic boom in Iraq's northern Kurdish region, where cranes tower over mosques⁶ in the region's capital city of Irbil.

Construction and other business activities are helping⁷ the economy there expand by an estimated 10 percent a year, according to Commerce Department Undersecretary Frank Lavin.

At a recent Washington seminar, Lavin urged American companies to consider operating from Iraq's northern Kurdistan area - a strategy he called the Northern Gateway Initiative. 

"If you're a U.S. company and you are thinking about an Iraq strategy," said Lavin, "think about the Kurdistan region as a possible gateway for Iraq, because the security situation is in hand there.  You do have broad latitude⁸ for business decision-making.  It is easier to expand, build and hire and so forth⁹, and it can be a reasonable platform for serving the rest of Iraq." 

 
Frank Lavin

While no American manufacturers have established themselves in the Kurdish region, American products are available in markets, trucked in from Turkey.  Lavin believes the region is ripe for foreign investment.

"What they need right away is oil refinery¹⁰ and power generation," noted¹¹ Lavin.  "But there's an enormous reconstruction¹² and retail¹³ boom underway.  Almost anything you could sell in Turkey or Kuwait, you could sell in the Kurdistan region."

Iraq's huge petroleum¹⁴ reserves accounted for much of the country's nearly $30 billion in export earnings¹⁵ last year, and oil will be the main attraction for potential foreign investors¹⁶.  The petrochemical sector¹⁷ especially offers promising¹⁸ business opportunities, but only if the violence that rocks parts of the country comes to an end.

Lavin acknowledges that foreign investment will remain non-existent until Iraqis stop the violence. "I think they've got to come to terms with it.  I think they've got to get their arms around it because businesses will go elsewhere," he said. "Businesses need a secure operating environment, and if they don't have confidence that is the direction Iraq is headed, they're going to put their efforts elsewhere."

In the meantime, Lavin and other U.S. officials are urging the Iraqi government to enact¹⁹ an investment law to prepare for the day when American and other foreign companies may want to do business in Iraq.