A basic rule of international business is to hire locally where possible and bring in expertise where needed. If this were not true there would be no trans-Siberia to Western Europe gas pipeline. That humongous project was built all most exclusively by western contractors hired by the Soviet Union. First off, the Soviets didn?t have the equipment to push a gas pipeline, didn?t have the expertise to put in a pipeline over tundra and didn?t have the logistics skills or infrastructure to keep such an expansive project moving ahead let alone get going in the first place.
Central planning may work to move a huge Army but on the industrial side ya end up with an idle workforce, the wrong material at the wrong place and at the wrong time. Where the Soviet Union went in on international projects they came totally self contained, including the ever present political commissar and were the neighborhood pain in the ass and totally non-competitive.
Way back when, the Soviets had an oil exploration crew on the Algerian side of the border and I was on a crew on the Tunisian side. They got so far behind on logging that they finally resorted to slant drilling under the border on a line where we were bringing in wells and more or less Easter egg hunting for the oil field tributaries. Ha, a drill rig at about a 30-degree angle to the horizon was a sure sign that the Ivans were up to no good.
They got behind because all their supplies and mother may I decision making came from Moscow plus their logging equipment was total stone axe and horribly obsolete.
On a good day with no interruptions I could log a 12 Km line, about 20 or so shots and the Soviets answer to that was to run a stupid track tractor right across the border so as to screw up my seismic readings. But that cat and mouse game was easy to win by just changing the seismo channel cut filters and feigning frustration, arguments and Ivan bitch-outs over the radio, no problem.
At that time about 85% of the crew was local Arabs, the rest were European or a Yank here and there. These days 85% would be an unacceptably low number if local talent can be found. The core of the industrial issue in Iraq is that Saddam let everything go to seed and that includes industrial vocational training so I?m not surprised outside expertise is being brought in. Thus far, the organization I?m associated with has lost three people to hostilities and we consider anyone who is involved with municipal facilities refurbishing or new construction to be a prime terrorist target and get security going accordingly. So then, the issue as I see it is who doesn?t want the industrial infrastructure on line and the resultant local jobs that happen. Who dat?
And by the by, the French and Russians had the lions share of the oil field concessions in Iraq and if that isn?t privatization then I?ll be a monkeys uncle. And of course the French and Russians are noted for their giving-back generosity and human infrastructure building, huh. The French are just holding on to all that stolen UN oil for food Iraqi money for safekeeping, right?
Scamp