Rebuilding looted and battle-scarred Kuwait could take five years and cost as much as $60 billion, according to ever-rising estimates. That tragedy is also a business opportunity - and the Kuwaiti task force coordinating the effort is telling American businesses that they have first dibs. This marks a major shift; since the 1960s, American firms have lost ground to cheaper European and Asian rivals. But recently Saud Nasir Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s ambassador to the United States, wrote to Maryland Rep. Helen Bentley that “It has been the policy of the Task Force to award the largest proportion of contracts to U.S. companies, in recognition of the immense sacrifice the people of the United States are making in the liberation of Kuwait.” The U.S. Department of Commerce says that as of Feb. 11, 181 contracts worth $356 million have been awarded - and 130 of those, totaling $270 million, went to U.S. companies.
In one way, Kuwait is lucky: at least it can afford to pay its way back to health. Commerce Department official David Jensen says, “The reconstruction may be of the same scope as the Marshall Plan - but it’s as if the Europeans are paying for it.” The tiny nation earns nearly $20 billion each year from oil and investments. There will be a great deal to pay for. Saddam Hussein’s armies systematically stripped Kuwait of its treasures. “Six-wheeled army lorries took away our libraries, our government computers, even artifacts from our museums,” said Suleiman al-Shaheen, a Kuwaiti official in Riyadh. Saddam Hussein’s troops have reportedly grabbed everything from traffic lights to an American-made roller coaster - and laid street mines and dug trenches in Kuwait City to prepare for block-by-block fighting that would certainly cause even more destruction.
At the front of the line of contractors is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is assessing damage and preparing to return basic services during an intense three-month postwar push. Its tab: $45 million. Kuwait reportedly hired Motorola for a $75 million mobile-phone network to supplement Kuwait’s ruined phone system. Caterpillar has already delivered dozens of generators to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, until they can be shipped safely to Kuwait.
Much of the effort will go toward restarting the Kuwaiti money machine: oil and gas production. Bechtel is rumored to be readying a team of engineers; other probable players are companies with experience with oil and the Middle East such as California-based Fluor Corp. and The Parsons Corp. And to make sure that a bully like Saddam can’t threaten them again, the Kuwaitis can be expected to invest heavily in defense - again, with a likelihood that they will rely on the American weapons that are being desert-tested before their eyes.
The money isn’t just flowing to the giants: General Technology Applications, a small Virginia firm, is preparing to tackle the huge gulf oil spill with its innovative product Elastol, which makes oil clump together so it can be better handled by booms and skimmers. Some of the deals are ironic: Chicago-based FMC Corp., whose M2 Bradley armored troops carriers will likely be shredding the Kuwaiti landscape, stands ready to provide chemicals, petroleum equipment and other goods. Raytheon, of Scud-killing Patriot missile fame, will get $5.7 million to help rebuild Kuwait City’s airport.
Still, don’t expect Kuwait to roll over for any old American contractor. “Let’s be realistic and forget the political huffing and puffing - Kuwait is a free-trade haven,” says Kuwaiti businessman Adnan al-Saleh. “Most contracts are going to be given through public bids to the lowest bidder.” That’s good news for competitive industries like high tech but iffy for others like construction, where the United States can be undercut by such nations as South Korea. Even the letter from the Kuwaiti ambassador is no guarantee; Representative Bentley is fuming that a big Brownsville, Texas, tent manufacturer, Universal Unlimited, recently lost a contract to a Norwegian firm. “Norway is not contributing a thing to Kuwait’s liberation,” Bentley says. But Michael Saba, president of GulfAmerica, a Champaign, Ill.-based international firm, warns that efforts to quantify the debt owed by Kuwait might backfire.
Even if bridges, roads and services can be repaired, Kuwait will have done only part of the job. Lives must also be rebuilt, and institutions as well. “The physical rebuilding of Kuwait is a trivial matter. The political rebuilding is something else again,” says John Woods, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago. Kuwait’s rulers face growing public dissatisfaction; these troubles will make a difficult time even tougher, says Frank Cassell, a professor of policy at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management: “Having to reshape this government will affect reconstruction. At its inception democracy doesn’t stabilize, it destabilizes. Just ask the Soviets.” Although American companies may take justifiable pride in their efforts to erect the new Kuwait, restoring the city-state’s past conveniences won’t necessarily guarantee its future.
