PRIME MINISTER’S ADVISOR: THE GOVERNMENT HAS ESTABLISHED A ROADMAP FOR THE ECONOMIC MODEL IN IRAQ
The Prime Minister’s Financial Advisor, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, on Saturday, defined the government’s vision for the economic model, and while he indicated that it will guide investment decisions to achieve their goals, he stressed that the government of Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani has established a roadmap for the work of the economic model in Iraq.
Saleh said in a statement reported by the official news agency, and reviewed by “Al-Eqtisad News”, that “the economic model is a mathematical model used to represent the economy and analyze the behavior of various economic factors, as these models are used to understand how economic elements interact,” indicating that “at the level of the philosophy of the Iraqi government curriculum, the basics of modeling the Iraqi economy were launched from an important vision based on the principle of analyzing the entire economy, taking into account the overall variables, most notably the basics of development and growth in the gross domestic product and imposing stability and effective operation of the joints of the national economy and the level of its interconnections.”
He added that “the current digital life helps to use computing to conduct simulation experiments to understand the potential effects of various economic policies and adopt optimal paths from them,” stressing that “Iraq has established in its government curriculum a practical foundation and a roadmap for the work of the economic model for Iraq through the development path strategy, since the beginning of the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.”
He pointed out that “the state of economic imbalance and its severe unilateralism has always required thinking about the future of the economy through an approach based on generating an alternative sector that leads the national economy,” explaining that “the development path program is an academic viewpoint, and what the German economic thinker Albert Hirschmann presented in his famous book (Economic Development Strategy) published in 1958, in combating the state of imbalance and economic unilateralism with a theory based on economic development weight, and a leader for the economy that provides a high degree of backward and forward sectoral interconnections and high interactivity that achieves sustainable growth and restores balance in the long term for the national economy.”
He pointed out that “this theory emphasizes in its model the need to invest in strategic sectors with a specific high priority instead of investing in all sectors at once,” adding that “according to this theory, other sectors will develop automatically over time, and from this standpoint the idea of the economic model for the future of Iraq in prosperity and diversity was born, which is undoubtedly based on a strategy for the overall economy based on the development path.”
Saleh noted that “this development strategy and the economic model that drives the macroeconomic variables, did not separate from it the vision of partnership between the state and the private sector and the principles of the social market within the data of the five-year national development plan and its objectives that were recently launched,” concluding his speech by saying that “the economic model or model for Iraq that we aspire to establish will provide the predictive foundations for evaluating economic policies and directing investment decisions to achieve their specific objectives in an optimal manner.”
ANALYSIS: The Prime Minister’s Financial Advisor, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, has outlined the government's strategic vision for Iraq's economic model. According to Salih, the economic model is essentially a mathematical framework used to understand and analyze the interactions among various economic factors. This model is crucial for guiding investment decisions and achieving the government's economic goals.
Salih explained that the government, under Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, has developed a comprehensive roadmap for Iraq’s economic model. This model focuses on evaluating the economy as a whole, including factors such as development, growth in GDP, and the stability and efficiency of the national economy.
In the context of modern technology, Salih highlighted how digital tools can facilitate simulation experiments to assess the impact of different economic policies and choose the best strategies. He emphasized that Iraq’s economic roadmap, initiated by al-Sudani's government, is based on a strategic development path.
Salih also discussed the need to address economic imbalance and dependence on single sectors by adopting a development strategy inspired by Albert Hirschmann’s theory from his 1958 book, "Economic Development Strategy." Hirschmann’s theory advocates for investing in key strategic sectors to stimulate overall economic growth and balance.
The economic model for Iraq aims to focus on strategic investments rather than attempting to develop all sectors simultaneously.
Over time, this approach is expected to lead to the natural development of other sectors.
This strategy aligns with Iraq’s broader five-year national development plan, which includes principles of public-private partnership and a social market approach.
Ultimately, Salih believes that this economic model will provide a foundation for evaluating economic policies and directing investments in a way that optimizes their effectiveness.
