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PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #0152/01 0211056
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 211056Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1309
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 000152 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/19/2019 
TAGS: ECON INV ENRG EIND IZ IR
SUBJECT: INDUSTRY MINISTER ON FOREIGN INVESTMENT STRATEGY 
AND IRANIAN INTEREST IN IRAQI PETROCHEMICALS 
 
REF: A. BAGHDAD 3906 
     ¶B. BAGHDAD OI 1/16/2009 
 
Classified By: Economic Minister Counselor Marc Wall.  Reasons 1.4 (b,d 
). 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. (C) At a January 14 meeting, Minister of Industry and 
Minerals (MIM) Fawzi Hariri provided Economic Minister 
Counselor and Coordinator for Economic Transition in Iraq 
Ambassador Marc Wall and Economic Counselor with an update 
into MIM's ongoing initiatives to enter into 
production-sharing joint venture (JV) agreements with foreign 
investors for the rehabilitation and management of 
state-owned factories.  While he was upbeat on current rounds 
of joint venture negotiation with investors, he said talks 
over a 1 billion USD JV agreement between steel giant 
ArcelorMittal and the State Company for Steel and Iron in 
Basra were encountering some difficulties.  Although Hariri 
said Iranian firms are "aggressively" pursuing investment in 
the state-owned Iraqi petrochemical sector, particularly the 
State Company for Petrochemical Industries in Basra, he is 
trying to steer these companies away from chemical-related 
production lines.  He did, however, convey MIM's willingness 
to discuss a JV agreement with Dow Chemical for the Basra 
facility.  Hariri outlined MIM's next phase of its SOE 
strategy, which he hopes will include a partial privatization 
of a pharmaceutical plant.  According to Hariri, the economic 
crisis has helped attract more interest in investing in Iraq, 
with Arab gulf states particularly demonstrating greater 
appetite for Iraqi investment opportunities.  End Summary. 
 
EMERGING SUCCESS WITH JOINT VENTURE AGREEMENTS 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶2. (SBU) On January 14, Minister of Industry and Minerals 
(MIM) Fawzi Hariri provided Economic Minister Counselor and 
Coordinator for Economic Transition in Iraq Ambassador Marc 
Wall with an update into MIM's ongoing initiatives to attract 
foreign investors to enter into joint venture (JV) 
production-sharing agreements with state-owned factories. 
While citing  some challenges in working with the foreign 
investor consortia that took over management of the 
state-owned cement plants in Kirkuk and Anbar provinces in 
August 2008, he said all parties were "ironing them out." 
(Note: MIM signed JV production-sharing agreements, the first 
such deals, with both a Romanian and German investor 
consortia in April 2008.  MIM officials report production 
increases of 20 percent at both plants, but lack of 
electricity supply still hinder larger production increases. 
End Note.) 
 
¶3. (SBU) Hariri was upbeat on current rounds of joint venture 
negotiation with foreign investors.  He said a 
recently-concluded JV deal with Japanese firm Marubeni and an 
Iraqi partner for Beiji Fertilizer would increase production 
from 500,000 tons/year to 1.5 million tons/year, and praised 
the JV agreement between the Egyptian transformer 
manufacturer Al-Suweti group and Diyala Electric (Reftel A 
and Note: These deals only require formal signing of the 
contract to go into effect.  End note).  He said MIM was also 
"ready to move" on two JV deals with Kubaisa and Sinjar 
cement plants, in Anbar and Ninewa provinces, respectively 
(Reftel B and Note: The next day, Deputy Minister of Industry 
and Minerals told econoffs that MIM had successfully 
concluded talks for the plants.  He said the consortium 
involved with the Kubaisa plant include Japanese firms 
Marubeni and Kawasaki, as well as American and Iraqi investor 
QMarubeni and Kawasaki, as well as American and Iraqi investor 
groups.  The Sinjar deal is with a German-Kurd consortium. 
The Council of Ministers must now approve both agreements, 
after which, MIM and the consortia representatives formally 
sign the contract.  End Note.) 
 
INDUSTRY MINISTER NOT UPBEAT ON TALKS WITH ARCELORMITTAL 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶4. (C) Hariri said negotiations for a 1 billion USD 
production-sharing, JV agreement between steel giant 
ArcelorMittal and the State Company for Steel and Iron in 
Basra continue, but without noticeable progress.  According 
to Hariri, ArcelorMittal is now demanding "too many 
commitments" from MIM.  "They keep moving the goal post," he 
said.  For example, the company initially agreed to maintain 
the labor force of 6,000 workers for the duration of the 
agreement, but now preferred to gradually cut numbers, to 
begin within a few years.  He also stated the company had 
first agreed to implement the investment over three years, 
 
BAGHDAD 00000152  002 OF 003 
 
 
but now preferred to draw it out over eight years.  In 
addition, he expressed dissatisfaction with ArcelorMittal's 
terms that the GOI provide a guaranteed supply of gas to run 
a 400 MW power plant the company intends to build.  According 
to Hariri, however, MIM does not have the authority to make 
this commitment.  He expressed his opinion that the company 
is "playing for time" to see how the state of the global 
economy evolves, but said talks will nevertheless continue. 
 
IRANIAN INTEREST IN PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRIES 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) According to Hariri, Iranian firms are very interested 
in investing in the state-owned Iraqi petrochemical sector, 
particularly the State Company for Petrochemical Industries 
in Basra.  Describing the Iranian bidders as "very 
aggressive," Hariri said he was "literally having to fend 
them off."  According to Hariri, there are 64 petrochemical 
plants in Iran, 60 percent of which are state-owned, which 
produce 25 million tons/year of product.  Hariri said he is 
trying to steer the Iranians away from chemical industrial 
production lines and towards the state-owned tire company in 
Najaf.  He also discussed Iranian eagerness to do business in 
the Iraqi market writ large, stating Iranian businesses see 
Iraq as an extension of their domestic market.  Hariri added 
he is trying to convince Iranian companies to set up 
production facilities here to help the labor market, rather 
than to just sell goods. 
 
BUT HARIRI PREFERS DOW CHEMICAL 
------------------------------- 
 
6 (C) Hariri conveyed MIM's willingness to discuss a JV 
agreement between Dow Chemical and the State Company for 
Petrochemical Industries in Basra.  Citing meetings between 
MIM officials and Dow last year, Hariri said the ministry had 
reached a "good understanding" with the company for the 
possibility of such a JV agreement.  He explained, however, 
that Dow subsequently began pursuing a 12 billion USD 
petrochemical deal in Kuwait, diverting the company's 
attention from Iraq.  Now that the Kuwait deal had fallen 
through, Hariri said he wished to once again engage in talks 
with Dow to let them know "we are still open to them."  He 
said Indian company Reliant was also exploring investment in 
the Basra petrochemical line. 
 
"PARTIAL PRIVATIZATION" 
----------------------- 
 
¶7. (C) While the production-sharing joint venture agreements 
with the SOEs do not involve sale of equity of the enterprise 
or ownership transfer of its assets, Hariri outlined MIM's 
"phased" strategy that would work towards privatization of 
certain SOEs.  He said the JV agreements constitute the first 
"phase" of MIM's SOE strategy, explaining that the ministry 
was now conducting studies to enter the second "phase," which 
would involve partial sales of equity shares in SOEs. 
Stating, "We want to do one or two IPO's soon," Hariri 
explained the State Company for Pharmaceuticals in Samara was 
the leading candidate.  He said MIM first needed to determine 
a share price attractive to all sides, to include the value 
of the land of the company.  Operating within Company Law 21 
of 1997 which governs mixed sector companies, Hariri 
explained, the GOI would not retain ownership of more than 24 
percent. He added that the JV program would continue, even 
when such a partial privatization begins.  In the future, 
Hariri said, MIM plans to consider full privatization of its 
QHariri said, MIM plans to consider full privatization of its 
SOEs. 
 
PRIMARY CHALLENGES FOR STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶8. (C) Hariri stated the two greatest challenges facing his 
ministry were its vastly oversized labor force and power 
generation challenges.  He estimated MIM SOEs on average 
employ 100 percent more workers than are required, and, in 
some cases, 200 percent more than needed.  Compounding the 
problem, he said, many of these workers are completely idle, 
given most factories only operate at one shift out of three. 
He explained the difficulties of balancing investor concerns 
of over-employment with the impact of job losses.  Hariri 
stated lack of electricity supply was creating drags on 
production throughout MIM SOEs, complaining that he often 
must divert gas supplies from his factories to the Ministry 
of Electricity.  On two occasions over the past four months, 
Hariri said, an order from "the Iraqi leadership" to transfer 
gas to the MoE forced him to entirely shut down one of his 
two fertilizer factories.  He recounted a conversation with 
the MoE earlier in the day, when he was asked to divert 
 
BAGHDAD 00000152  003 OF 003 
 
 
additional gas to add 200 MW to the national grid. 
"Electricity is a vote-winner," he said. 
 
ECONOMIC CRISIS MEANS MORE INTEREST IN IRAQ 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) According to Hariri, the economic crisis has helped 
attract more interest in investing in Iraq.  He specifically 
said Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are expressing 
greater appetite for Iraqi investment opportunities due to 
their weakened trust in global banking systems, estimating 
that Qatar and Kuwaiti investment groups lost 25-30 billion 
USD in the first week of the economic crisis.  He said many 
GCC states are now investing in economies such as Sudan, 
indicating a new trend away from traditional markets.  He 
added that UAE and Kuwaiti firms in particular were already 
investing heavily in the KRG. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CROCKER