It?s dangerous and deadly.
But American firms wanting to sell their wares in war-torn Iraq need to talk to Andrew Wylegala, the commercial counselor of the U.S. Commercial Service operating at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
“Security in Iraq is a significant cost item that must be budgeted into business plans,” Wylegala said.
It?s his job to connect U.S. business interests that have goods and services in desperate need during the rebuilding of Iraq.
Increasingly, that connection is being made during events like the Kurdistan DBX International Trade Show that is under way in the Iraqi city of Suleimaniya.
While some large U.S. companies such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Federal Express have dealers and agents already in the country who will attend, smaller firms pay Commercial Services to “pound the pavement for them,” Wylegala said in an e-mail interview from his office in Baghdad.
“We use our booth to display the catalogs and staff meetings with local companies looking to purchase or represent” the U.S. business, he said. “There are a lot of ways to cash in on atrade show in Iraq.”
The benefits of the trade shows, he said, “are potentially vast,” while the danger is “very real.”
“A participant in one of these shows learns a tremendous amount about the market, gets exposure and encounters future partners of customers,” Wylegala said. “Iraq is a big country that had a substantial industrial base and that is blessed with enormous resources extending well beyond hydrocarbons.”
So what type of goods and services are needed?
“Tractors, irrigation and water treatment equipment, telecom switches, Kinko?s, high-speed ferries, airport passenger bridges, Game Boy and TiVo, cold-storage facilities, patented medicines, date packaging machines, brick, glass and aluminum factories, rental car franchises, pumps, oil and gas field services and equipment, IKEA, Wal-Mart and Household Finance,” he said.
While it is not currently possible for a U.S. company to open an office in Baghdad ? “at least not an overtly American or western business,” Wylegala said ? but a well-planned facility is possible in some parts of Iraq and in neighboring Jordan, Turkey, Kuwait or the United Arab Emirates.
“The prudent company committed to maintaining a presence in Iraq must begin with concerns over threats to its personnel and local partners and, importantly, even to suppliers and customers,” he said.
“Crime may rival terrorism as a challenge in some locales and times. Threats to cargo and physical plants are another peril. Official corruption may open the door to legal liabilities, such as under our Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. But against many of these perils, companies weigh the commercial peril of missed opportunity.”
Rebuilding Iraq
» The U.S. Department of Commerce?s Iraq Investment and Reconstruction Task Force works closely with the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, other U.S. government agencies and international organizations to provide U.S. businesses with the most up-to-date information on the commercial environment and potential business opportunities in Iraq. The IIRTF can be contacted by telephone at 202-482-3011, or by e-mail at [email protected]. The Web site is www.export.gov/Iraq.
