The Iraqi Federation of Industries
Al-Khullani Square Icon
By Laith Al-Himdany
Translated from Arabic by Wefa
The image of the building for the
Iraqi Federation of Industries at Al-Khullani Square in Baghdad, one of the
masterpieces of the late architect Rifaat Al-Chadarji, has returned to the media
with the news of the death of the Baghdad lover*
on April 10, 2020.
Few days before the death of Rifaat
Al-Chadarji, I was talking with Qahtan Al-Orfali on the phone and we were reminiscing
about the magnificent building of the Union (which was considered a landmark in
Baghdad), and the dire situation to which it reached after the occupation like what happened to dozens of institutions destroyed by the occupation. We remembered how the Union building was established
from donations by Iraqi industrialists who saw a significant
normative value** in their homeland as expressed by economist Thaer al-Dabbagh.
This issue began with the initiative
of the Union’s General Secretary at the time, Dr. Muhammad Khalil al-Tawil,
after obtaining the approval of the Union’s Board of Directors, which at that
time occupied part of a building on Banks’ Street. I remember meeting Qahtan
Al-Orfali, and at his office I met with important industrialists such as Tawfik
Allawi, Ismael Al-Bahrani, Abdallah Al-Omari, Ibrahim Al-Rubaie, Yahya Thanian,
Yusef Al-Haddad, Abdul-Wahab Bunniya, Yahya Al-Najjar, Adeeb Farajo, Khairallah
Al-Sabbagh, and Fadel Al-Tai. Among the employees at the Union were the
economic researcher Abdul Razzaq al-Rubaie, the engineer Rashid Hamid, the established
journalist Qasim Muhammad Fakhri, owner of the Iraqi Economics newspaper, who
was working in the Union’s Public Relations Department, and the Assistant
Director (of this department) Tarik Al-Douri.
A committee was formed under the
chairmanship of Muhammad Khalil al-Tawil and the membership of Ibrahim
al-Rubaie, Muhammad Kafil Hussain, Abd al-Amir al-Jumaili, and Muhammad Hassan
al-Qazzaz, as well as the accounts manager at that time, Qadduri Abdul
Ghafour. Few years following the
donation by the Iraqi industrialists, the building was completed.
The Union moved to the new building
in 1967 and since then it has been linked to my memory. Here I
record the details of the establishment of laboratories, which were located on
a street off Al-Zaeem^ Street (in honor of Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qasim)
near the headquarters of Al-Ittihad newspaper, which I assumed responsibility
for years. The initiative for the establishment of laboratories was by the
President of the Union, Abdul Qadir Abdul Latif, and by a decision of the Union's
Board of Directors with the support of the Ministry of Light Industries. The
aim of its establishment was to provide support in the fields of product
testing for small enterprises such as food laboratories, clothing and shoes
industries that are not approved by industrial development and whose products
are not subject to examination in the laboratories of the Central Organization
for Standardization and Quality Control. They were large laboratories comparable
with the Quality Control of those in Industrial countries, and were unrelated to the military industries.
The Most
Prominent Achievements of the Union
- Organizing
an expanded meeting for a group of national industry pioneers that resulted in the
1970 studies under which president Ahmed Hasan Al-Bakir announced his support
for the private sector. The statement aimed to restore confidence to the investors
in the industrial sector that shrank and shied away from working in this sector
after the nationalization of the sixties, which included many industries including
construction industries and some food industries.
- The mechanization
of brick making projects in the private sector, then transferring them to the
Nahrawan complex, where the implementation of the project was supervised
by Engineer Youssef Hassan Mahdi and Engineer Kamal Ahmed Agha, and was achieved
in collaboration with an Italian company. Other projects, included the studies for
the mechanization of plaster projects that Eng. Isa Muhammad worked on, but did not
materialize due to the blockade imposed on Iraq.
- The
Union departments were like consultative bodies for the private and public
sectors in Iraq, and when the Iraqi government decided to enter the car
industry (as an industry, not assembly), an independent commission was
established for this purpose, headed by Barraq Saeed Yahya, a professor at the
University of Technology. At that time, the Union was assigned to prepare a
study on the automotive feeding industries. Indeed, the Union completed one of
the most important studies that dealt with the reality of the feeding
industries and the possibilities for their improvement, which was completed by
Eng. Youssef Hassan Mahdi in cooperation with the technical department of the
Union. The study received a great attention from the International Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO), which sent an expert to Iraq for assistance
and support. In this study, the Union provided important information that was compiled
by the Eng. Wafa Muhammad Ali. She stored, programmed and placed it at the
service of the Automobile Industry Authority.
- The
Economic Department, on the initiative of its director, the economist Thaer
al-Dabbagh, organized a scientific conference, the first of its kind, to
support and develop small industries. Many universities and research centers
contributed to it, which was accompanied by an exhibition of small industries
that received the attention of the Ministry of Industry, and the
recommendations of this conference were reflected on the state’s stance on
these industries. A decision was issued by Iraq’s President to register most of
these industries in the industrial development and grant them the necessary
privileges for development.
- Building
distinguished relations with Arab and international organizations and assemblies.
In its various epochs, the Union built distinguished relations at various
levels and this was demonstrated by its effective role in the General Union of
Arab Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, where the Secretary
General Burhan Al-Dajani paid great attention to the suggestions and
nominations of the Iraqi Union, and I was a witness to that era. The influence
of the Union was evident in the process of establishing Arab-foreign chambers
of commerce in cooperation with the Arab Economic Council, where the Union of
Iraqi Industries, in coordination with the Union of Iraqi Chambers of Commerce,
was able to nominate and support a number of Iraqi competencies for these
chambers such as Abdul Karim Al-Mudaris, Secretary General of the Arab-British
Chamber of Commerce, Fu’ad Abdul-Hadi, Secretary General
of the Arab-Italian Chamber, Nasrat Al-Mudaris, Secretary General of the
Arab-German Chamber, and Eng. Rakan, Secretary General of the Arab-Irish
Chamber
- The
Federation organized the largest Arab conference for coordination and integration
among the Arab Gulf states in the mid-seventies. Behind the success of the
conference was the president of the Union, Ghassan Marhoun. I personally worked
in the preparatory association, and with me was Husam Ad-Din al-Ansari, the
administrative expert at the General Organization for Textile Industries, Basim
Abdul Karim from the Economic Union and a large number of employees. Before the invasion of
Kuwait, the Union had strong relations with the Arab chambers of industry and
commerce, and it supported the candidacy of Mr. Kathem Abdul Hamid for the
General Secretariat of the Gulf Chambers. The Union also established close
relations with the chambers of Arab consultancy like the Arab Organization for
Industrialization (AOI), the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC),
and the Arab Labor Organization (ALO), which held a conference in Baghdad, and
I collaborated with some colleagues, including Shihab Al-Tamimi and Muhammad
Khalaf, by issuing a daily newspaper during the conference.
- The
role of the Union was prominent in the meetings of the International Labor
Organization as a representative of employers. At the beginning of the seventies,
Qahtan Al-Orfali was an important member in coordinating Iraqi delegations and
in the labor courts that were formed according to the conventions of the
International Labor Organization (ILO) and held in Geneva.
- At
the local level, the Union was an active member in the committee that was
formed upon a recommendation from the Union’s General Secretariat for the
purpose of establishing private banks. It also established the second private
bank, the Bank of Baghdad, which was managed by Saadoun Kubba. The Union also
proposed the establishment of the stock market. It was a comprehensive proposal
that received the attention of the Iraqi government. Annually, the Union continued
issuing a comprehensive guide of the Iraqi industries, and it also produced an
industrial survey that was supervised by Abdul Razzaq Al-Rubaie, Basim
Abdul-Karim Al-Zubaidi and Hana Al-Khafaji, and I have personally been
designing and following up on these publications since 1971. This survey was
the source for many studies, especially the studies of protecting national
production, which the Union used to contribute in their preparation. These
studies were used by the Trade Regulatory Commission in determining the import
rates for products that have equivalence in Iraq.
Since the establishment of the Union
until I left Iraq, I kept mentioning the details of that wonderful building,
which was one of the masterpieces by the late Rifaat Al-Chadarji, especially
the meeting room of the Board of Directors on the top floor, and how the sun
entered this room to brighten it without the need for [artificial] lighting.
* The Lover
of Baghdad is Rifaat Al-Chadarji
** Or notional value
^ The Leader
___________________________________________________
Notes:
1: This is a brief information about the status of the Iraqi Federation of Industries and its building after the USA-UK occupation of Iraq, 2003.
2. The Federation of Industries is
an important developmental organization that was marginalized after the
occupation and ended its role
3. Small enterprises are those
not approved by the industrial development and whose number of workers does not
exceed ten workers.
4. The Federation of Industries' laboratories were established in the mid of 1980s
5. Here is information about the Federation of Industries
6. The official name of the organization in English is the Iraqi Federation of Industries, but when referring to it by one term, 'federation' and 'union' are alternatively used in this translation to avoid repetition.
___________
Laith Al-Hamdani is an Iraqi journalist living in Canada since the mid.1990s. He began working at the Iraqi satirical magazine in the 1970s, then worked as a correspondent for Kuwaiti and Lebanese publications. In the 1970s, he was one of the founders of industrial media contributing to the publication of the "World of Industry" magazine, later called "Industry". In the mid. 1970s, he worked for "Tareeq Al Shaab" newspaper and was responsible for its technical department. In the 1980s, he published "Al-Ittihad" newspaper, which spoke for the Federation of Industries and Chambers of Commerce. Together with colleague, Ziyad Ali, he published "Al-Bilad" newspaper in Canada.