Jordan-based center report: hundreds of Iraqi state factories idle, contracts yield little

A Jordan-based research center has published a wide-ranging reform report on Iraq's Ministry of Industry, saying the ministry oversees 31 public companies and 312 factories, of which 225 are operating and 87 are idle. The Rubayt Center for Research and Strategic Studies report said the ministry is handling 144 active partnership contracts, with roughly 90 more under review, bringing the total to 234. It stressed that success should be measured by tangible output in production, investment, employment and exports, rather than by the number of contracts signed. The report listed idle capacity, hidden unemployment, bureaucracy, corruption cases, weak oversight transparency and a disconnect between universities and factories among the ministry's main problems. It proposed classifying factories, establishing a transparency platform for contracts, moving to a single-window system for investment applications, tying senior management salaries to performance benchmarks, and creating a National Industrial Development Council. The center also said protective measures should be temporary and tied to performance, and that industrial policy should shift from a domestic-market focus to an export-oriented framework. No further details on the report's methodology or the ministry's response were immediately available.