Credit dream in Iraq
Apart from the thriving Iraqi stock market, credit is arguably one of the main keys to success for the Iraqi residents. Especially those whose wages are below the minimal limit to fulfill the human basic needs.
Starting a simple, yet lucrative project with a negligible outlay is what really pays off for the working class nowadays. Such projects help their owners increase their income within a very short time, and that’s courtesy of US financial support.
Common farmer Hamza Abid Ali incurred a debt of $ 2,400 from Al-Baydaa Centre, a US-backed micro credit scheme, to cultivate grape, and he amazingly quintupled his income in no time.
“I have increased my earnings and improved my family’s quality of life,” the 33-year-old grape-grower said,
“I was earning only 500,000 dinars from each donam [unit of land] on my vineyard. But with my loan, I bought a water pump and some netting to go over the top of the grapes, and now I am making 4m dinars per donam.”
Over the past couple of years, the centre has granted 700 low-interest loans to small Iraqi inventors in different domains. According to US officials, these small businesses that keep springing up all over the Iraqi towns comprise 90% of the overall businesses in the country. The officials also stressed that coaxing more people into getting loans from the center and becoming self-employed is the best way to help the working class overcome their substandard lifestyle.
“Iraq needs to develop the private sector to generate jobs,” United Nations’ resident -coordinator in Iraq David Shearer told the Financial Times.
“Our calculation is that 450,000 young people join the work force every year but the chances of them finding employment are not high, so if this is not dealt with it will create instability. Our calculation is that 450,000 young people join the work force every year but the chances of them finding employment are not high, so if this is not dealt with it will create instability.”
No doubt that faulty planning consequences and constant governmental corruption abysmally affected such businesses in the past. But one of the undeniable benefits of the war was open new possibilities for towns residents, who represent the majority of the people. These was definitely one of the greatest benefits of the American existence in Iraq, and the fact is Iraq are better off with the US support, even that many people would disagree on that.
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This article may be reprinted online and offline
as long as this box remains and its link is
hyperlinked online. Written by Darren Chabluk
for http://DrDinar.com/blog
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