This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L HILLAH 000004 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  1/6/2016 
TAGS: PREL ECON EINV ECIN EAGR PGOV KISL IZ ECON
SUBJECT: NAJAF OFFICIALS PLAN INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT CONFERENCE, 
SEEK U.S. SUPPPORT FOR CONFERENCE, ECONOMY 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: ALFRED FONTENEAU, REGIONAL COORDINATOR, REO, 
AL-HILLAH, STATE. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Najaf Deputy Governor told REO Al-Hillah 
staff of his intention to hold an international investment and 
economic development conference in Najaf in February. In a 
January 4 meeting, the Deputy Governor asked for U.S. support in 
publicizing the conference to American officials and companies. 
Describing provincial economic policies as those of "a small 
country," the Deputy Governor discussed efforts by himself, the 
Governor, and other Najaf officials to attract foreign 
investment in Najaf. He also praised Najaf's post-liberation 
economic progress, in particular in the agricultural sector, in 
which the Deputy Governor said that Najaf is enjoying bumper 
crops of rice and potatoes. End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) In a meeting January 4 between REO staff and Abdul 
Hussein Abtan, Deputy Governor of Najaf, and Dr. Munther 
Al-Ajinah, the Governor's Iraqi-born American citizen investment 
counselor, Abtan told REO staff of his plans to host an 
international investment and economic development conference in 
Najaf on February 10. Abtan said that economic development, and 
specifically encouraging foreign investment in Najaf, was the 
province's most important goal for 2006. He said that he and the 
Governor sought to make Najaf the "investment capital of Iraq." 
The conference, he said, would be a crucial step in this 
process. 
 
¶3. (C) Abtan reported that Najaf officials were contacting 
businessmen, investors, and government officials across the 
region and beyond. (Note: Najaf Governor Assad Al-Taee has 
traveled to Kuwait and South Korea on trade missions during his 
tenure, and is currently in India on another trade mission. 
Abtan mentioned plans for similar official visits to Great 
Britain, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia in the near future. End note.) 
Abtan asked for U.S. government support for logistics for the 
conference and for arranging media coverage of the event. He 
expressed a desire to meet with economic and commercial officers 
from the U.S. Embassy. "We hope that this conference could have 
the support of the U.S.," Abtan related. Asked if Baghdad had 
signed off on the conference, Abtan answered that Najaf 
officials had informed officials from the Ministries of Foreign 
Affairs, Planning and Finance, and hoped for their cooperation. 
He took pains to point out that Najaf was not seeking approval 
or permission from Baghdad to hold the conference, and that 
Najaf would go forward with its plans regardless of Baghdad's 
position. 
 
¶4. (C) The Deputy Governor explained the position of his 
province and their broad plans for development. Religious 
tourism is at the heart of the nascent Najaf economy, the 
officials explained. (Note. As the home of the Imam Ali Shrine, 
one of the holiest sites in Shi'a Islam, Najaf hosts thousands 
of religious pilgrims annually. End note.) The routes pilgrims 
take into and out of Najaf, from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and 
elsewhere, Abtan maintained, should also enable Najaf to become 
a trade hub. The officials said that they planned to offer tax 
breaks and other incentives to investors with the goal of making 
Najaf not just a religious tourism center but a free trade zone 
along the lines of Dubai. "We're acting as a small country," 
Abtan explained. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Crucial to Najaf's plans, Abtan avowed, is the 
development of the Najaf International Airport, a project that 
Najaf officials frequently refer to. Abtan asked for U.S. 
support for the development and construction of the airport, 
even suggesting that the economic development that would spring 
from this project would deal a decisive blow to the insurgency 
by creating jobs and prosperity and revealing to Shi'a worldwide 
that the U.S. supported their holy sites. Abtan waxed eloquent 
about his dream of hosting a visit by President George Bush to 
Najaf in which Air Force One would land in Najaf. "Imagine the 
echoes of this news. The story of the good coordination," Abtan 
extolled. "Imagine the significant results." 
 
¶6. (SBU) Asked about other economic plans and progress, Abtan 
said that the liberation of Iraq from the Saddam Hussein regime 
had already spurred significant growth and investment in 
infrastructure and agriculture. Roads were being paved, Abtan 
reported, and six new bridges had been built in Najaf, the first 
since the days of the Iraqi monarchy in the 1950s, he said. 
Abtan was most effusive about the agricultural progress Najaf 
had made since liberation. He offered that provincial rice 
output had tripled since the days of Saddam, and that for the 
first time in recent memory, Najaf was producing a potato crop. 
 
FONTENEAU