Global Policy Forum

By Brian Knowlton

Indian companies are shrugging off any reticence about the pros and cons of the US-led war in Iraq in favour of a concerted push for a share of the reconstruction business. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has set up a website to help its members work out how to grab some of the subcontracts trickling down from the US companies awarded billions to rebuild Iraq by the US government. "We know Indian companies stand no chance of getting direct contracts - everyone knows they are going to Americans," CII principal adviser Arun Patankar told BBC News Online. "But we have skilled labour, especially in terms of engineers, construction and IT, and Indian companies have long experience of working in Iraq." Indian experts have similar skills to Western ones, but come at a much lower cost, he said.

Bechtel - one of the main contractors awarded billions in business by the US Agency for International Development in a set of US-only, limited-bidder tenders - is holding meetings in London and Kuwait over the next 10 days to begin to farm out subcontracts. Indian companies will be represented in London, and the CII is preparing a large delegation to head for Kuwait, Mr Patankar said.

Cold shoulder?

Some observers have suggested that India may benefit from the fact that - unlike countries such as France and Russia - its experience in Iraq is not tainted by having got into the US's bad books over its policy of unilateral attack. The cold shoulder turned towards India by the US after its nuclear tests of 1998 is largely a thing of the past, and the Bush administration tends to regard India with friendly eyes.

But Mr Patankar denied that that would be an issue. "In my personal view, the US companies with the contracts are going to take a professional attitude," he told BBC News Online. "Bechtel and the others want to do the job at the lowest cost so as to enhance their profits, with people who know the terrain. That's a more important selling point [for us] than the politics."

Been there before

The volume of work carried out by Indian corporations in Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War was impressive, building roads and bridges, shipping grain and medicines, and sending tens of thousands of Indian workers. Since 1991, Indian involvement in the UN Oil For Food (OFF) programme has been limited. But in the past couple of years, Indian companies have woken up to opportunities the OFF programme offers. The volume of Indian exports to Iraq more than doubled between 2001 and 2002. In the year to March 2001, India shipped exports valued at 3.8bn rupees ($81m; £49.9m) to Iraq. The following year, the total was 9.8bn rupees.

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