Scots push Basra as a land of opportunity

Iraq needs new infrastructure — and can pay for it

FOR most management consultants, the trickiest decision they face is where to have lunch. For Gavin Jones and Adrian Green, things are a bit more complicated. And that includes where to have lunch.

Last week Jones was in Helmand, the Afghan province. A few weeks ago he and Green were in the Iraqi port city of Basra. Their role, and that of their consultancy firm Upper Quartile, is to help set up the post-conflict economic environment in both countries and attract investment.
It may seem a thankless task, but Jones and Green obviously enjoy the challenge and claim that, in Iraq, things have improved a great deal.

“The situation [in Iraq] is very different from nine months ago,” said Jones from the relative safety of Upper Quartile’s offices in Edinburgh. “I am not saying it’s totally safe, but the level of violence has dropped a great deal.”

Read the full article from the Times Online here