VZCZCXRO4663
RR RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDH RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #0150/01 0211417
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211417Z JAN 10 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6215
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 000150 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL ECON EFIN EAGR IZ
SUBJECT: IN SALAH-AD-DIN, BUILDING PROVINCIAL CAPACITY 
THROUGH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 
 
¶1. (U) This is a Salah Ad Din Provincial Reconstruction Team 
(PRT) message. 
 
¶2. (U) SUMMARY. Salah ad Din PRT is fostering economic 
development in the province through banking and agriculture 
initiatives.  The PRT supports the expansion of private 
banking by facilitating the opening of Al-Warka Bank branches 
on U.S. military bases in Balad and Tikrit. In addition, PRT 
agriculture initiatives include the introduction of new 
technology including hoop houses and no-till drills.  Local 
farmers are increasingly embracing this new technology as a 
direct result of engagement by the agriculture experts on the 
PRT's economics team.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶3. (U) The PRT's economics team has been promoting and 
supporting a number of significant efforts throughout the 
province in the areas of banking and agriculture.  These 
activities are marking a distinct turn away from merely 
promoting discrete projects to establishing and building 
Iraqi capacity in key areas of a largely broken economy. 
These initiatives have the potential to be key steps toward 
mending economic and agricultural processes that will help 
establish a base to begin growing a provincial economy. 
 
NEW BANKING OPPORTUNITIES 
------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) A branch office of Al-Warka Bank recently opened at 
Joint Base Balad/Anaconda Air Force Base in Balad and a 
second is set to open in the next two months at Contingency 
Operating Base (COB) Speicher, where the PRT is housed, near 
Tikrit.  Both branches are based in the Iraqi-Based 
Industrial Zones (IBIZ), areas at each base designated for 
Iraqi enterprises to service the needs of the base and 
surrounding areas.  Al-Warka Bank will provide electronic 
fund transfers to base workers and credit card authorizations 
via MasterCard Services--a first for Iraq. 
 
¶5. (U) The new bank branches resulted from an idea proposed 
by the PRT Economic Advisor to bank officials, who recognized 
the opportunities of the improved security environment and 
were eager to expand their operations.  The proposal also 
dovetailed with the IBIZ mission of making military 
facilities an economic asset for their surrounding 
communities.  Setting up the new branches presented 
considerable logistical and administrative challenges, 
overcome by a committed team effort among the PRT, the bank, 
the IBIZ and the military administrators of the two bases. 
 
¶6. (U) The mission of the IBIZ will continue beyond the U.S. 
military drawdown.  Following the reduction of U.S. Forces in 
Iraq (USF-I) these two large bases will revert to Iraqi 
control and continue to operate, with large numbers of Iraqi 
military and support personnel.  They will continue to be a 
major source of demand for services provided by IBIZ 
enterprises.  Ensuring the sustainability of the IBIZ is an 
important part of the discussions between USF-I and incoming 
Iraqi commanders, who recognize the value of these businesses. 
 
PRT INITIATIVES ENHANCE AG CAPACITY 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (U) Agricultural "hoop houses", also known as "high 
tunnels" are low-cost, easily transportable greenhouses that 
provide off-season crops of fruits and vegetables and help to 
address the wide seasonal variation in food supply.  They 
were introduced to Salah ad Din through a joint initiative 
between the PRT and the provincial Agricultural Task Force 
(ATF), a committee consisting of provincial officials, 
farmers' union members and engineers, after the ATF attended 
a PRT-sponsored hoop house demonstration in Jordan. 
Following their introduction in the province, hoop houses 
have become widely popular among farmers.  There are now over 
Qhave become widely popular among farmers.  There are now over 
a thousand hoop houses in Salah ad Din, fewer than two 
hundred of which were funded by coalition forces.  This high 
growth rate has been aided in part by the commercial 
manufacturing of the hoops (or "ribs") at a metal fabrication 
facility in Samarra.  Iraqis have also expressed strong 
interest to the PRT Econ Team in opening a local business to 
fabricate the plastic cover for these structures.  Home-grown 
spinoffs of these formerly imported materials are a strong 
indication that Iraqis have adopted this technology as their 
own for long-term use in an expanding agriculture economy. 
 
¶8. (U) A call-in radio talk show on January 2 in Tikrit 
featured a program discussing the new no-till drills being 
piloted in the Province.  The speaker, the Director General 
of Agriculture Extension Services in Salah ad Din, identified 
the PRT as the prime mover in bringing this technique to the 
Province.  Several callers expressed satisfaction with their 
initial results using the drills and gratitude for the chance 
to try the new technology.  The PRT Agriculture Team is 
 
BAGHDAD 00000150  002 OF 002 
 
 
working to obtain more quantitative results from this first 
season of use in planting winter grain crops.  With funding 
support from CERP, the PRT and ATF introduced no-till drills 
to improve planting efficiency and mitigate soil loss from 
erosion, and the University of Tikrit's College of 
Agriculture recently hosted a demonstration of the new 
machines for district-level agriculture representatives. 
Training partnerships with the University increasingly are an 
essential part of the PRT and ATF's outreach strategy. 
 
¶9. (U) COMMENT. PRT successes in developing Salah ad Din's 
banking and agricultural sectors are making progress in 
building sustainable capacity.  Modern payment methods and 
efficient agriculture are each, in their own way, essential 
building blocks for a modern economy. END COMMENT. 
HILL