Iraq: Iraq Pins Hope on Privatisation as Oil Price Falls and War Against ISIL Takes Its Toll

Dec 28, 2014 | The National
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Iraq plans to divest state-owned enterprises as part of a major privatisation push to diversify income and revenues in light of lower oil prices and the financing of a war against ISIL.

“A number of industries and manufacturing factories have been identified and will be offered to the private sector,” says Mudher Saleh, the newly appointed economic advisor to the prime minister Haider Al Abadi.

Mr Saleh, the former deputy governor at the central bank, faces a daunting task, providing recommendations on keeping the economy afloat when Brent has sunk from US$90 in October to about $60 a barrel last week, while ISIL militants are in control of swathes of land and a few oilfields in north-western Iraq.