Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki and Former Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, pictured to the right (Maliki's right hand man)July 5, 2010
Iraq launches five-year plan for economic development
Iraq on Sunday announced its five- year National Development Plan (NDP) targeting annual economic growth of 9.4 percent with attempts to cut unemployment.
The country's 2010-2014 NDP was announced in a televised celebration in Baghdad and was attended by top Iraqi official, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Minister of Planning Ali Baban.
The plan will include more than 2,700 projects worth about 186 billion U.S. dollars and is aiming at diversifying the Iraqi economy away from oil, as the crude exports represented some 90 percent of the country's revenue.
The NDP is also designed to achieve annual economic growth of 9. 4 percent with the goal of cutting the estimated rate of the now 15 percent of unemployment by providing some 3-4 million jobs.
In his speech, Maliki hailed the gathering and said that Iraq is moving on the right way for reconstruction after years of violence and chaos.
"When we want to develop a country suffering from sabotage, we have to have stable plans and budgets," Maliki said referring to the five-year development plan.
"I feel now that we have put the reconstruction on the right way," Maliki said.
Maliki also called on Iraqi academic and professionals to come back to Iraq to participate in the reconstruction process saying " we have a huge reconstruction process and we need all our qualified and scientific potentials abroad.
