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Iraqis Put Proud Face on Budding Businesses at Joint Base Balad Print E-mail
Friday, 29 August 2008

By Staff Sgt. Les Newport
76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team

Mr. Hashim Abd Al-Amir Mahdi, owner of the Miran Company and operator of the new Joint Base Balad Container Repair facility shares a light moment with Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Crabtree of the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The facility is yet another project of the burgeoning Iraqi based industrial zones initiate that provides Iraqis with economic growth opportunities on the perimeters of installations of Coalition forces. Photo by Staff Sgt. Lesley Newport.
Mr. Hashim Abd Al-Amir Mahdi, owner of the Miran Company and operator of the new Joint Base Balad Container Repair facility shares a light moment with Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Crabtree of the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The facility is yet another project of the burgeoning Iraqi based industrial zones initiate that provides Iraqis with economic growth opportunities on the perimeters of installations of Coalition forces. Photo by Staff Sgt. Lesley Newport.
JOINT BASE BALAD — In a region where many men are often judged on their ability to thwart progress, he is counted among a growing number that can make things happen. And he has been making good things happen for his fellow countrymen since long before coalition forces arrived six years ago.

His name is Hashim Abd Al-Amir Mahdi and he is an Iraqi business leader who has been able to sustain long-term contracts with Coalition forces and provide valuable jobs for local nationals. Hashim recently took yet another step in his long journey to help restore normalcy to the land between the rivers.

Hashim hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new container repair facility at Joint Base Balad, marking the most recent and largest contract his business, the Miran Company, has negotiated with Coalition forces.

According to Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Crabtree, the contract has the potential for saving the US government more than one million dollars a year.

“The last I heard, we have over 10,000 containers [at JBB], and if they needed repaired we had to send them to Arifjan in Kuwait, a country and a half away,” said Crabtree. “Then we have to ship them back.”

Crabtree also points out that the facility, an Iraqi-based industrial zone project, is a catalyst for continued progress in Iraq, providing jobs for Sons of Iraq. The group has been given considerable credit for supporting the Iraqi government’s efforts to bring peace to the region.

As local leaders have worked to increase security, local business leaders and sheiks have forged an alliance to move forward with economic development opportunities like the container repair facility. A tertiary effect has been diminishing returns for insurgents according to Crabtree.
 
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