WEBVTT

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Good morning Admiral Driscoll , This is

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Darlene today I'm editor of trade to

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Executive magazine . Good morning , how

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are you ? Pretty good . Um I understand

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that you have spent several days at the

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Iraqi b to be great show . Can you tell

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me about the show ? Absolutely . Uh the

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Iraqi american Chamber of Commerce and

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Industry show that the rashid hotel

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here in Baghdad was quite an event . As

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you probably heard . There were over

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8000 people that attended and they had

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over 260 who set up by uh businesses

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here in Baghdad , 190 businesses ,

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Baghdad and some companies from out of

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town came in . So it's quite an event .

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How many U . S . Companies participated ?

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I'm sorry , do you know how many U . S .

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Companies participated in the show ? I

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think it was around 75 . Okay , I

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understand . The World Bank estimates

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that about $50 billion dollars is

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necessary to rebuild Iraq . What

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particular industries do you think ?

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We'll find the greatest opportunities

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in the region ? Obviously . Uh the oil

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and petrochemical industries will be

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very heavily coming in here I think can

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help them build the infrastructure and

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uh in modernizing the equipment . I

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think electrical power generation um in

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Iraq will be one of those areas where

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it's going to be a lot of demand ,

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growing demand and they have to have a

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lot of ways to go as far as

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infrastructure . I also think just

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basic construction , roads , the

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railroads , bridges , things like that ,

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a lot of infrastructure as the as the

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economy picks up in order to its

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quartet growth . What U . S . Companies

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did you see exhibiting in the show ?

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Uh Well , let's see , I think

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caterpillar was one of the ones I

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stopped buying and saw a couple of

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other construction companies , you know ,

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with all the rebuilding necessary , any

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reason , what what is the area like

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right around the convention center in

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the hotels , right . The uh the it's in

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the international zone . So uh it's a

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very secure area that the seat of

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government is in the multinational

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force , Iraq headquarters in the U . S .

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Embassy RN . Uh And so it's uh it's a

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very safe area in general . Security as

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you know , has been improving

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dramatically since the search began in

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full in july . And uh as you've been

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well reported in the Western press

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attacks are down by 60% throughout the

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country , 80% in Baghdad . So the

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security situation in in Baghdad

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improving and I kind of see see it now

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uh in Baghdad and the rest of the

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country where it was in the kurdish

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region a couple of years ago . Uh and

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right now up in the kurdish region ,

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it's a security is very high . A lot of

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international companies are coming in

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during a lot of construction up there .

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The oil industry is , they're doing

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investment . And so I think what you

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see going on in the kurdish region

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right now is going to be happening in

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Baghdad here in the next couple of

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years . Okay , so it seems that the

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show is bringing peace to the area and

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opportunity and hope for the area .

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Absolutely . Uh you know , we were out

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in Fallujah here a couple of months ago

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and it was a dramatic transition . We

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were with the P . R . T . Team that was

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out there and they were setting up a

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business center . They were uh and

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worked with the with the government and

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with security folks to establish the

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conditions necessary to show open

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businesses and uh and create markets

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and walking with a young marine Captain

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Captain jones . And he had taken some

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of his money that he has to help

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investment and given it to some local

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vendors . They have turned around and

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bought inventory . They had painted

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their shops . Uh They had done the

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things that businessmen do And business

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women as well . And they had started to

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see people come back into the town

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centre and and business beginning . So

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that story multiplied by many , many ,

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many across Baghdad . And across Iraq

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is helping bring the economy back to

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life . And as you know , with the price

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of oil uh the income for the company ,

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the GDP has grown by about 5.6% this

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year . They brought in about $48

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billion dollars worth of revenue . And

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so the economy is truly on track . What

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role is the Iraqi central government

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playing in generating attendance in the

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show . Uh The

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their their participation was one of

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support and obviously uh the national

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security adviser , Rebecca was where he

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attended ? Uh some other , many other

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dignitaries came and uh and uh saw the

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show . So it was really uh the

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government supported it and uh talked

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about it , but it was really a kind of

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a commercial venture , if you will Um

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supported by the government , but not

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run by the government . Okay . You were

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deployed in Iraq about 10 years ago or

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more than 10 years ago . So what

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changes have you seen in the area ?

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Well , it's a it's a great question .

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You know , in 91 when I was here , I

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was flying off a carrier in the Red Sea

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and did a lot of flying over kuwait and

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then in Southern Iraq and it was an

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amazing picture to see . It was just

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vast desert and somewhat of a wasteland

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from Baghdad down south to the quake

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quarter . As you recall , Saddam Head

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cut the water off and had drained the

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marshes down there when I came back up

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in just four months ago , flying up

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again for the first time since 2000 and

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three . And uh and looking down , I was

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just , I was really amazed , almost

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shocked to see how green it was .

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Obviously the water is flowing back

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into the marshes . Agriculture is taken

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off in uh in the southern region , just

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like it did for thousands of years .

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It's it's uh the agriculture industry

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here in this country is going to grow

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by leaps and bounds now that we're

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getting the water system uh in

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irrigation back to where it was , what

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other shows have you attended ? And how

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does this compare ? Mhm . Well , uh

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this is the first show I've attended in

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the in Iraq , but I've attended being

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from Chicago I've attended to allow the

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shows , the auto show , downtown

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Chicago , uh the boat show and those

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kind of things . I gotta tell you it

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was it was it was it was as good as

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I've seen in the States . They don't ,

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they didn't have all the glitter um you

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know , because this was kind of a

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business show and they had lots of

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things . Like I talked a long time with

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an individual that sold um uh equipment

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for gas stations and so pumps and

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metering systems and things like that .

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And I talked to , it was , it was

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really interesting to talk to uh the

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state run business for leather goods

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and we had a discussion about marketing .

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I asked me about these shoes they had

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on display . I said , well , you know ,

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what's going to happen when the Nike

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comes in here ? Are you gonna be able

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to compete with them ? And he didn't ,

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he didn't really understand the concept

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and he kind of hinted that we just , we

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just put some taxes on Nike and compete .

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That wasn't very encouraging , but I

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went down about four or five more

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booths and there was this three or four

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young men uh eager to talk to me and I

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went over and talked to them and they

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had uh leather products as well , they

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had uniforms , some vests , some boots ,

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uh some shoes , running shoes , things

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like that . And I asked them , you know ,

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are you a government concern or a

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commercial concerns ? And now I own the

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company and and we're doing very well

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and he he knew how to sell , he wanted

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to sell me things , he wanted to get my

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car , he has trying to expand his

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market . I asked him about how is how

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is supply chain was and he had done a

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lot of hard work to get the supplies he

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needs and he was looking for business

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and he and his business was growing .

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So that's that's the kind of situation

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we have here in Iraq where the , you

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know , the government for under Saddam

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was a very centralized state run

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secretive organization and now they're

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making that transition to a free market

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economy . And I just see right now , uh

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you know , like I set up in the

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northern region , it's very secure

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business is booming in the in the

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Baghdad area out west , you're going to

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see that situation in a couple of years .

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So now is really an interesting time to

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kind of get in if you're if you have

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some tolerance for risk . Uh it is the

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time to kind of jump in uh for instance ,

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we looked down in Karbala area , the

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real estate down there has doubled in

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the last two years . The price of real

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estate , both in the , in the city and

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then up in the farmland has doubled the

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last two years . As , as people don't

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recognize the value of the land here in

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Iraq . Well , is there a considerable

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investment required to participate in

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the show ? You know ? And what are the

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short term and you talked about the

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long term benefits ? Are there any

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short term benefits ? Uh in terms of

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just joining the Iraqi american chamber

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of commerce and industry and what the

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benefits are with them ? Yes ,

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participating in the show . Um you

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talked about that there's a long term

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benefit that for those who have

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patience and tolerance for risk that uh

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the benefits are long term . What about

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the short term , does it take several

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years ? Um or our sales possible uh in

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the short term as well . Absolutely ,

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absolutely . There were , there were

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people looking for uh for suppliers and

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people looking for businesses to

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produce certain things and those things

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that normally go on at a , you know , a

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trade show like that were happening as

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a person in uniform . Obviously I

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wasn't , wasn't buying or selling much ,

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but just just watching the behavior .

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It was , it was commerce is as we know

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it across the world , what to bring ,

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go ahead please . What did the show

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physically look like was , were the

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aisles carpeted ? We're their fancy

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boots over there . Were they more , you

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know what ? Oh no , they were it was it

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ran through the hotel itself and they

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filled up some of the large passageways

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that are on the , on the main floor of

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the hotel , which is a very nice hotel

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by the way . And then we also had an

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overflow area because they had so many

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participants and they had a large tent

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set up outside and they had booths like

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you see in many trade shows , very

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professionally done uh you know uh

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commercially made placards and

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storyboards . They had their products

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uh you know , I walked away with four

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or five bags full of glossy booklets ,

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pens , water bottle holders , you know

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you name it with all the logo trademark

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santa , normal things that you walk

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away with . Uh you

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really can't go up to uh meet and greet

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and Iraqi without getting some some

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hospitality , some food , uh some uh

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some sweets , uh some tea or or or

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coffee . So yes , there there was

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plenty of sweets and things available

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for anybody that was hungry