RD: It is an irony that Iraq suffers from high rates of unemployment, especially amongst university graduates, at a time when foreign companies strive to get qualified human resources.
How do you envisage the solution to this problem?
There is a significant difference between the trained technicians that the oil industry need now and university graduates – the difference between Training and Education. This combined with the concentrations of unemployment in Baghdad and the need for qualified human resources working in the remote oil-fields of Basra Province continues to make this a difficult problem.
This is not going to be solved in the short-term and will take a number of years to work through the system but too little has been started in training technicians and this needs to change.
RD: As an economic analyst, do you think that Iraq is moving in the right direction?
GJ: I think that it was but has now stalled. Holding an election in early March and still being unable to form a Government is doing appalling damage to the reputation of Iraq.
Too many promises of a Government being formed have been made and missed for many more promises to be credible – once a new Government is in place and has made its intentions clear then this will be an easier question to answer!
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