Since 1950 the governments of Iraq have attempted vigorously to develop the economy and have stressed industrial development. Here Dr Ferhang Jalal discusses, analyses and appraises a number of policies adopted by the government of Iraq designed to promote the growth of the industrial sector.

The policies were of two kinds: the establishment of enterprises financed, constructed and operated by the government; and the encouragement of the expansion of private industrial enterprises through provision of finance, by way of tax exemptions of all kinds, through controls over the allocation of investment, and by protecting them from foreign competition. The author discusses the extent to which investment programmes formulated by planners were able to be implemented, and analyses in detail the factors facilitating and those constraining a more rapid rate of industrial growth.