The population of Iraq..a “ticking bomb” with prosthetic solutions for a rentier economy

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The population of Iraq..a “ticking bomb” with prosthetic solutions for a rentier economy

 

 2021-09-20 08:03

 

Shafaq News/ The large and continuous population increase in Iraq represents a "time bomb" that threatens development plans and raises fear and concern for specialists and economic and social decision-makers who warn of the erosion of high rates of economic growth in a country that only has a "rentier economy".

 

The Iraqi Ministry of Planning expects that the population of Iraq will reach 50 million in 2030, and 80 million in 2050, starting from 40 million people currently.

 

During the past year 2020, Iraq suffered from the difficulty of providing funds for the salaries of employees of government departments, after the drop in oil prices globally as a result of Iraq's dependence of 92% in its general budget on produced oil revenues.

 

One ministry finances the Iraqi state.

 

Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar told Shafaq News Agency, "Reliance on oil as the only source of the national economy is an incorrect idea," stressing, "We have to go to everything that leads to an increase in national income."

 

He added that "the general budget cannot be financed through oil only for the coming years," noting that "the growth rate is 2.5% annually, which means an addition of one million people during one year, in addition to a 7% growth rate in energy consumption, and these factors Along with other determinants, including environmental, cultural and social ones, it leads to the realization that Iraq's remaining dependent on oil sales as the sole source is unhealthy.

 

 

Awareness, birth control, and government policies

 

Spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi told Shafaq News Agency, "Reducing the population is related to community awareness, developing the private sector and activating other development," noting that "all of this was included in the national document for long-term population policies and through the integration of the population dimension into development plans after the arrival of a number of Iraq's population is more than 40 million, and in 2030 it will reach 50 million."

 

He adds that "the procedures of the national document emphasize the necessity of family planning, which requires spacing between births and reducing the number of births per family in order to provide possibilities, the best conditions in terms of health and educational education, and the preservation of women's health as well," stressing at the same time "to address the housing crisis through long-term policies." By encouraging the private sector to have a role in addressing the housing crisis.

 

He also stressed the need for "the government to follow the policy of building housing complexes, health and educational measures, and empowering women economically to be influential in development," noting that "planning draws public policies and other sectors implement these policies, whether in the field of education, health or housing construction."

 

Al-Hindawi points out that "the process of birth control exists, and it may not be extensive, but there may be a slight decline in the number of births, in terms of the spacing between them," noting that "the eighties of the last century witnessed an average number of births according to the ability to bear more than 6 children." Now it has decreased from two to three births."

 

He pointed to "the need to put intervals between one child and another," explaining that "the initial indicators show that the annual growth rate will decrease in the coming years than what is currently available, which ranges between 2.6 to 2.7 percent."

 

Al-Hindawi stresses the need for "there should be awareness of the family first, by reducing births and spacing them in order to preserve the health of children and women, and then the second factor, which is the economic and the lack of resources that the family obtains."

 

 

 

Governments are not serious for a period of 18 years..

For her part, Nada Shaker Jawdat, a member of the Parliamentary Finance and Economic Committee, told Shafaq News Agency, "The process of determining the population depends on many influential economic issues, but definitely that there is an increase in the population and this depends on the government's plans," stressing that "there is no fear of an increase in the population." In the event that there are serious national governments seeking to revive the Iraqi economy, because our economic resources are enormous in terms of oil, sulfur, phosphate, water and human power, and therefore all of this is catalysts that can be developed and exploited for the benefit of development.

 

She points out that "poor investment, corruption, management, and lack of planning led to fear of an increase in the population in the future," surprising "the lack of government action since 2003 until now to revitalize the stalled industry, as well as the agricultural sector, which is still completely neglected, and thus the local product struggles with The importer crossed the borders wide open, and thus economic activity remained suspended with the presence of corruption and the expulsion of the investor.

 

 

 

Increasing competition for limited resources

 

Economist Dergham Muhammad Ali told Shafak News Agency, "The population increase without human development plans and economic growth means increased competition for limited resources that will create crises in the sectors of education, health, housing and infrastructure because the resources are fixed and the beneficiaries are increasing."

 

Ali stresses "the necessity of activating economic resources, creating real development that depends on human resources, increasing the reclamation of agricultural land, and encouraging investment and the private sector to accommodate the population expansion."

 

The American "Worldometer" website, which deals with population, revealed that Iraq currently constitutes 0.52% of the world's population, and it is ranked 36th among the other countries of the world and fourth in the Arab world in terms of population after Egypt, Algeria and Sudan.