New York Times:
Iraqis Press Donors for Billions More in Reconstruction Aid
By JAMES GLANZ
Published: July 19, 2005
AMMAN, Jordan, July 18 - As fresh violence engulfs Iraq, the officials in charge of its government pressed a major meeting of donor nations here on Monday for billions of dollars in new financing to repair a country that remains in a state of physical and economic collapse.
But in a finely balanced argument, the Iraqi officials also said their country and its fledgling financial institutions were stable and secure enough to manage the influx of that much money.
In fact, those officials said, now is the time for local Iraqi governments to take the lead in setting priorities for rebuilding out of the hands of foreign nations, and for Iraqi contractors to carry out virtually all of the work with local labor.
Some of those pleas were answered when Japan reached what the Iraqi planning minister, Barham Salih, said were the outlines of an agreement to provide $3.5 billion in low-interest loans for water, sewage, road and other projects. The World Bank also announced that it had offered Iraq up to $500 million in similar loans over the next two years.
Mr. Salih, whose ministry functions as a kind of switchyard for rebuilding funds, made it clear that he was disappointed in major portions of the American rebuilding program, which he said had failed to produce quick results despite the expenditure of about $9 billion, according to Pentagon figures....
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/19/international/middleeast/19donors.htmlON EDIT: Adding --
Los Angeles Times:
U.S. Rebuilding Effort in Iraq Is Criticized
By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer
AQABA, Jordan -- Iraqi and international officials who gathered Monday to discuss reconstruction in Iraq said the $18.4 billion U.S.-led rebuilding program has failed to provide Iraqis with adequate power, water and sanitation more than two years after the invasion.
Meeting at this Jordanian resort sandwiched between dry desert cliffs and the placid Red Sea, the officials announced $4 billion in loans from Japan and the World Bank to help speed reconstruction.
But the conference also provided an opportunity for a sobering assessment of the effort to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, which was shattered by years of neglect, sanctions and looting. Many officials expressed a belief that the Bush administration has bungled the reconstruction by sending billions to private corporations to tackle major infrastructure projects....
***
Despite more than $6 billion in U.S. spending so far and billions more in Iraqi funds, Iraq's electricity supply is far from meeting demand; oil production is below pre-war levels; and barely half of Iraqis report having access to safe, stable supplies of drinking water.
Iraqi unemployment is estimated at between 25 percent and 50 percent; fuel and food subsidies have resulted in a significant budget deficit; U.S. and Iraqi audits have been unable to account for billions in spending; and at least three U.S. officials and scores of Iraqis, including two former government ministers, are facing corruption charges....
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-money19jul19,0,6732167.story?coll=la-home-headlines
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