THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
STRATEGIC PLAN
2004

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Page
SECTION 1. INTRODUCTION 2

SECTION 2 BACKGROUND 3

SECTION 3. VISION AND MISSION 4

SECTION 4. THE MOST ORGANIZATION 4

SECTION 5. ENTERPRISES: GOALS, OBJECTIVES, AND PROGRAMS 5

The Energy Research and Development Enterprise 6

The Environmental Protection Agency Enterprise 7

The Center for Industrial Development Enterprise 8

The Information and Electronics Technology Enterprise 9

The Agriculture and Food Technology Enterprise 9

The Materials and Chemistry Center Enterprise 10

SECTION 6. COMMON TASK 11

SECTION 7. CONCLUSION 12

SECTION 8. IMPLEMENTATION TASKS FOR CY 2004 12


Introduction

The Ministry of Science and Technology’s (MOST) Strategic Plan takes its emphasis from the Coalition Provisional Authority’s strategy as outlined in Achieving the Vision. The document describes the core foundations of CPA’s strategy and key action steps within the core elements. Overall, the Mission of the CPA is to:

“…work with the Iraqi people and the Iraqi Interim Administration to establish the conditions for a free, sovereign, democratically-elected representative government. We want to work with Iraqis to establish an Iraq that uses its resources for the benefit of its people. It should be an Iraq that is stable, united, prosperous, at peace with its neighbors and able to take its rightful place as a responsible member of the region and the international community. This Iraq must be free of weapons of mass destruction and terrorists.”

As will be seen in the MOST plan, the ministry will have an important part to play in virtually every aspect of the stated mission. Specifically, the four principal objectives, or: “core foundations” of the CPA strategy are:

• Security – establishing a secure and safe environment
• Essential services – restoring basic services to an acceptable standard
• Economy – creating the conditions for economic growth
• Governance – enabling the transition to transparent and inclusive democratic governance

As mentioned in CPA’s plan, none of these objectives can be accomplished in isolation, but must be acted upon concurrently to achieve CPA’s vision. The MOST will have involvement in all four of the objectives, but will have the most impact in the areas of essential services and the economy. For example, water resources within Iraq suffer from pollution and extremely high salinity levels. Through water chemistry research, training of water quality assessment teams and construction of water treatment facilities, the MOST can have an immediate impact on essential services by improving the water resources of Iraq. An example of MOST’s contribution to the core foundation of the economy is through our Center for Industrial Development. The goal is to establish suitable facilities for private commercial enterprises to use for the purpose of exploring new technologies and industrial processes. This task is key to the overall goal of encouraging a free-market economy that can compete in world markets.

Endstate

This plan describes only the beginning of a long, and what will be a sometimes painful process of recovery and renewal. The endstate will be a Ministry of Science and Technology that will provide the scientific and engineering core for manufacturing, energy, information technology, and scientific progress and development for the people of Iraq. This, in turn, will contribute immensely to the economic well-being of the country and its citizens.

Background

Iraq’s past practices in technology and industry, like most of the region, utilized the concept of turnkey facilities. This practice required that all major projects be developed in this fashion, including petrochemicals, refineries, steel mills, and food processing facilities. As a result of this practice, Iraq’s technology base gained no insight into modern technologies and had to rely on external support for maintenance of most facilities. Additionally, Iraq lacked support teams to update its facilities; in many cases, facilities became obsolete and fell into disrepair within few years after startup.

After the first Gulf war and with UN sanctions in place, a new initiative was spearheaded by the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) and its partners in the Military Industrialization Commission (MIC), formerly the Ministry of Military Industrialization. This initiative capitalized on the huge industrial base established for Iraq’s WMD programs and the lack of similar civilian infrastructure. In March of 1991, Iraq had no electricity, no oil refineries, no telephone services and limited mobile broadcasting facilities. Many bridges were destroyed or damaged. The work planned and coordinated by the IAEC following the 1991 Gulf War developed an amazing, yet elementary reconstruction program that rebuilt much of Iraq’s destroyed infrastructure in a short period of time. In months, refineries were back on line (albeit producing inferior products but working) and electricity was back on. Bridges were rebuilt and in one case a double decked bridge replaced the original one level bridge, and both TV and radio broadcasts on the air.

Given the new self-confidence generated by these accomplishments, new factories were built to supply desperately needed products. The Iraqis traded the quality of their products for speed of restoration. Output was of inferior quality and lacked modern technology inputs or upgrades. For example, realizing that their carbon black industry was producing an inferior product that resulted in bad tires and poor quality paints, Russian companies were hired to provide the necessary technology to improve product quality. This move did result in improved production lines, increased productivity and improved products. However, production output and quality continued to lag behind an Egyptian plant that used similar American technology. The UN sanctions on Iraq limited outside contacts and Iraq’s ability to improve other industries.

The international science and engineering communities now realize that Iraq cannot recover successfully on its own. Old turnkey facilities must be replaced with newer technology developed and installed in a joint effort by Iraq and new commercial partners. Additionally, training programs, the presence of expert consultants, and licensing choices have to be included for these efforts to succeed. To this end, the Strategic Plan to establish and organize the Ministry of Science and Technology Commission is presented below.


Vision and Mission

The plan to transition from the Ministry of Atomic Energy, and the transfer of selected MIC companies to establish the Ministry of Science and Technology is based on historical examples of other countries recovering from a war. For instance, Japan successfully achieved its reconstruction goals using a science and technology organization. Iraq now possesses a large, well-trained engineering and technical work force with no jobs. The time is right and the demands exist to move Iraq and its scientists towards a similar organization. In this way, Iraq’s best minds can provide the technology that will allow Iraq to modernize its industrial base to spur economic growth.

Also, one of the major concerns of the world community is the potential spread of Iraqi WMD knowledge and the skilled scientists and technicians who worked these programs for the past regime. The potential transfer of WMD knowledge and skilled personnel to terrorist states such as Iran, Syria and Libya must be prevented. Iraqi scientists, engineers and technicians at Atomic Energy and its partners in the Military Industrialization Commission must realize that they have a future with viable careers in the new Iraq. The door will be open for all scientists and engineers in the other parts of MIC to apply to join the newly formed MOST. This will provide employment and direction to rewarding science and technology careers to all of Iraq’s former WMD scientists and engineers. This talent pool and associated laboratories will be made available to the universities to train their students, especially graduate students in various research areas.

The mission of the MOST is to provide the core scientific and engineering expertise to transform and modernize Iraq’s industrial base. Two specific objectives are:

• Because Iraq’s professional and engineering workforce has been depleted, the MOST will bring together the expertise to develop newer, more advanced technologies in several different disciplines in order to help Iraq in its reconstruction and development. The MOST can more easily achieve this goal because its members have vast experiences of managing large engineering tasks.
• To assure Iraqi scientists, engineers and technicians that they have a viable future in Iraq that does not require the secrecy and security measures of the old regime, thereby encouraging these scientists to remain in Iraq and not seek employment with other governments.


The MOST Organization

Organization

The membership of the new MOST would be made of personnel from the old IAEC and the MIC. The MOST will be an organization capable of serving many needs focused on improving the future of Iraq. Figure 1 below shows the overall organization of the MOST and the six major enterprises composing the organization.

Redirecting the efforts of Iraq’s scientists away from weapons research and development and into more peaceful endeavors would be a high priority for the MOST. In this regard, the United States Department of State’s Office of Science and Technology has proposed an initiative to rehabilitate the Iraqi scientists and redirect their energies into more constructive work. This initiative proposes a visit from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and some professional engineering societies.

The MOST would perform a critical task for the country by funding, monitoring and exploring new ideas through actual research and development. Working in concert with both the public and private sector, the MOST would also establish ties with other various international organizations.



Figure 1, MOST Organization and Major Enterprises


Enterprises: Goals, Objectives, and Programs

Transforming the old IAEC and the MIC into the Ministry of Science and Technology would provide the nation with one expert organization to serve as the leader in identifying, planning and developing new projects designed to restore and improve Iraq’s infrastructure and industrial base. The MOST would serve as an “agent of change” for identifying and bringing new technology into Iraq and sharing it with all interested parties; it should not be a bottleneck that stifles progress by others, especially private sector companies.

The Major Enterprises

The MOST is organized into six major enterprises (see Figure 1). In turn, the major enterprises are organized into related functional areas. Within each of the enterprises, goals, and objectives have been established. The major enterprises are:

• Energy Research and Development
• Environmental Protection
• Center for Industrial Development
• Information and Electronics Technology
• Agriculture and Food Technology
• Materials and Chemistry Center
• Water Research Center

Enterprise: Energy Research and Development

Functional Areas

The Energy Research and Development Enterprise is organized into the major functional areas as shown in Figure 2 below:



Figure 2, Energy Research and Development.

Goal: This enterprise will harness the expertise of Iraq’s scientists to develop new technologies to maximize the potential of current fossil fuel production, and to research and develop alternative energy sources.

Objectives:

• Renovate and establish the old Al Tuwaitha facility as not only a research facility for development of energy technologies, but also too help emerging manufacturing and production companies overall. Develop the site for showcasing public-private partnerships and new technology.
• Examine emerging technologies in the alternative energy fields of solar and wind power with the ultimate objective of assisting its remote communities in the desert by supplying their energy needs with these alternative sources.
• Export these new technologies to other countries that are in need of solar and wind energy alternatives.


Enterprise: Environmental Protection

Functional Areas

The Hazardous Materials Enterprise is organized into the major functional areas as shown in Figure 3 below:


Figure 3, Environmental Protection Agency Functional Areas.

Goal: Establish standards, monitor conditions, and conduct remediation in order to protect human health and safeguard the environment.

Objectives:

• Develop and resource pollution prevention programs to forestall any further contamination.
• To meet its international obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, serve as the technical interface and liaison with international monitoring agencies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
• Serve as the responsible body for assuring the proper use of radioactive materials for legitimate medical and industrial uses.
• Train, educate, and maintain proficiency of HAZMAT teams to the proper standards in order to assess, collect, process, and dispose of hazardous waste.
• Establish consultancy to other ministries concerning environmental issues.
• Train and equip first responder medical teams to respond to a hazardous or toxic material event.
• Conduct environment impact assessments and a survey of environmental damage due to the various WMD projects.
• Construct and staff radiological and chemical waste sites.
• Conduct research into suitable forms of recycling waste products.
• Develop capabilities to use licensed technology to establish desalinization plants in order to alleviate severe salinity problems in Iraq’s rivers.
• Examine technologies to aid in environmental clean-up and to enhance waste treatment capabilities in order to reduce microbial and chemical contaminant level to at or under established standards.
• Conduct research on aspects of water chemistry for practical applications in Iraq’s water systems.

Enterprise: Center for Industrial Development

Functional Areas

The Center for Industrial Development Enterprise is organized into the major functional areas as shown in Figure 4 below:



Figure 4, Center for Industrial Development and Information Technology Functional Areas.

Goal: Establish suitable facilities for private commercial enterprises to use for the purpose of exploring new technologies and industrial processes. This goal is key to the overall goal of encouraging a free-market economy that can compete in world markets.

Objectives:

• To promote the development of infrastructure that is necessary to conduct trade in goods and services.
• Benchmark performance of industrial processes against established standards.
• Build capacity of academic, non-government and government institutions to support specific industrial enterprises.
• Conduct research and development on industrial processes

Enterprise: Information and Electronics Technology

Functional Areas
The Information and Electronics Technology Enterprise is organized into the major functional areas as shown in Figure 5 below:



Figure 5, Information and Electronics Technology Functional Area.

Goal: Modernize this critical area in order to help in Iraq’s economic recovery and to streamline the operations of the government and business.

Objectives:

• Establish network interfacing of hardware and software.
• Digitize critical data records and the creation of government wide data bases and modernize banking and financial data bases.
• Establish uniform or compatible software standards for use by the government.
• Improve business processes to maximize the potential of technology.

Enterprise: Agriculture and Food Technology

Functional Areas

The Agriculture and Food Technology Enterprise is organized into the major functional areas as shown in Figure 6 below:



Figure 6, Agriculture and Food Technology Functional Area.

Goal: For Iraq to stabilize its society and grow economically, the MOST must facilitate the redirection and refurbishment of the agriculture and food production capabilities of the country.

Objectives:

• Facilitate obtaining international expertise to assist in refurbishment of the agriculture sector.
• Restart previous experiments with cobalt in food sterilization, genetically modified grains to withstand local diseases, and examine various other microbiological applications.
• Study new ways of managing Iraq’s dwindling fish stocks that are being depleted through over-fishing and reduced production as a result of pollution.

Enterprise: Materials and Chemistry Center

Functional Areas

The Materials and Chemistry Center Enterprise is organized into the major functional areas as shown in Figure 7 below:



Figure 7, Materials and Chemistry Center Functional Areas.

Goal: Support the emerging private sector by researching and developing advanced material technologies.

Objectives:

• Investigate potential solutions and processes that require the studies of available raw and processed materials and the commercial viability of supporting technologies.
• Facilitate in bringing in outside expertise to assist in development of emerging material technologies.
• Assist in developing technologies that maximize the potential of quality raw materials for the ceramics and glass industries. This applies to both the building material sector and products for household use.
• Develop appropriate construction technology and better materials with a higher insulation factor to partially offset the very hot Iraqi weather. This effort can bring cheaper and better housing to Iraq, and alleviate the critical housing shortage.
• Enhance knowledge about new technologies that, coupled with preprocessing, can turn iron and bauxite ores into economically viable raw materials.
• Examine technologies in the area of powder metallurgy that can lead to the production of less expensive industrial components.


Common Tasks

Simply put, common tasks primarily involve management of resources and people; tasks that all of the enterprises of the MOST must perform. Managing resources effectively is critical to achieving ministry goals and objectives. Good management entails responding to constituencies and customers, minimizing costs, and seeking efficiencies. It is important to emphasize the phrase “seeking efficiencies.” In a start up effort such as forming the MOST, being an efficient operation will come with time. In some situations, resources will have to be expended to literally build capabilities from the ground up; that is, “being efficient” has no meaning until the capability exists and is up and running. However, there will be “efficiencies” to be found in the process of starting up and resourcing the enterprises of the MOST. The ministry will always invest resources with an eye for maximum returns. By integrating general management practices, all of the enterprises within MOST will leverage limited resources, standardize and streamline processes where it makes sense to do so, and ensure rapid, reliable, and open exchanges of information. Therefore, the primary Common Tasks of the MOST are:

Financial Management

To effectively manage our financial resources and evaluate Minstry, Enterprise, and program-level performance, the MOST must adhere to CPA and Ministry of Finance established financial management and accounting systems.

Physical Resources Management

The physical assets actually under ministry control will vary depending upon the progress of transformation. Eventually, state or ministry controlled assets will represent a small portion of ministry physical resources. In any case, good physical resources management will support the goals and objectives of the ministry, and will provide a good example to the people of Iraq.

Human Resources Management

Our human resources management begins with the recognition that employees are our most important resource. As a ministerial activity, we must recruit and manage our staff in order to achieve our strategic goals and objectives. This means we must focus on acquiring those people with the necessary skills and competencies that directly relate to the functioning of the MOST.


Interagency Cooperation

Since the MOST will provide the core scientific expertise for the reconstruction of Iraq, a key strategy is to establish and effectively utilize partnerships with other ministries, the newly formed Business Center, and Iraqi and foreign universities and industries. In this way, we can use our limited resources for the maximum benefit; that is, obtaining expertise, skills, and resources of others who are all stakeholders in the recovery of Iraq. An example of this cooperation is the ministry’s coordination of this plan with the newly established Business Center, and incorporating their input. In addition, the Business Center acts as a valuable conduit in linking interested private companies looking for work in Iraq to the requirements of the ministries and the government of Iraq. In this way, an engaged private enterprise can produce those “efficiencies” discussed earlier.


Conclusion

The transformation of the Ministry of Atomic Energy and the Military Industrialization Commission into the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) is a critical step in modernizing Iraq’s industrial base and developing technologies that will have an impact on the economy of the entire country. It is also key that Iraq’s highly skilled scientists and engineers have viable careers in Iraq as full participants in the reconstruction of their country.


Implementation Tasks for CY 2004

MOST’s goal of modernizing Iraq’s industrial base and ensuring that Iraq’s best minds have a viable future in their home country involve long-term programs. However, there are major high priority tasks identified to guide our programs, activities, human resources, and financial resources during CY 2004. Given the years of neglect of Iraq’s infrastructure, these priority tasks are primarily concerned with halting, then selectively reversing the contamination of Iraq’s water supply. As before, the prioritized tasks are listed within the context of their associated enterprise.
Enterprise: Environmental Protection

Iraq’s rivers are highly polluted due to indiscriminate dumping of untreated waste water, high salinity, and industrial chemical waste. Though contractors will repair some waste water treatment plants, the fact remains that the majority of towns have no treatment facilities. The MOST can resolve the problem by a focused effort that coordinates the efforts of Iraq’s scientific and engineering community, and experts and partners from abroad to help create a waste water remediation industrial base.

Major Tasks CY 2004:

• Recruit and train assessment and laboratory personnel, and waste water treatment personnel.
• Prioritize specific sites for assessment and remediation; selected sites should present an immediate threat to human health.
• Develop and institute a water pollution prevention program to forestall any further contamination.
• Form a water composition database on Iraq’s rivers.
• Establish consultancy to other ministries concerning environmental issues.
• Establish water chemistry laboratories.
• Establish linkage to engineering and technical institutes for a trained technical base.

Enterprise: Environmental Protection

The water salinity problem in Iraq is extensive. At times, water salinity can reach seven or eight times the maximum allowed for human consumption in cities such as Basra and Nassiriya. Buying reverse osmosis plants for desalination throughout the needed areas will cost billions of dollars. However, the manufacturing of these plants involves standard technology and has been successfully transferred through licensing and local development to many countries. Building these plants locally will cost only a small fraction of the cost of importing them, even if some parts, such as the membranes that separate the dissolved solids, are purchased. In many cases these were made locally through a license. The time is right to focus on the above mentioned strategy to create a workable long-range solution.

Major Tasks CY 2004:

• Use licensed technology to establish desalinization plants in order to alleviate severe salinity problems in Iraq’s rivers.
• Conduct research on aspects of water chemistry for practical applications in Iraq’s water systems.

Enterprise: Materials and Chemistry Center

Better building technology and materials are sorely needed in Iraq. The traditional brick and mortar houses are too expensive to cool or heat, very expensive to build and take a long time to complete. For example, better materials are needed with a higher insulation factor to partially offset the very hot Iraqi weather. Introducing appropriate construction technology and creating manufacturing facilities can bring cheaper and better housing to Iraq and alleviate the critical housing shortage that is getting worse. Along with these modern insulation materials, metal production, including aluminum and steel are required to move away from buildings and houses constructed entirely of brick and mortar. Earlier attempts at production of metals failed because of the lack of knowledge about new technologies that, coupled with preprocessing, could have turned mineral ores into economically viable raw materials. Powder metallurgy can also have significant impact on the manufacturing base by permitting the production of less expensive industrial components.

Major Tasks CY 2004:

• Develop appropriate construction technology and better materials with a higher insulation factor; this includes development of pre-fabricated panels/sections.
• Establish manufacturing facilities for new materials.

Enterprise: Information and Electronics Technology

Iraq has lagged behind the region in information technology and needs considerable planning and resources to modernize this critical area. Digitization of critical data records such as those of banking and financial records and the creation of government wide data bases will be a great help in Iraq’s economic recovery and streamlining the operations of the government.

Major Tasks CY 2004:

• Modernize the telecomm infrastructure to support networking.
• Digitize critical data records and create government wide data bases.
• Network interfacing of hardware and software.
• Establishment of uniform or compatible software standards for use by the government.
• Improve business processes to maximize the potential of technology.