Al-Hakim: PM-designate can help Iraq break oil dependence

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Prime Minister-designate Ali Al-Zaidi’s private-sector background could help reduce its dependence on oil and revive productive sectors as the country faces mounting economic pressure, Al-Hikma (Wisdom) Movement leader Ammar Al-Hakim stated on Saturday.

Speaking during a meeting with professional and union elites in Baghdad, Al-Hakim described Iraq’s next phase as “economic above all,” calling for broader export routes, economic diversification, and renewed investment in agriculture, industry, tourism, technology, and other non-oil sectors.

The incoming government must move beyond “routine and bureaucratic approaches,” he said, arguing that the state should act as a regulator and guarantor of citizens’ interests while giving the private sector a larger role in driving growth and absorbing unemployment. He also called for tighter regulation of foreign labor and preserving union independence alongside efforts to stimulate private-sector employment.

Iraq remains heavily dependent on oil, which accounts for more than 90% of state revenues, while the public sector employs most formal workers. Al-Zaidi faces mounting pressure to reform the country’s rentier economic model as a rapidly expanding labor force outpaces the state’s ability to absorb workers into the public sector, though many of the reforms now being promoted, including banking reform, digital transformation, and private-sector expansion, were previously outlined in Iraq’s 2020 “White Paper” economic reform program.

Read more: The rentier trap: Iraq’s existential reform race

Unlike many Iraqi political figures whose experience comes mainly from government or parliament, Al-Zaidi led private-sector institutions, including Al-Watania Holding Group and Al-Janoob Islamic Bank.

Read more: Who is Ali Al-Zaidi? The businessman tapped for Iraq's premiership