By Muhammed Abed Mazeel al-Aboudi for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Any opinions expressed are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Analyzing the Successes and Failures of Iraq's 5th plus and 6th Oil and Gas Bid Rounds
For the sake of the Iraqi labor market and of developing domestic expertise in oil and gas management, the government should seek to become more attractive to major IOCs outside of the Chinese companies currently drawn in by its bids.
I cannot fully agree with the article. Although the Iraqi market is more promising in recent years, it is not difficult to see that western companies have become more cautious in investing in the country. The reasons for this are complex, but the corrupt political and business environment and the lack of rapid execution from the government is very important. I hope politicians will stop leading readers to always look "East" or "West", and instead look at this issue from a pragmatic perspective.