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Transcript:MR: Good afternoon. I'm very pleased to see that we have such a wonderful turnout. To kick off the first of this series of presentations on our activities in Iraq I have the honor of presenting Andrew Natsios, the USAID Administrator. After Mr. Natsios speaks, I'll give you an overview of our programs in Iraq. So without further ado, Andrew Natsios. MR. NATSIOS: Thank you very much, Richard. I'm sorry for being late, but we had an announcement of the Millennium Challenge Account countries and threshhold countries just now with Secretary Powell. First, I'd like to welcome all of you here in the audience, and those of you who are watching on the webcast, to the fourth series of our public consultations on U.S. AID's Contribution to the Reconstruction Effort in Iraq. These consultations are part of our effort to increase awareness of our Iraq program and to show the American people how their tax dollars are being used to bring about a stable, strong, and prosperous Iraq. As you may know, our work in Iraq is the largest reconstruction effort the agency has undertaken since the Marshal Plan, when our predecessor agency was established in the last 1940s. We are implementing--it says here $4.3 billion, but the actual amount now is five billion, $50 million that we have either been allocated or that we have already obligated. We are working with closely with our Iraqis colleagues to coordinate our efforts to meet the needs and priorities of Iraqis. We are joined by our partners in the international community--U.N. agencies, the World Bank, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the European Union. Today's event is meant to provide you with a general overview of our entire portfolio of activities, including our goals and objectives, our accomplishments, and some of the challenges that we are facing. The first objective of our reconstruction effort is to restore Iraq's essential infrastructure. Towards this end, AID and its partners are working to rebuild rehabilitate the vital components of Iraq's infrastructure, including electricity, water and sanitation, transportation, and telecommunications. And I might also add the port facility has been completed now in Umm Qasr and the airport in Baghdad. Our second objective is to support essential health and education services. In the health sector, we are working closely with our partners and with the Iraqi counterparts at the Ministry of Health to revitalize Iraq's health care system, with an emphasis on basic health care needs for women and children. As you may know, there are alarmingly high rates of child mortality in a country as advanced as Iraq. I mean, death rates that were recorded in the late '90s were 131 children died before the age of five per thousand, which is a very high rate for a country at the level of development Iraq was supposed to be at. In education, we are working hard to improve both access to education and the quality of education available in the country, at both the primary and secondary schools, and we have a very interesting university linkages program, which is one of my favorite programs. It links five American universities with five European universities, with five Iraq universities. And there have been professor exchanges, curriculum exchanges, workshops, training. We've built Internet centers, because many of these universities had actually no connection into the Internet or very limited connection. The third objective in AID's program is to expand economic opportunity, stimulate economic growth, and create jobs. Our work here is focused on helping the Iraq government create the economic and governance infrastructure, the legal framework, the regulatory framework, for investment, for entrepreneurship, and for job creation. That includes the banking sector, the central bank, we participate with the Treasury Department in the new currency creation. In many countries, after a conflict or a period of dictatorship, there needs to be attention paid to the legal framework in the system, because without that people are unwilling to invest money or institutions are. In addition to these regulatory reforms, we're also working to working to rebuild Iraq's once vibrant agriculture sector. It is among the best potential agriculture climates, both agroclimactic regions in the entire Muslim world, in terms both of the soil conditions in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, in terms of the water, in terms of the climate. However, the production levels, the yield levels for Iraqi agriculture prior to the conflict were among the worst I've ever seen in the world. They are comparable to North Korea's, as a matter of fact. No money was invested in the agriculture sector. The irrigation system is in terrible condition. The seed stock had not been replaced in 10 years and had been deteriorating, and there had been little scientific or technical support for innovations that had been taken in other countries. We're also working in this area in the restoration of the marshes, marshlands down in the southeastern part of the country, which had been 92 percent drained under Saddam; and there's a whole effort not just to re-flood some of the marshes, which the marsh Arabs had done themselves before anyone arrived, but to increase the income levels and reduce the mortality rates, among the worst mortality rates in the country for children who were among the marsh Arabs. And, so, there's a whole agriculture and enterprise development project in that area that I'm actually very proud of. We've made great progress in that area. And, finally, we have a focus in our fourth strategic objectives on improving the efficiency and accountability of Iraq's government. The first area of this is to implement programs to enhance and strengthen local government, the interim representative bodies at the national level and at the regional level, and the transitional executive authorities. We are encouraging the development of an active and responsible civil society, NGO community, and a free press. And we are working with our partners to promote open representative electoral processes in Iraq. If you have to ask me perhaps what are the most important things we are doing that is least visible to the outside world but most visible to most Iraqis it is our work in the area of local government. There are 12,000 locally elected officials in the city and town councils. I suspect you will see many of these people run for higher office. We don't' know this for sure, and candidate lists aren't available yet. But as is typically the case in a totalitarian regime that is democratizing and it is done at the bottom level moving up. It is best to democratize at the village or the town or the municipal level first, because as Alexander de Tocqueville once wrote in Democracy in America, local government is the schoolhouse of democracy. And I think there is a vibrant democratic culture that has already developed in Iraq at the local level. Capacitating the new local government, in terms of training, in terms of how you write a budget, hold a public hearing, how you hold an election, all of the things necessary to create a competent and honest government are programs that are in place on a very large scale. All of you are aware that the security situation in Iraq has posed a number of challenges to our reconstruction efforts. For example, it has restricted our movement within Baghdad and in some areas of increased insurgent activity. Despite the situation on the ground, the AID staff and its partners in the field continue to make significant progress throughout the country. We've been able to move forward in our programs as a result of pragmatic decision making an the necessary resources to protect our staff, the most important AID asset in the field. Additionally, we continue to address these challenges by maximum use of Iraqi subcontractors who can more easily operate in the country. This reliance on Iraqi businesses has raised another challenge to the implementation of our program. We have found some lack the technical capacity to bid on projects because open competition did not previously exist in the country. And, so we have overcome this obstacle. We have begun working with a number of Iraqi businesses to teach them how to prepare contract proposals in order to effectively compete in future contracts. And thus, in an interesting sort of way, the contracting process has become a capacity building process for the business sector. Despite the challenges we have faced, I would like to mention a few of our accomplishments and illustrate the achievements that can be attained by combining strong leadership, setting ambitious goals, careful planning, and most importantly the enormous amount of resources that President Bush has made available to us. This is on the par, if you look historically, of the Marshal Plan. There was a professor at the Kennedy School, who wrote an article I think for the Times in Britain, and she adjusted for inflation, looked back at the Marshal Plan, and this is per capita the size of the Marshal Plan from that perspective. First, in our area of democracy and governments, we have facilitated discussion among more than 750,000 Iraqis on democratic principles, on democratic values and processes, as part of a nation wide civic education campaign, which we are now conducting in anticipation of the elections in January and later. We began this program in the spring of 2003, and believe this to be an essential step in laying the groundwork for a democratic government in Iraq. I had a young man come up to me--it was in November of last year--in fact, he was our student Fallujah, and he said to me, I'll never forget it, he said, we want democracy for Iraq. We just are not quite sure what that means. We have not history of in this country. We were shut off from the outside world. We need you and other countries that have democratic systems to explain to us what democracy is. We know it's not just elections. We don't understand the other parts of it. And, so, as I heard that, I realized that we simply needed to help this young man understand the different options. I mean, is it a parliamentary system? A presidential system? I mean, how strong should local government be? What's an election? What's a political party? Why is a free press important to functioning democracy? And I think we've done that in an effective way across the country. Twenty-five years ago, Iraq had one of the best education systems in the Middle East. By the time the U.S. troops entered the country, the schools were not only poorly maintained, but teachers were poorly, if at all, paid, and poorly trained. Basic equipment and books were lacking. The school building stock had deteriorated. I saw some of the schools that kids were actually going to school in, and I was stunned by them. Enrollment, especially for girls, had declined, especially in the Shi'a south, and, with our partners support and our work with the Ministry of Education, schools have reopened after the conflict by October of 2002. That was the goal. And at that time, more than 1,500 schools had been rehabilitated, and over the course of the school year, we saw a very substantial increase in female attendance at school. By March of 2004, some 2,500 schools had been repaired and reconstructed and rehabilitated. We trained over 32,000 teachers and distributed, working with UNESCO and UNICEF, 8.7 million newly printed textbooks. We also implemented extremely successful accelerated learning programs for young women and young men who had been denied an education or access to schools. I would like to mention how proud I am of the strong partnerships that we have developed with both the Iraqi government ministers and the career officers in those ministries an the Iraqi people. I have visited probably 80 or 90 countries over the last 15 years in the developing world, and sometimes I don't characterize the countries, because it would be embarrassing if I did. Iraq is in a different category. The Iraqi people have a work discipline. They have high levels of education, at least the older people do. Unfortunately, there's a big gap. You have an unusual situation, where you have a highly skilled elite, but as you get younger, the education simply stops. And so, there's a giant generational gap in the educational. It's very unusual to have that. You usually have the opposite. But because of that elite and because there was at one time, 25 years ago, a functioning middle class, you have the basis for a democratic system. People, I think, who are looking at the events with the insurgency are not looking at the larger inherent strengths of Iraqi society, and they are the size of the technocratic elite, the competence of the Iraqis, their value system in terms of being very proud of their country, being very work oriented. They have a work discipline that's very important. And I think there's a genuine desire among a very large number of people for a democratic system of government to avoid having them go through what they went through the last 25 years. And most importantly, one of the factors that makes for a stable democracy is a middle class. And there are middle class values among a substantial portion of the people. And finally, Iraq is a highly urbanized society. Seventy percent of the people live in cities, and urbanized societies, with a large middle class population, even if their incomes decline, the middle class is not necessarily defined by income levels, but by value systems and outlook in their view of the future. And they have a sizeable group of people that they can base on a stable system, political and economic system in the future. So, I am in the longer term very hopeful. Thank you very much. [Applause.] MR. : Thank you, Mr. Administrator. As I mentioned earlier, today's presentation is meant to provide you with an overview of our activities in Iraq and as well as to give you some insight into what we've achieved thus far. As the Administrator indicated, we're working in four general areas: restoring essential infrastructure, supporting health and education, expanding economic opportunity, and improving the efficiency and accountability of the Iraqi government. Let me first focus on our work in infrastructure, which is the largest portion of our portfolio. USAIAD is continuing to work in the areas of power, water, and the transportation sector. But before I get into our main our major infrastructure activities, I'd like to mention a very unique program that we have in Iraq that is kind of a blend of infrastructure and democracy and work. Earlier this year, General Chiarelli, of the First Calvary Division, came to AID, and said, listen, we are having problems winning the people over to our side. We want to come to them with something positive, not just come as an armed force. USAID has a program with the Office of Transition Initiatives, where we work--actually, USAID has, as many of you know, has democracy programs in all 18 governorates. And one of our major activities is with the Office of Transition Initiatives, where we work with individual communities to identify their needs and then to work, and then to fulfill them working again very closely with the communities, generating employment, filling needs, and developing linkages. General Chiarelli wanted to have this type of program as a joint endeavor between the First Calvary and their civil affairs officers and USAID. And we agreed, and since March, we've been carrying this out, and we have been focusing only on some of the most dangerous cities in Iraq, the idea being that these are the most critical areas where we must build the linkages. Civil affairs officers would go to community leaders on the very lowest levels to the district and local governments, and say, listen, what is it you need most? We would identify what the communities really needed, then, with funding from USAID, the communities would carry out activities such as cleaning roads, cleaning irrigation ditches, building parks. But the fact is we would be generating employment and building linkages between Americans and Iraqis. Since May of 2004, OTI has approved 500 grants, with a value of $16 million, and who have generated an average of 40,000 short-term jobs a month. So, this is a kind of a unique program, and an example how AID's flexibility enables us to work with a wide variety of partners to have impact in even some of the most difficult areas. With regard to major infrastructure, as you many of you know who have been to Iraq, decades of minimal repairs and no regular maintenance have left Iraq's electrical grid with limited capacity to light homes and power businesses. Before the conflict, the amount of electricity around the country varied widely. Baghdad did receive probably 24 hours of electricity a day. And, of course, that's where Saddam Hussain lived, and it might be a good idea to make sure he has electricity when he wanted it. Other parts of the country received less, some as little as three hours a day; some received none. As a result of the coordinated construction efforts of the past year, and despite the ongoing security problems and increased demand for power, most areas of Iraq are currently receiving between 11 and 15 hours of electricity service every day. We hope that by the end of 2005, they will be receiving 18 to 20 hours a day. As you aware, lack of access to clean water is a serious health concern and the primary cause of death to children under the age of five. In addition, many Iraqi cities and neighborhoods lack sewage treatment plants, another serious threat to public health. Upon our arrival in Iraq, USAID found that the existing facilities were in states of total disrepair. Baghdad's three sewage treatment plants, which contribute to three-quarters of the nation's sewage treatment capacity, were inoperable. Raw waste from Baghdad's 3.8 million people flowed untreated into the Tigris River. And it's not uncommon to see raw sewage flowing down the streets of some towns in Iraq. Currently, USAID is working to rehabilitate nine sewage treatment plants across Iraq. These efforts will increase treated wastewater by 250,000,000 gallons per day by the first quarter of 2005 and increase Iraq's potable water supply by 420,000,000 gallons today, by the end of 2005. Another key area of the economy where infrastructure is critical is transportation. Without transport, there can be no progress. USAID has completed several projects aimed at improving the transportation infrastructure essential to increase the flow of commercial and humanitarian goods and services throughout the country. USAID has completed rehabilitation, as the Administrator noted, of both the Baghdad and Basra International Airports. We provided the tarmac lights. We developed the control tower, the electrical system, and the fuel systems. We also worked on the seaport at Umm Qasr. We did the dredging, provided power, built the customs office, and refurbished the wheat silos. This now allows commercial traffic to return to the port. There are now about 50 ships a month are offloading. There is still a lot of work that has to be done at the port to bring it up to international standards, and unfortunately USAID doesn't have the resources to do that work, but it is a working port now, and we are getting in food and medicine and other supplies required to move Iraq along. Finally, by December, USAID an the Ministry of Transportation will have completed 72 kilometers of track running from the port of Umm Qasr to Basra; therefore, facilitating the transport of materials to the north. But in the end, the key to stability is jobs and economic opportunities. And we have a very broad-based program in Iraq. As you know, during the previous regime, the economy was centralized and state owned, inhibiting innovation and private sector development. Long-term economic growth and employment require a robust private sector. USAID is moving forward with programs to assist the Iraqi Interim Government to develop an economic system that is stable and creates long-term employment. Toward this end, we are continuing to work to provide a wide variety of assistance to address macroeconomic issues, government finance, private sector development, trade, rural economics, and food security. And I might add that we're working with a very wide spectrum of individuals and agencies and sectors to achieve these ends. We work, of course, with the government. We work with the banks. We work with the stock market, and we have a variety of activities aimed at the private sector, be they large, small, or even micro enterprises, because in order to uplift the economy of Iraq, we must work on all levels, from the policy level all the way on down to the smallest businessman. We are also focused on training and developing a viable workforce by establishing vocational education centers throughout the country and linking these centers to employment centers helping to place trained individuals in the workforce. As you know, there's nothing more frustrating than to put somebody through training and then not have a job for him. Raise his hopes and then shatter them. We try not to do that. As the Administrator noted, agriculture is a key area in Iraq, and it's one that has been neglected. War, drought, and repression have caused severe decline in agricultural productivity over the years. This is particularly devastating when you consider that 30 percent of Iraq's population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. A strong ag sector will create sustainable employment and stimulate growth in the rural areas. USAID has developed a program to assist Iraqis in building a productive, employment-generating, market-oriented agricultural system. It is aimed at strengthening small and medium-size agro-enterprises to produce, process, and market agricultural goods and services, to nurture rural financial services to meet the needs of agricultural producers; to rehabilitate the natural resource base to promote conservation and sustainability. This includes introducing improved crop varieties and water resource management, for instance; and to increase agricultural employment to prevent urban migration and social unrest. That said, economic growth and transformation of the Iraqi society will not be possible without a healthy and well educated populace. Not surprisingly, the same neglect evident in other sectors of Iraqi life is evident in public health and education. In the health sector, USAID financed international health organizations, such as UNICEF and WHO to immunize over three million children under five and vaccinate over 700,000 pregnant women. We're continuing our vaccination campaign as we work with the Ministry of Health to re-equip health care clinics, train doctors and nurses, and distribute supplementary food rations to hundreds of thousands of pregnant and nursing women. We are providing materials and supplies kits to some 600 selected clinics throughout the country as well. USAID is also working with the Ministry of Health to shift from a centrally controlled, curative care model of health to a more decentralized primary health care model, with an emphasis on maternal and child health. This will enable individual health centers to tailor their programs to the needs of their communities. And finally, USAID's education programs have, as the Administrator noted, rehabilitated over 2,300 schools, trained 32,000 school teachers, and, working with UNESCO, we have printed and distributed almost nine million math and science textbooks. In the key area of efficiency and accountability of government, USAID is working with national, district, and local governments and a wide variety of partners to improve their, the efficiency, transparency, and ability of the governments to interact productively with their constituents. Concomitantly, we're working to form and strengthen Iraq civil society, teaching Iraqis how to articulate their wants and needs and how to address the Iraqi government in a peaceful and productive manner. And finally, we are providing important technical assistance and materials to support the independent Electoral Commission of Iraq. We're hoping to provide and train domestic election observers, voter education, and other support required in the hopes that we could have a timely and fair and open election in January. As I noted earlier, this is just a brief overview of our activities in Iraq. Future meetings will cover individual sectors in much greater detail. Next Thursday, in fact, we will have a detailed presentation on infrastructure programs in Iraq, but at this time, I'd like to open up the floor to any questions you might have. Yes, sir? Can you use the microphone, please? Is it on now? Yeah. It's on now. MR. : I wanted to get some more information on irrigation and the efforts to enhance agricultural productivity through greater use of irrigation. MR. : Okay. Let's see. Is Doug Pool back there? Okay. Doug Pool is our agricultural expert. I will turn the floor over to him. MR. POOL: Unfortunately, there's a--can you hear me now? MR. : It's here. Mora, can we turn that down? Why don't you start? MR. POOL: As Richard had mentioned before, we have a very small program in agriculture right now; about $11 million. And we've done very little in irrigation. There's been a little bit in putting in some new pumps, some diversion structures, and actually cleaning irrigation canals. We're looking for new monies to actually improve water use, and, as you know, Iraq needs a national water master plan to look at the water that comes down the Tigris and the Euphrates and the allocation between agriculture and the public distribution system in terms of water being supplied to local houses and so forth. So, right now, we don't have a large program on irrigation, but we hope to be looking for new funds for that soon. MR. : Thank you, Doug. Are there any other questions? Yes. MR. : [Inaudible]. MR. : Sure. Adam, are you there? Let's see. Adam Schmidt [sp?] is our democracy and rule of law officer, and he's also in charge of our election activities. MR. SCHMIDT: There is, in fact, a project underway to support transitional governance in Iraq, which is being by our SEPS partners, and those are the Consortium for Electoral and Political Party Strengthening that is N-D-I-R-I-N Iphis. The transitional governance deals directly with the transitional institutional structures, whether that be the Transitional National Assembly, the Interministerial Council, and dealing with the wider issues of constitutional development, once a Transitional National Assembly has been elected and put into place. So, as an answer to that, yes, on the human rights side, OTI has been engaged in the transitional governance--excuse me--a transitional justice program. Having done some work with human rights, we also have a rule of law program which is currently soon to be underway. Through Bearing Point, but that will not have a particular human rights focus per se. MR. : Thank you. And I might add that OTI also did some work with research into the mass graves, and that information has been shared with the government, with the U.S. Government and with the Iraqi Government, and much of that will be used in the trials that will be coming up for the old regime. Are there any other questions? Yes, sir. Please use the microphone so--this is being webcast, and you're-- MR. : [Inaudible] MR. : It will work now. I think. Oh, you have to turn it on then. All right. MR. : I'm just wondering if you have an update on the financial management sector or are there any programs dealing with the financial sector, management? That's one. Second you mentioned about the cooperation or the coordination between five U.S. universities with five European, with five Iraqi, can you identify some of the schools in the states that are involved in that process? MR. : I don't know if we have somebody here who has all five--it's the University of Washington, University of Oklahoma [inaudible], University of Hawaii and what? MS. : Jackson State. MR. : And Jackson State University. Now, could you--certainly, they're okay. Could you clarify what you meant by the financial management. Give me? MR. : Well, basically, I'm looking for opportunities dealing with the financial management in terms of consultancy, as you mentioned, you talked here about the stock market in particular. MR. : Mm hmm. MR. : But are there any other activities that are taking place or they will be taking place in the future dealing with the areas of financial management? MR. : I can't think of any activity offhand that we have planned, which is focused primarily on financial management. The stock market activity and activities such as that are being carried out under an existing contract with Bearing Point, so I don't see any openings there, except perhaps in subcontracting. MR. : In the old days, Iraq used to have a bank for development. MR. : Mm hmm. MR. : They used to give loans like the World Bank to other countries. Are there any plans to restructure that particular institution? MR. : I believe there are. Is Nadia here? Yes. Why don't you come on up, and--Nadia Daoud is our private sector officer. We are working with the banks on policy reform and to try and develop linkages with U.S. banks, but I think Nadia could give you a lot more details than I. MS.DAOUD: We're doing a lot with the financial management, as you're referring to it, so we would really have to get a bit more details on what specifically you're talking about. We set up the stock exchange, which is operating now twice a day for a couple hours a day. We'll continue to do a lot more work in our follow-on contract regarding the stock exchange in particular, but we're also working--I think you were referring to the central bank of Iraq. We're working with the Central Bank in terms of restructuring, getting the regulatory environment in place, fiscal/monetary issues--all that is being done with the Central Bank and the two large state-owned banks and the private banking sector as well. So, I think I would need a bit more detail on exactly what you're referring to under financial management. MR. : [Inaudible] MS. DAOUD: Yeah. It sounded like you're looking for consultancies under how to get involved in doing that kind of work. What we could do is I could put you in touch with some of our implementers, who are just starting to do some of those activities. That's probably the best way to go. MR. : Nadia, is the Iraqi Stock Exchange open to foreign investment yet? MS. DAOUD: No. Right now, the stock exchange, like I said, it's only operating for two days a week and only operating for two hours a day. There's a small number of Iraqi companies are listed on the exchange. There's a larger number of companies that are waiting to get listed. In terms of foreign participation, that's going to fall under privatization, and how the whole thing is going play out, which is a big political issue obviously, so it's not something that this interim government is really going to take one. We are planning to do some work with the SOEs, which is the government-owned enterprises in terms of how we're going to privatize those, and they'll be some obviously opportunities for foreign investors to get involved in those. But in terms of actually playing the stock exchange right now, that's--that's not happened just yet. Any other [inaudible] questions. MR. : To keep you busy. Actually, I travel between Washington and Kuwait often, and my question to you is very basic: even though we have been hearing in the news quite often on a daily basis, but do you feel that the climate now or in the near future will be ripe for, especially I know, that Kuwaiti companies are still waiting in anticipation-- MS. DAOUD: Yeah. MR. : Of entering the Iraqi market, and most of these companies are--they have long plans, but they kept it on hold because of basically the security issue. So, do you feel now is the climate is getting ripe for actually companies to go to Iraq? MS. DAOUD: Yeah. If you're referring to about Kuwaiti companies in particular, actually three commercial bank licenses were awarded. One of them went to the National Bank of Kuwait. The National Bank of Kuwait just made an investment in an Iraqi bank, so they're moving towards really getting that bank off the ground and actually using the license and starting their operations. That just happened very recently. In terms of the general climate for investments going forward, the security situation on the ground has obviously made it difficult to do a lot more of those types of activities that we had planned, but we plan on working with the Iraqis, like I said, taking the regulatory environment into effect, getting the laws in place, and strengthening the institutions to make that possible. So, in short, yes. Obviously, we are going to be working to help cultivate that environment going forward. Are there a lot of companies interested at this point? Yes. Are there a lot who are actually doing things on the ground? No. So, it's something that we're going to have to wait and see, and do a lot of the prep work in order to get there. MR. : Yes. Could you please identify yourself and your organization, please. MS. BERRY: Sara Berry with USAID. MR. : Oh, hi. MS. BERRY: Administrator Natsios had mentioned in his remarks that USAID is now making maximum use of Iraqi subcontractors-- MR. : Yes. MS. BERRY: To like us get around some of these restrictions on the movement of contracting personnel. Could you please expand on that further and maybe even go into how this may impact subcontracting opportunities for companies, foreign companies outside of the U.S.? Thank you. MR. : Yes. Because of the security situation, of course, it is much easier to have Iraqis working on a site in the exterior than to have Americans or other foreigners. Bechtel, for instance, will use a great number of Iraqi subcontractors throughout the country to carry out some of its activities. This has two advantages. Of course, one it lowers our security profile a bit. And second of all, it generates quite a bit of employment. We have a gentleman here from RTI who had worked in--Research Triangle Institute is one of our major grantees who work in the area of democracy. Virtually all their staff are Iraqi. I believe the last figure, they had a hundred Americans and 3,000 Iraqis working; and, again, particularly in that area, where you're working in democracy, you can't keep a low profile, and you have to be able to communicate with the people at all levels. So, it makes a lot more sense to use Iraqi contractors there. Are there any other questions? Okay. Well, thank you very much, and we look forward to seeing you next Thursday for our infrastructure presentation. [Applause.] Thank you. Okay. My pleasure. |
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