Doing business in Iraq

Iraq has seen more than its share of difficulties in recent years. However that has created opportunities for companies that are willing to take on the challenges of doing business in Iraq. By no means is it easy to get a company set up and doing business in Iraq and it will likely take several years before you start to see the rewards. However for a company willing to give it a go there are large potential profits available.

There is lots of opportunity for doing business in Iraq. The country has been severely damaged by the war and that has created a requirement to rebuild the country. Most of the infrastructure is going to have to be rebuilt and in large part that is going to be done by foreign companies. Since Iraq is a major petroleum producer there is certainly potential for the country to become a strong economic player in the region. However it is going to be a long road to get there as the country has a stagnant economy for decades as the result of wars and embargos.

As part of the plan to rebuild Iraq there has been a conscious effort on the part of the government to improve the business environment. The main way that they are doing this is by changing the laws that used to make it so hard to do business in Iraq. In the past it was very difficult for foreign companies to operate in Iraq because of all the regulation designed to keep them out. The new laws now allow foreign companies in but there is still a great deal of red tape and bureaucracy involved that make doing business a challenge.

There are other challenges to doing business in Iraq, the biggest being the almost total lack of infrastructure. Years of war have left the country with almost no infrastructure which is going to make things more difficult and more expensive. There is also a shortage of skilled employees available to do the jobs. There are attempts being made to train the Iraqi citizens so that they are qualified to take on skilled jobs but it is going to take several years before there is a skilled workforce. For now you will need to get employees from other countries to come to Iraq, this will be a major challenge and very expensive since there are few people who want to go to Iraq.

Over the past few years most of the foreign companies doing business in Iraq were actually working for the United States government. This was part of the plan to rebuild Iraq after the war. This situation is starting to change and any company that wants to operate in Iraq will need to get the approval of the Iraqi government and comply with the laws of the country. There are great opportunities in Iraq but it is going to take a long term investment before you see any payoff.