Cross border freight service reopened in August with service to both Syria and Turkey. This traffic includes petroleum products, LP gas, grain and manufactured products.

The railway from the Port of Umm Qasr to Baghdad and various locations throughout Iraq has served as a vital link in military re-supply as well as carrying fuel from the Shouaiba refinery.

In December, a weekly international passenger service was reopened between Mosul and Alepo. The railway is prepared to support the reopening of fertilizer and cement production in the western part of Iraq.

Iraqs railway system is guarded by Iraqis ? armed Iraqi Rail Police officers travel on every train to ensure passenger safety.

There are currently 250 Iraqi Rail Police in service.

Future plans

Three-hundred more Iraqi Rail Police are assigned to begin security on the rail line soon.

Post Conflict

Re-opened Umm Qasr seaport to commercial traffic June 17.

Umm Qasr is handling larger ships compared to pre-conflict levels. Before the war the port could only cope with eight 10,000 ton commercial dhows. Now it can take (how many?)50,000 ton cargo ships.

On March 1, 243 Iraqi Ports Authority guards were placed into service.

Currently, more than 65 ships offload cargo at the port every month.

Have resumed dredging operations.

All 21 berths are now open to deep-draft ships.

Completed renovation of grain-receiving facility

o More than 200,000 tons of grain has been unloaded since the first ship arrived in mid-November.

o The maintenance and management of the grain-receiving facilities have now been handed over to the Iraqi Grain Board.

Future plans

The grain-receiving facility aims to process up to 9,000 to 10,000 metric tons of grain per day.

One Iraqi dredger has been rehabilitated and will maintain the harbor. Two new dredgers have been purchased through OFF funds.

Pre-conflict

Saddam Hussein’s regime provided only $16 million for the Ministry of Health in 2002 (less than $1.00 per person).

The Iraqi medical system severely lacked modern equipment and medical capabilities.

Doctor?s pre-conflict salaries were approximately $20 per month.

Post Conflict

Since liberation, the country has not faced a major public health crisis.

Iraq’s 2004 budget for health care is $950 million ? a $934 million increase over 2002.

The entire country is at pre-war capabilities for providing health care - 240 Iraqi hospitals and more than 1,200 primary health centers are operating.

Doctors’ salaries have increased to between $120 per month and $180 per month, up from $20 per month pre-conflict.

Three Facility Protective Services classes have trained over 1,300 personnel to protect healthcare facilities.

The Ministry of Health has completed a $1.7 million headquarters refurbishment project.

More than 30 million doses of children’s vaccinations have been procured and distributed. Also, the Ministry has received grants to immunize the country’s 4.2 million children under the age of five against preventable diseases such as polio, tetanus, diphtheria, measles, and tuberculosis (70% have been inoculated to-date).

More than 700,000 pregnant women have received a tetanus toxiod vaccine to improve the quality of maternal healthcare.

Since May 24, the Ministry of Health has delivered more than 25,000 tons of pharmaceuticals and supplies to healthcare facilities across Iraq.

The Mosul Tuberculosis Center was rehabilitated, as well as the Mosul General Hospital, the Basrah General Hospital Burn Unit, and the Primary Health Directorate Building.

Thirty-five small grants, worth almost $2 million, have been awarded to support Iraqi NGO healthcare efforts throughout Iraq.

The MOH spent $40 million on purchase and installation of 128 generators and uninterruptible power supply systems, as well as the refurbishment of ten additional generators.

Approximately $5 million of laboratory equipment and supplies provided the foundation to re-establish the Central Public Health Laboratory in Baghdad, National Center of Drug Control and Research, the Nutritional Research Institute, and regional and governorate public health laboratories.

National Drug Formulary for Iraq: This new purchasing structure will facilitate the arrival of treatments virtually non-existent under the old regime. This includes top-tier cancer drugs and many other progressive pharmaceuticals. It will also improve the sourcing of drugs, resulting in better quality and better health outcomes.

Future plans

Continued focus on the rehabilitation of existing hospitals and primary health centers. To that point, the CPA, in cooperation with USAID, is continuing to re-equip 600 facilities throughout Iraq to provide essential primary healthcare services. These locations will receive medical supply kits distributed by MOH/USAID partner Abt Associates. The $4,500 kit stocks clinics with state-of-the-art equipment and basic clinical supplies.

The continued decentralization of healthcare.

Further support for critical maternal and child health programs.

Significant progress towards cutting the infant mortality in half by the end of 2005.

Continued development of community health and mental health programs.

Growing public health programs, including clean water, nutrition, and disease surveillance.

Working with healthcare officials to increase professional training in both clinical and management settings.

Pre-conflict

Due to the inequitable distribution of power by Saddam, most provinces suffered greatly. All provinces, with the exception of Fallujah, sections of Baghdad, and Tikrit, were getting 0 ? 10 hours of power. Fallujah, sections of Baghdad, and Tikrit were getting 10 ? 24 hours of power. There was an obvious favoritism in the distribution of power.

Exact numbers for individual cities pre-war are not available. However, the policy for the last several years prior to 2003 was that Baghdad would receive 24 hours of power, and all remaining power will be divided among Governorates. According to the CPA-Electricity Program Manager, Baghdad generally received 24 hrs/day, and most all other places averaged 4 hrs/day. Further records are unavailable.

The electrical system is probably the single greatest example of Saddam?s neglect of the infrastructure and his people?s needs. There is equipment that is so old and dilapidated that spare parts no longer exist anywhere in the world. It demonstrates the ingenuity of the Iraqi engineers to produce electricity. Ingenuity, combined with the resources and encouragement of the coalition engineers is driving the reconstruction of the system forward.

Post Conflict

Power production reached 4,518 MW on October 6, exceeding the pre-conflict capacity and the system generated 91,474 MW hours on Wednesday, February 18.

Implemented a spring maintenance program which is necessary for the upkeep of existing and new plants. Each plant is evaluated for necessary parts that need replacement or repair due to age, regular usage, vandalism, theft, or accidents. The spring maintenance program will end by mid-May in order to have all scheduled projects operational by the 1 June deadline.

As of February 18, 41 generation units were being serviced. Twenty-three units were out for unscheduled service. Nine thermal and nine gas turbine units were out for scheduled service.

CPA is adding 930 MW of capacity by summer 2004 through maintenance and rehabilitation projects at nine gas turbine units and three diesel units.

CPA is adding 1,636 MW of capacity by summer 2004 through new generation projects, including new gas turbine units being installed at 10 sites.

CPA is restoring 1,194 MW of capacity to the system through repairs to 550 kilometers of 400-kilo volt transmission line.

Future plans

CPA?s goal for Iraq is to reach 6000 MW?s by June 30.

Reaching 6000 MW?s will be accomplished by relying on the Spring Maintenance Program and rehabilitation for existing power plants and building and bringing new power plants online.

The Coalition and its partners are revitalizing public education in Iraq by addressing urgent needs while laying the foundation for sustainable, decentralized quality schooling at the primary and secondary levels.

Pre-conflict

Since 1991, there was no ongoing maintenance program for school buildings nationwide.

Rather than investing in improved infrastructure, improved teacher training, updated curriculum and new technology, Saddam Hussein spent money building many ornate palaces.

Total number of teachers in Iraq: 272,122 in 2000-2001 (Source: UNESCO)

Number of school buildings: 14,924 (Kindergarten 631; Primary 11,066; Secondary 2,968; Vocational 158; Teacher training 101).

Post Conflict

Most schools were open very soon after liberation and the highly-valued national exams were given in June 2003 (had they not been given, Iraqi students would have lost an entire academic year).

The politicized education system was dismantled. More than 12,000 headmasters, headmistresses, and teachers, who were former Ba?ath Party members, were dismissed with a process for appeal at the local and national levels.

32,632 secondary school teachers and 3,000 supervisors have been trained in effective classroom management and curriculum delivery.

644 students are now in the accelerated learning program throughout the nation.

Entry-level teacher salaries were raised from a pre-war monthly salary of $5 to $66. The average is now about $120 per month.

USAID edited all primary and secondary school math and science books and printed 8.7 million copies which have been distributed to the governances. This is with US taxpayer money. With Oil-for-Food money, UNESCO did another 50 million.

Distributed 159,000 student desks, over 26,437 teacher desks, 61,000 chalkboards and 58,000 teacher kits including distributions in non-permissive areas.

Distributed 808,000 primary student kits and 81,735 primary teacher kits.

Number of schools requiring repair post-war due to years of neglect and looting: 11,939 (of which 50% require major work or rebuilding)

By March 2004, more than 2,500 schools had been rehabilitated, with another 869 underway, by various U.S. civilian agencies, NGOs, international agencies, and the military.

Future plans

4500 new schools to be built over the next four years to overcome crowding.

U.S. Congress has allocated $88 million in construction funds to rehabilitate 1,000 schools in 2004 and $82 million in non-construction funds for (1) restoring water and sanitation services to schools; (2) forming or reactivating PTAs; (3) reducing the number of schools holding multiple shifts; (4) establishing 162 model schools, Centers of Excellence; (5) developing television for pre-school children; and (6) ensuring the delivery of school supplies.

Higher Education

USAID awarded five grants worth $20.1 million to create partnerships between U.S. and Iraqi universities.

Pre-conflict

Iraqi Telephone and Posts Company had 833,000 active telephone subscribers in the entire country.

Cellular telephones were virtually non-existent.

There was practically no chance at internet connectivity for Iraq.

Cellular telephones, credit card services and ATM machines were non-existent, as well as the technology (data network) to provide these services.

Post Conflict

Today, there are over 700,000 active telephone subscribers in Iraq.

The total number of telephone subscribers in Iraq, including the 300,000 cell phones subscribers, equals 1,005,580, which is 20% percent greater than the number of active subscribers pre-conflict.

With the CPA stimulating the private sector, three private cell phone carriers built networks here in Iraq, without any cost to the American taxpayer.

One, two-year operating licensee was awarded to each of the three regions:

o Asia Cell — Northern region

o Iraqna — Central region

o Atheer ? Southern region.

With the debut of mobile phone networks, cell phones are selling at the rate of over 15,000 per week. Total number of phones sold has exceeded 300,000. Demand has stripped supplies. Consumers are placing large deposits just to reserve a spot on the next shipment.

The three new cell phone providers are creating thousands of jobs for Iraqis.

On December 30, 2003, a satellite gateway system was installed at Al Mamoun in Baghdad to provide international calling service. Approximately $50 million will be obligated on satellite gateway construction.

The US supplemental appropriation for Iraqi reconstruction funds provides $225 million for continued expansion of the Iraqi telephone system.

CPA is working to upgrade Iraq?s fiber optic network to satisfy modern data networking demands. The upgraded fiber network will be able to support a ubiquitous internet access, electronic banking, electronic funds transfers, credit card transactions, point of sale terminals, and ATM machines.

The new data network will be regulated, so as to provide equal access to all licensed common carriers, including the domestic long-haul traffic of the new cell phone operators.

CPA has trained Iraqi engineers and technicians to maintain both the satellite gateway system and telephone switches.

A “First Responder Network” (FRN) is being implemented for Iraqi police, border patrols and emergency personnel through CPA, which will improve the security situation in Iraq. FRN will be the first nationwide emergency communications network to provide the communications needs of Iraq?s civil and military authorities.

The CPA has modernized the telephone system by installing 13 digital telephone switches since May 2003 with full supporting service.

Future plans

By October, the upgraded fiber network will be able to support ubiquitous internet access, electronic banking, electronic funds transfers, credit card transactions, point of sale terminals, and ATM machines.

CPA will deliver an additional 10,000 radios through the “First Responder Network” for police and border guards over the next 90 days.

Future plans to issue additional cellular licenses will be decided by the Iraqi people and approved by the soon-to-be created Iraqi independent regulatory commission. The term of the cell operators? licensees is two years.

In addition to constructing new satellite earth stations, CPA will make major investments for connecting Iraq to submarine fiber optic carriers, providing low cost/high speed connections to the rest of the world.

Increased bandwidth will be used to support an explosive growth demand for Internet, financial services, e-business, and to support the large enterprise systems of multi-national corporations planning to invest in Iraq.

A recent survey conducted by the US State Department Office of Research shows that nearly 80 percent of Iraqis feel that, in general, local Iraqi police are trusted by most members of their communities.

A percentage that is almost as large (70%), believe that local Iraqi police are accessible to help resolve problems. Of note, there are more Iraqis now working to secure Iraq and its people than there are Coalition forces working here.

CPA has supported several women’s groups to ensure that Iraqi women are able to fully participate in Iraqi society. The Office of Women’s Affairs CPA supported the country’s first major women’s conference in Baghdad in July 2003. Since then CPA has sponsored three regional conferences and given support to six newly established women’s organizations.

CPA has provided funding for Women’s Centers throughout the country. These Centers offer vocational training and educational opportunities and give women a place to congregate, share experiences, and plan for the future. To date, assistance has been provided to Women’s Centers in nine major cities and CPA is currently working on centers in four additional cities. In addition, nine Women’s Centers are planned for Baghdad; the first celebrated its opening on International Women’s Day on March 8.

Through USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute completed an assessment of Iraq?s political parties which identified at least 200 political parties in existence in Iraq. Both IRI and NDI have initiated training for political parties in Hillah, Baghdad, and Tikrit with participants from all over Iraq. The training focuses on the basics of political party development and the role of political parties in a democracy.