Iraq's Untold Story: Commerce and Government

Two items today from USAID's weekly report (pdf file here), this one dated Sept. 23; the first is just one indication of the commercial and industrial activity under way there:

•The $45 million program to rehabilitate and improve management at Umm Qasr seaport was completed in June 2004.
• Port reopened to commercial traffic on June 17, 2003; completed first passenger vessel test July 16, 2003.
• Up to 50 ships offload at the port every month.
• Completed dredging to open all 21 berths to deep-sea ships.
• Renovated the grain-receiving facility to process 600 MT of grain an hour.
• Renovated the administration building, passenger terminal, customs hall, and electrical substations.

Meanwhile officials advance preparations for the upcoming vote on the Constitution, as well as technology support for the Iraqi government:

The Election Information Network (EIN) commences final analysis of
monitoring reports gathered from all 18 Iraqi governates. The EIN, an
Iraqi NGO, indicated that 1,486 monitoring forms were submitted from 315
voter registration centers out of 550 located nationwide. EIN has also begun
recruiting the 5,000 persons who will monitor the October 15 referendum.

A media monitoring training was conducted in anticipation of the December
15 Parliamentary election. The five-day workshop in media monitoring
activities helped participants from local NGOs to develop the tools and
training skills to create a coordinated local, regional, and national media monitoring effort throughout Iraq. The training covered the potential impact of media monitoring on the fairness and impartiality of elections, the promotion of
democratic processes, the selection of media to be monitored, and the identification of resources and personnel. One full day was dedicated to developing
the media monitoring coalition around a shared vision and procedures.

USAID partners help National Assembly with procurement of equipment
and training. USAID partners were able to secure contracts with two Iraqi
companies to provide 250 desktop and 50 laptop computers for the Iraq National
Assembly. Also purchased was a VSAT satellite internet system complete
with three months of bandwidth able to support 300 simultaneous users.
This equipment has been installed in the National Assembly headquarters....