Pilot training for entrepreneurs

The Basra Business Centre, working in partnership with the UK Department For International Development (DFID), has launched a pilot training programme to help local entrepreneurs and the unemployed learn various business skills. Ahmed Salih, an Iraqi businessman and one of the participants in the workshop's first session, told IRIN that insecurity was impeding progress as not only were foreign investors pulling out of the country but even Iraqi companies had halted work in several places. "We're trying through these training sessions to see if there are other ways to invest while minimising the risks of setting up business in such an environment," he explained. The "It's Only Enterprise!" training event is free for students, entrepreneurs and management staff of existing organisations as well as NGOs and the unemployed. Participants are offered high quality personal and professional skills development support, organisers say. This comes at a time when unemployment is very high in the troubled country. "We are mainly trying to introduce the concept of enterprise - people think it's a business activity, while it can be about running a charity or maximising resources in the most effective and efficient way possible," DFID adviser David Mitchel told IRIN. "We are trying to let people explore other financial resources and also invest in other things. We also want to help them understand that there are more things involved in actually setting up in business," he explained. Muhammed Kazim, from the Tamouz Organisation for Social Development, which works on building and reconstruction, complained that there was no special investment law in the country. The new laws set up by the interim government were not approved by Iraqis, he said, and were not effective. A local worker from the business centre told IRIN that it had been operating under very difficult circumstances since it opened last March but that it was a great asset. "We were for a long time isolated from the rest of the world in terms of finding the necessary experience to set up and run a business freely, or use our resources to set up businesses and give a lot of young people job opportunities," he said. He also spoke of how security was affecting investment in the country. "We held conferences for businessmen a while ago to put Iraqis in touch with others from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Emirates and other countries. We built a database, but due to the security situation many business projects have been halted for some time," he explained. After the session, teams were asked to develop ideas for enterprises that would assist with community and economic development. DFID's support for local and regional development within its Governorate Capacity Building Programme (GCBP) aims to promote economic development in the southern governorates, and entrepreneurship and new enterprise creation amongst the local population. "Part of DFID's work with Basra Business Centre will be focused on helping potential and existing entrepreneurs to transform individual business ideas into sustainable enterprises that will provide employment, wealth and social wellbeing for the community," Mitchel added.