Still "an atttractive place to do business"

According to a report in the Financial Times of 23 September, big British companies still find Iraq an "attractive place to do business" as long as they pay out enough to private security-guard companies for protection.

The article states:

UK business heads have insisted their companies will remain in Iraq despite the latest kidnappings of British and American workers.

Graham Hand, chief executive of the British Consultants and Construction Bureau, a trade body for exporters, said Iraq remained an "attractive place to do business" because there is work to be done and people willing to pay for it.

"There is no cutting and running," he insisted, adding that the only UK-based companies returning from Iraq were those that had completed their contracts.

About 60 British companies are currently operating in Iraq on business worth about $2.6bn (€2.1bn, £1.4bn), according to UK Trade and Investment, the government agency.

The Foreign Office has advised UK citizens to avoid all but essential travel to Iraq. However, about 1,850 UK citizens are registered as working there. Most are working for British contractors involved in reconstruction and private security work.

There are also long-term expatriate residents employed by local businesses, such as Kenneth Bigley, 62, the engineer from Liverpool kidnapped with two US colleagues.

Simon Treadgold, operations deployment manager at Olive Security, which provides protection to UK companies in Iraq, said local businesses had always been more vulnerable because they tended not to employ the same level of security.

He said: "In the 100 kidnappings that have taken place recently, none of the people that have been taken hostage have had private security companies looking after them."

One of the largest UK companies in Iraq is Amec, the engineering and construction group that won $780m of business under USAID contracts.

Amec said the company had "a few hundred" staff in the south of the country who were given regular guidance on security in the region, including no-go areas.

However, extra security had not been put in place because of the kidnappings of Mr Bigley and his colleagues Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley.

At the other end of the scale is Solace Enterprises, which sent five staff to support the USAID-funded programme to reconstruct government bodies.

Solace's team was evacuated to Kuwait and Jordan for a few weeks at Easter but soon returned to Iraq. The last company employee to return to the UK did so last week, but only for dental treatment and he will fly back afterwards.

John Stopford, head of Solace's international portfolio, said his employees had enjoyed good protection because they were based in the secure green zone of Baghdad.

"If we weren't able to provide secure environments we would bring our people home." He added: "It is not a safe situation. We monitor it on a day-to-day basis."

Corporate security has gradually been ratcheted up over the past year, according to security companies in the region.

David Claridge, managing director of Janusian Security Risk Management, which has about 400 security guards in Iraq, said the situation has gone from "dangerous but manageable" to "highly dangerous".