1. Various Umm Qasr port 2. Mid shot men putting up USAID poster at port 3. Close-up USAID poster 4. Wide shot port 5. Port administration sign 6. Ribbon cutting ceremony with head of port, Abdul Razak Hassan (left), southeast regional coordinator for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, Ole Woehlers Olsen (centre), and USAID administrator, Andrew Nazios (right) 7. Wide shot ships in port 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ole Woehlers Olsen, Southeast regional coordinator for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance: "I feel personally happy each time I see progress in the interests of the Iraqi people, and today I think it's a very important step, as said also by Mr Nazios and by the port director, for the Iraqi people and for the private sector, so I congratulate them." 9. Wide shot port 10. Mid shot USAID banner 11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Andrew Nazios, USAID administrator: "This is a symbolic event of the opening of Iraq to private investment and private sector economic growth." 12. Various activity at port 13. Ship coming in 14. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic then English) Abdul Razak Hassan, Head of Umm Qasr port: "We do hope that what has happened today will also happen to the other ports." 15. Wide shot of port 16. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ole Woehlers Olsen, Southeast regional coordinator for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance: "Well, there's no doubt that this is the most important port of the whole country, so already in itself, its location, its size, it is extremely important, so our hope is of course is that this port will get fully operational, when the dredging has finished, when the sunken ships have been moved away, that this port will be 100 per cent functional for the benefit of the entire country." 17. Mid shot ceremony with USAID poster 18. Mid shot Olsen talking to head of port 19. Various Olsen and party boarding ship 20. Wide shot port STORYLINE: Iraq's only deep water port has reopened to commercial shipping, clearing the way for large-scale imports of consumer goods and the materials needed to repair its war-battered infrastructure. US officials said the opening of Umm Qasr on Monday followed dredging operations to clear the harbour of war wreckage, mainly from the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. Three people central to the port's reopening - southeast regional coordinator for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, Ole Woehlers Olsen, USAID administrator, Andrew Nazios, and head of Umm Qasr port, Abdul Razak Hassan - officiated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The USAID administrator said the reopening of Umm Qasr symbolised the opening of Iraq to private investment and private sector economic growth. The port on the Kuwaiti border has received humanitarian shipments since March. On Sunday, Iraqi customs officials returned to duty after receiving two weeks training from British military units, allowing the port to officially open some of its 21 berths to commercial shipping. More than 50 uniformed customs officers, plainclothes officers and support staff have returned to duty, after receiving two weeks training from British military units stationed at Umm Qasr. Umm Qasr, a town of about 50-thousand people, was one of the first military objectives for coalition troops at the outbreak of war in March. British forces who took charge of the city handed it over to a civilian administration one month ago. The port's opening came two weeks after the Coalition Provisional Authority, the US-led interim civil administration in Iraq, suspended tariffs and trade restrictions on most goods entering or leaving the country, effectively making it a free-trade zone. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/e8a75a84c3f938bf69a54ee2863e2e17 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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