Netherlands helping Iraq build ‘climate sustainable’ economy: Diplomat

BAGHDAD - The Netherlands is helping Iraq make its economy more “climate sustainable,” a senior Dutch diplomat told Rudaw in an interview on Wednesday.

The focus of Dutch support in the economic sector “is primarily on making Iraq less dependent on oil, so focus on the diversification of the economy. And we do that, amongst others, by focusing on private sector developments,” said Chargé d'affaires to Iraq Hans Sandee.

The Netherlands is well known for its agricultural innovations and it is sharing this knowledge with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, including in the areas of water management, irrigation methods, and using climate resistant seeds. It is also providing education and training opportunities for Iraqi students and entrepreneurs.

“So these are the kind of things that we can do in order to help Iraq, including of course, Kurdistan, further diversify its economy and making that economy more, how should I say, climate sustainable,” said Sandee.

Iraq’s economy is heavily reliant on its oil sector. It is also among the global nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including food and water insecurity. This winter, Iraq has received just a fraction of the rainfall it saw the year before.


The following is the full transcript of the interview with Hans Sandee:

Rudaw: The current projects that Netherlands have in Iraq, I know that you focus very much on climate change, agriculture, and this is one of the sectors that your country really focuses on in Iraq. Currently, what do you do?

Hans Sandee: Indeed, we focus amongst others on those topics, but our cooperation is much further. It deals with security, migration, etc. But when we talk about the economic domain, the focus is primarily on making Iraq less dependent on oil, so focus on the diversification of the economy. And we do that, amongst others, by focusing on private sector developments.

And what's the main obstacle that you have and the challenges in this goal in Iraq?

Well, the challenge for Iraq as a whole, I think it's fair to say that this is far too dependent on the oil revenues. You know it better than I do, but more than 90% of the budget in Iraq, the public budget, depends on oil income. So Iraq, for the future, really has to diversify its economy. The Netherlands and other like-minded countries are helping, assisting Iraq in doing that. But in all honesty, indeed, there are quite some challenges still to deal with. That's the challenge of Iraq itself, but it has an impact on countries like the Netherlands.

For instance, there is still a lot of red tape, bureaucracy, not enough transparency. The banking sector is still quite weak. Also, the public infrastructure is at a level that could be improved. And again, the government, both in the Kurdish region and in Baghdad, makes a lot of progress, there is a lot of progress. I'm a witness of that myself. But still, a lot more can be done. And the Netherlands, for instance, can help Iraq by developing its economy, by making it more sustainable, and by speeding up the diversification process.

Regarding climate change, Iraq is one of the top five countries affected by climate change. How do you support the Iraqi government in this?

We do this, amongst others, by business-to-business cooperation. For instance, in the field of agriculture, we focus very much when it comes to reducing the uses of water, water management. And we have specific technologies for that, drip technology, which reduces to 80 or more percent the use of water. For instance, in the field of agriculture, we also focus on, let's say, having more climate resilient seeds and crop production. That also helps a lot.

But also, when it comes to our projects and programs, for instance, we have a Shiraka program that focuses on transform of knowledge by means of academia, but also by means of specific training programs for Iraqi students, Iraqi entrepreneurs.

And another topic that we do is private sector development. We do that via, for instance, our Orange Corners program focusing on helping new Iraqi startups scale up. And what we also created recently is an Orange Corners Innovation Fund where we made the link of financing the gap that is existing between the startups and the scale-ups.

This is for instance what we do in that field, but there are many other possibilities for cooperation and many other fields that we already do. Academia, I mentioned that. While the Netherlands is well known for agriculture, we have top-notch academic hubs. Wageningen, which attracts a lot of students and there is a cooperation between Wageningen and Iraq. Also IHE Delft, which is really a top level water management institute in the Netherlands, worldwide renowned. This has already cooperation with Iraq.

So these are the kind of things that we can do in order to help Iraq, including of course, Kurdistan, further diversify its economy and making that economy more, how should I say, climate sustainable.

Considering security and migration, I know it's somehow, especially the migration, this is an EU approach with Iraq and I'm aware of. But something about security, Syria is a whole concern for the whole world. How do you work with the Iraqi government regarding that or is that a concern for Netherlands in general?

Well, what we do of course, we watch for the developments in Syria closely. It's good of course for the Netherlands also to stay in contact with Iraq, Iraq being a direct neighbor of Syria. And again, it's in the interest of Iraq and in the Netherlands, but of course also in Iraq and Syria, that the region remains stable, prosperous, and also for the future it's sustainable.

When it comes specifically to Iraq, of course we are still an active member in the anti-Daesh [Islamic State, ISIS] coalition. But as you probably know, the Netherlands also has taken the lead at the moment, technically we call it the command, of the NATO mission in Iraq. So we help Iraq and the Iraq security forces directly by participating in the anti-Daesh coalition, it's still a challenge, of course. But we also, in terms of security sector reform, we support and assist the Iraqi military, but not only the Iraqi military, also the Iraqi police.

Mr. Hans Sandee, thank you very much. Welcome to Rudaw again.

Thank you so much.

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