Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
The Iraqi Economy: Rebuilding and Regrowth good read
Part I: Overview and background
Part II: Infrastructure--energy, banking and transportation
Part III: Growth sectors, the National Investment Commission and engagement with foreign companies
******************************
On February 21st when I interviewed Brigadier General Cardon, he shared his opinion that “The real story over the next several months is going to be political and economic.” He discussed the potential for foreign investors who would bring industry and jobs to Iraqis and said now is the time for business to come and take a look. “This is a country of personal engagement…. Getting here early is a good thing if you want to have a long-term business arrangement.”
This statement inspired interest among readers in learning more about economic development and investment in Iraq. The request to 3ID's public affairs office for someone who could speak more authoritatively on the subject ultimately landed at the State Department, and what follows is the result.
This past Wednesday evening I spoke for nearly an hour with America's senior man in Iraq for economic development: Ambassador Charles Ries, Coordinator for Economic Transition in Iraq and Economics Minister. The focus of the interview was Iraq's readiness to receive foreign investment, but in a very forthcoming manner he covered topics ranging from banking and other infrastructure to labor, agriculture, and the challenges facing attempts to create a modern Iraqi economy.
The most striking message of the interview was how much security and economic development go hand in hand, reinforcing each other. They are completely inter-dependent; each without the other will not result in sustainable peace or success. Over-arching all of this is the legislative factor: full implementation of many plans and activities awaits action by Iraqi governmental leadership.
And so, in listening to Ambassador Ries, one is left with the impression of Iraq as an immensely complicated economic jigsaw puzzle, each part dependent on the other and full of bottled-up potential. The biggest challenge is the bottleneck through which it seems each piece must pass. Not surprisingly, it all comes back to oil. It is oil revenue that will fund Iraq's government, and thus fund almost every project that descends from the government. The problem right now is that because oil revenue-sharing is still not completely resolved, many of the needed improvements to oil production capabilities (which will result in increased production/revenue) can't yet be made. The success of almost all the plans and processes covered in my discussion with Ambassador Ries ultimately hinges on the Iraqis' ability to successfully resolve the revenue-sharing issues.
Despite the bottle-neck over oil revenue, a great deal of economic development is occurring in Iraq, and there is much to be excited about. "Iraq is seeing the economic indications of the successful security surge," says Ambassador Ries. "Since the middle of last year we have seen the revival of markets, more economic activity [and the] very early starts of permanent investment and banking activity. We are quite pleased."
The International Monetary fund predicts 7% growth in Iraq's economy, though predictions have repeatedly fallen flat in the past. However, Ambassador Ries is very optimistic, pointing to several factors that he says will increase growth beyond last year's sluggish rate. According to the ambassador, the lack of security in the first half of 2007 created a strong drag on the economy. "Things that couldn't happen due to the security situation were like a tax on the economy," holding it down. But with the success of the “surge” and its accompanying counter-insurgency tactics, security has improved and removed that “tax.” As an example, Ambassador Ries pointed to oil production and exports. In July (shortly after the "surge" reached full strength and just before it began to show results), Iraq was exporting about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day. Today, Iraq is "nudging up against 2 million barrels a day" (total production went from 2 to 2.5 million barrels during that time).
Ambassador Ries predicts this increase in oil production and exports will have a "trickle-down" effect that will fuel the entire economy in the coming year as oil revenue is immediately rolled over into government development projects such as construction sites. Money is already flowing into the provinces and governmental ministries for things like fixing streets, building schools, and dealing with infrastructure problems stemming from war and neglect. This results in greater employment, since people are needed to implement these projects, and the newly-employed workers in turn create demand for products they want to purchase with their earnings... Which creates money-making opportunities for other citizens, etc.
Though specific governmental ministries have been soliciting bids for very narrow projects, it is in many ways a little bit too soon to speak of general foreign investment in Iraq. As of yet, there is no way for a prospective investor to call up a single person in the Iraqi government and say, "I'd like to build a glass factory in your country." However, a highly-regarded Iraqi has been nominated to head the newly-developed National Investment Commission at rank of Minister, and his approval is expected when the legislature returns from its break. Meanwhile, the groundwork is being laid, and like so much in Iraq, is on the edge of bearing fruit.
That groundwork for investment includes not only the creation of a National Investment Commission, but rehabilitation of the energy infrastructure, development of the banking system, and most-importantly, capacity-building--the formation of functional governmental systems to enable development, research, and delivery of services to its citizens, as well as attract and process foreign investment. Over and over again in the interview, Ambassador Ries pointed to coalition efforts to teach basic governmental skills/mechanisms--everything from project management to industrial maintenance to funds distribution. Much is being done in these areas, and in many ways Iraq's economy is on the edge of a boom... a half-finished quilt in which solid and intricate squares await the national government to sew them into a larger and more functional entity.
In the meantime, the Provincial Reconstruction teams are not only reconstructing local infrastructure and business/agriculture, but teaching basic governmental skills and facilitating government functionality at the Province level. Early in the "surge," there were problems with staffing and distribution of the PRTs, but Ambassador Ries now points with obvious pride to the 25 PRTs operating throughout Iraq, "We tried to recast the way we work on civilian side to match/reinforce the strategy of the new way forward [counter-insurgency]." Five of the teams are based with provincial government, teaching and facilitating government function. The rest are called Embedded PRTs (ePRTs), and work hand-in-glove with coalition military forces. All teams are mixed civilian-military, comprised of State Department and USAID personnel, agriculture advisors, engineers, etc.
The province-based PRTs offer "lots of assistance" for local governments to help them effectively use the money they get from the federal government. Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was a centrally-planned economy, and Ambassador Ries reports that before 2004 no money was allocated to provincial governments. Thus part of the PRTs' effort is focused on teaching project planning, acceptance of contact bids, etc.
Ambassador Ries describes the biggest role of the province-based PRTs as "de-bottlenecking problems." One example he gave was their "instrumental" role in in dealing with a cash-flow problem at the end of last year. Iraq is still a cash economy, and with the economic growth at the end of last year, Diyala Province developed a sudden and severe physical cash-flow problem. Iraqi Dinars are printed in London and must be carried by truck into Diyala. The Diyala PRT was able to use the State Department's connections and expertise to accelerate the printing and delivery of the Dinars. Ambassador Ries said that the PRT members were in constant contact with the treasury personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and "American expertise and connections made a noticeable difference in Diyala."
The cash-flow issue is indicative of what Ambassador Ries describes as "moving out of the bricks and mortar phase and towards capacity-building... trying to help the Iraqi government operate as a government." Efforts to provides services such as power, attract investment, develop banking, etc., is happening from the top-down in Baghdad while the ePRTs are operating with the military from the ground-up (typical counter-insurgency strategy).
The top-down and ground-up efforts meet at the still-jagged edge of foreign investment--of both money and expertise. So far, the economic rehabilitation is being driven by what Ambasssador Ries called "small-scale revival," retail development fueled by micro-grants/loans and the efforts of the ePRTs. Foreign investment and support of the banking sector are "needed to get to the next stage for lasting growth." This includes helping Iraqis tackle the big energy problems: attracting investments and developing more expertise in oil, and catching up with the demand for electricity. "Both are very large, difficult problems," says Ambassador Ries, which will "make a huge difference" once they are solved.
well, got gas today....3.49/gal wowza!!
lol half bloodhound....half full of useless drivel
Iraqi bank completed 69.8 percent of documentary credits in January
بغداد - الصباح Baghdad - morning
شهدت سجلات المصرف العراقي للتجارة في بداية العام الحالي زيادة ملحوظة لعدد الاعتمادات المستندية التي تم إصدارها للبنوك الخاصة. Seen records of the Trade Bank of Iraq at the beginning of this year, a marked increase of the number of documentary credits issued by private banks. ففي شهر يناير الماضي بلغ عدد الاعتمادات المستندية للقطاع الخاص المستلمة من المصرف العراقي للتجارة 126 اعتماداً، تم تحويل 88 منها بنسبة 8. In the month of January last number of documentary credits to the private sector received from the Iraqi bank for trade dependent 126, 88 of which have been converted by 8 69% لبنوك القطاع الخاص في داخل العراق. 69% of the banks in the private sector in Iraq. في حين كانت النسبة للعام الماضي 25. While the percentage of last year 25. 28% و4. 28% and 4. 7% في 2006، ويتوقع المصرف استمرار دعم القطاع الخاص خلال العام الحالي. 7% in 2006, the bank expects continued support of the private sector during the current year.
وتعكس زيادة مساهمة المصرف العراقي للتجارة الملحوظة في المشاريع مع البنوك الخاصة جهوده في سبيل مساعدة وتطوير قطاع البنوك في العراق بشكل عام. The increase reflects the contribution of the Iraqi bank for trade marked in projects with banks for its efforts to assist the development of the banking sector in Iraq in general. وقال رئيس المصرف حسين الأًزري في تصريح صحفي : "نحن فخورون بأرقام الاعتمادات المستندية التي سوقناها من خلال بنوك القطاع الخاص، ونتوقع تصاعد هذه الأرقام خلال العام الحالي بشكل كبير". The President of the Bank Hussein Al-Azri in a press statement: "We are proud to figures documentary credits, which Souknaha through private sector banks, and we expect these figures rise during the current year considerably." وكانت تسويقات الاعتمادات المستندية من قبل بنوك القطاع الخاص قد خصصت لحاجات عديدة منها، تغطية استيراد الوزارات العراقية والدوائر الحكومية. The IZMIR documentary credits by the private sector banks dedicated to the needs of many of them, cover the importation of Iraqi ministries and government departments. ففي العام 2007 تم توسيع التسهيلات المالية لبعض بنوك القطاع الخاص بالعراق، حيث شكلت هذه التسهيلات حوالي 8. In the year 2007 has been expanded financial facilities of some private sector banks in Iraq, which formed around these facilities 8. 26% من قيمة التسهيلات المالية النقدية.وأضاف الازري: أنه في العام 2006 اتفق كل من المصرف العراقي للتجارة وبنوك القطاع الخاص على الأسس التي سيتم اعتمادها في الاعتمادات المستندية لمشاريع للقطاع العام، إذ يعتمد المصرف العراقي للتجارة في اختيار البنوك على المعايير التالية: المركز المالي، مركزهم بالسوق، عضويتهم في شبكة السويفت "جمعية الاتصالات المالية بين المصارف"، مؤهلات موظفي البنك وخبرتهم بإصدار الاعتمادات المستندية. 26. 2006 agreed by the Iraqi bank for trade and private sector banks on the bases will be adopted in the documentary credits for projects of the public sector, which relies on Trade Bank of Iraq to choose banks based on the following criteria: financial position , their market, their memberships in the network Swift "General financial communications between banks," Bank staff qualifications and experience of the issuance of documentary credits. موسوعة النهرين في 00:58 03 ربيع أول 1429 (11 مارس 2008) · التعليقات: 0 · قراءات: 100 · Guinness Mesopotamia in the first 00:58 03 Spring 1429 (March 11, 2008
Iraqi banks attribute to the economic recession weak demand for loans
المصارف العراقية تعزو إلى الركود الاقتصادي ضعف الطلب على القروض Iraqi banks attribute to the economic recession weak demand for loans
عزا مسؤولون في القطاع المصرفي العراقي أسباب ضعف الطلب على القروض المتعلقة بالمشاريع من المصارف العراقية، الى الركود العام في النشاط الاقتصادي، مشددين على أهمية سرعة دوران الأموال في تشجيع التعامل المالي. Officials attributed the reasons for the Iraqi banking sector, weak demand for loans for projects of Iraqi banks, the overall stagnation in economic activity, stressing the importance of the rapid turnover of funds in promoting financial dealings.
وأشار المدير التنفيذي لرابطة المصارف العراقية الخاصة عبد العزيز حسون لـ «الحياة»، الى اهمية أن «تشدد المصارف إجراءات الإقراض، انسجاماً مع متطلبات اللائحة الإرشادية الصادرة عن البنك المركزي العراقي، في ضوء معايير اتفاق «بازل» الدولي»، من دون أن يغفل الحاجة إلى تفعيل الاستثمارات عبر القطاع المصرفي. The Executive Director of the Association of Banks Iraqi Special Abdel Aziz Hassoun told «life», the importance «stresses banks lending procedures, in line with the requirements of Regulation Guidelines issued by the Central Bank of Iraq, in the light of standards agreement« Basel »International», without overlooking the need to the activation of investments across the banking sector.
وكان حسون يتحدث في الندوة الخاصة التي نظمها اتحاد غرف التجارة العراقية، وشارك فيها مسؤولون في 28 مصرفاً عراقياً يزيد رأس مالها على 900 مليون دولار، تناولت آلية عمل المصارف وما تقدمه من تسليفات. Hassoun was speaking at a symposium organized by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of Iraq, in which officials at 28 banks over Iraqi capital to 900 million dollars, on the mechanism of banks and their credit.
وأوضح أن مستثمرين كثراً «وجهوا أموالهم الى الاستثمارات والمضاربات، ما أدى الى انخفاض حجم الودائع المصرفية على رغم الارتفاع الملحوظ في عدد المصارف منذ عام 2003». He explained that many investors «directed their money to investment and speculation, which led to a decline in the volume of bank deposits despite the marked increase in the number of banks in 2003 since». ولفت إلى أن المصارف الخاصة «تعمل بالودائع التي تستقطبها من المواطنين المتعاملين معها، ما يلقي على عاتقها مهمة الحفاظ على أموال الغير». He pointed out that private banks «dismissing the work of citizens, which attracted clientele, the cast upon themselves the task of maintaining the funds of others».
وأكد أهمية بيئة العمل المالي والاحتياطات المطلوبة لمواجهة الأخطار التي يتطلبها الحفاظ على أموال المودعين والحرص على سلامتها والوفاء بها عند الطلب». He stressed the importance of the work environment and the financial reserves needed to meet the notification required by the preservation funds and concern for the integrity and met at the request ».
ولفت الى ان البنك المركزي العراقي «يشدد على المصارف الخاصة لزيادة المخصصات والاحتياطات اللازمة لتغطية خسائرها، نتيجة القروض المتعثرة». He noted that the Central Bank of Iraq «stresses the private banks to increase allocations and reserves to cover its losses as a result of bad loans». وتحض الرابطة المصارف على أن «تتواجد في السوق استعداداً للطلب المتزايد الذي سيرافق بدء حملة إعادة الإعمار». The Association urges banks to «exists in the market in preparation for the increasing demand which will accompany the start of the reconstruction campaign». واعتبر أن القروض المصرفية تشكل «الذراع المالية الرافدة للسوق بالطاقة التشغيلية التي تمنح الحيوية للقطاع المصرفي». He said that bank loans are «financial arm of the upstream market power granted operational vital to the banking sector».
وناقشت الندوة، التي شارك فيها مصرفا «الرشيد» و»الرافدين» الحكوميان، ورقة عمل قدمها اتحاد الغرف التجارية العراقية تتناول أثر رفع الفوائد المصرفية على النشاط الاقتصادي، في ضوء سياسة البنك المركزي النقدية وتداعياتها على النشاط الاقتصادي عموماً. The symposium discussed, in which banks «good» and »Rafidain» Gumian, a working paper presented by the Federation of Iraqi Chambers of Commerce to address the impact of the lifting of bank interest on economic activity, in the light of the Central Bank monetary policy and its repercussions on the economic activity in general.
IMF could not determine whether the Iraqi oil funds used properly
صندوقِ النقد الدولي لا يمكنه تحديد ما إذا كانتْ أموالُ النفط العراقي تـُستخدم بشكل ٍ مُلائم IMF could not determine whether the Iraqi oil funds used properly
أعلنَ المسؤول في صندوق ِ النقد الدولي بيرت كيوبنس، أنهُ ليس في وسع ِ هيئةِ الأمم المُتحدة الدولية للرقابة والاستشارة، تحديدَ ما إذا كانتْ أموالُ النفط العراقي كلها تـُستخدم بشكل ٍ مُلائم، راداً السبب الى الوضع ِ الأمني المُستشري في البلاد منذ العام ألفين وثلاثة. The official at the International Monetary Fund Bert Kiobins, it is not in a position to the United Nations for international control and referendum to determine whether the Iraqi oil funds are used properly, Rada reason to widespread security situation in the country since the year two thousand and three. و إذ لفتَ الى أنَ الهيئة قد واجهتْ فساداً في عملِها، أشارَ كيوبنس الى تقدم ٍ كبير أُحرزَ في ضمان ِ استخدام ِ عائداتِ النفط لصالح ِ الشعب العراقي وهو الهدفُ الرئيس للهيئة، مؤكداً أنهُ تم تقليل عملياتِ تهريبِ النفط وتحسنت الرقابة ُ عليه. And, noting that the Commission had faced havoc in their work, Kiobins pointed to the significant progress made in ensuring that the use of oil revenues for the benefit of the Iraqi people which is the Chairman of the Commission, stressing that he has been reduced oil smuggling operations and improved control it. كما كشفَ المسؤول الأممي أنَ إنتاجَ النفط بلغَ في العام الماضي نحوَ مليوني برميل تم تصدير ثلاثة أرباعِها. Volitional official also disclosed that the oil production last year amounted to about two million barrels were exported three quarters.
Date: 11/3/2008 Skinner: Iraqi government regrets the inaccurate statements of the American Accounting Office
الدباغ: الحكومة العراقية تأسف للتصريحات غير الدقيقة لمكتب المحاسبة الامريكي Skinner: Iraqi government regrets the inaccurate statements of the American Accounting Office
أعربت الحكومة العراقية على لسان المتحدث بإسمها الدكتور علي الدباغ عن أسفها من تصريحات مكتب المحاسبة الامريكي وبعض أعضاء الكونغرس حول إستثمار الحكومة العراقية لاموالها الخاصة. The Iraqi government by a spokesman for Dr. Skinner regretted statements of the American Accounting Office and some members of Congress about the Iraqi government to invest its own funds.
الدباغ اوضح ان جميع ايرادات العراق المالية يتم ايداعها في حساب خاص باسم الـ DFI وبإشراف دولي، مضيفا انها تخضع ايضا الى التدقيق من قبل محاسبين عراقيين ودوليين بصورة شفافة ووفقاً لمعايير دقيقة. Skinner explained that all Iraq's financial income deposited in a special account on behalf of the DFI and under international supervision, adding that it is also subject to scrutiny by international accountants Iraqis and transparent and in accordance with precise criteria.
واشار الدباغ الى ان الحكومة العراقية حققت نجاحا واضحا في تنفيذ الميزانية الاستثمارية لعام 2007 ضمن جهودها في تطوير الخدمات وتسريع حركة الاعمار ومعالجة تنفيذ المشاريع الاستثمارية المدرجة في الميزانية. Skinner pointed out that the Iraqi government has a clear success in the implementation of the budget for investment in 2007 in its efforts to develop services and accelerate the movement of reconstruction and to address the implementation of investment projects included in the budget.
واكد المتحدث باسم الحكومة ان هناك متابعة مستمرة من قبل وزارة المالية لتسريع تنفيذ الميزانية مع الوزارات والمحافظات العراقية على الرغم من الظروف الامنية الصعبة التي ترافق تنفيذ المشاريع من التهديدات الارهابية. The government spokesman said that there was an ongoing follow-up by the Ministry of Finance to speed up the implementation of the budget with ministries and governorates of Iraq despite the difficult security conditions associated with the implementation of projects of terrorist threats.
وأضاف الدباغ ان الحكومة ركزت جهودها من خلال وزارة التخطيط واللجان التي تم تشكيلها في تذليل إجراءات طرح المناقصات والعقود وطرق التعاقد وفتح الاعتمادات المصرفية وآليات الدفع والإعفاءات الضريبية من اجل تنفيذ المشاريع بسرعة وكفاءة أعلى. Skinner added that the government has focused its efforts through the Ministry of Planning and commissions that have been formed to overcome the bidding procedures, contracts and contracting routes and opening bank credits and payment mechanisms, tax exemptions for the implementation of projects quickly and efficiently higher.
وشدد الدباغ على ان نسب التنفيذ عام الفين وثمانية ستكون أعلى في ضوء الاجراءات التي تم اتخاذها من قبل الحكومة. Skinner stressed that the implementation rate of two thousand and eight will be higher in the light of the actions that have been taken by the Government.
كما توقع ان تتم زيادة المبالغ الاستثمارية لهذا العام في الميزانية التكميلية للنصف الثاني من العام الجاري على ضوء زيادة إيرادات العراق المالية المتوقعة. It also is expected to increase amounts for investment this year in the supplementary budget for the second half of this year in light of increased revenues projected financial Iraq.
انتهى Ended
one step forward two back..Fires swallow six fuel tankers in Mosul
Wednesday , 12 /03 /2008 Time 12:09:36
Ninewa, Mar 11, (VOI) – Spokesperson for Ninewa Police Command said on Tuesday that six fuel tankers have been totally devastated in an explosion in the province.
"An explosive device, cohered by unknowns on one of the fuel tankers, exploded on Tuesday evening at Al-Gayiara intersection, south of Mosul city," Khalid Abdul-Sattar told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).
"Six fuel tankers have been totally devastated in the engendered fires, and three drivers were wounded," he added.
Abdul-Sattar did not reveal any further details.
Mosul, capital city of Ninewa province, is 405 km north of Baghdad.
Auditors say Iraq not spending its oil money, massive budget surplus likely
Associated Press - March 11, 2008 3:43 PM ET
CAPITOL HILL (AP) - Iraq isn't spending much of its own money, even though its soaring oil revenues are pushing the country toward a massive budget surplus.
That's what federal auditors have told Congress as the U.S. continues to invest billions of dollars in rebuilding Iraq.
U.S. Comptroller General David Walker says the Iraqis have a budget surplus, while the U.S. has a budget deficit. He says 1 of the questions is, who should be paying.
Senator Patrick Leahy (LAY'-hee) says the Iraqis should use some of their oil money to pay their own expenses, instead of sending the bill to the U.S.
U.S. officials contend that Iraq's lack of spending is primarily due to Baghdad's inability to determine where its money is needed most and how to allocate it efficiently.
Iraq oil minister slams KRG on Turkey trip
Published: March 10, 2008 at 9:22 PM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:ANKARA, Turkey, March 10 (UPI) -- Iraq's oil minister reaffirmed ties with Turkey and rejected Iraqi Kurdistan's oil deals in visits to Ankara over the weekend.
Turkey, which wants to further develop Iraq oil and gas to ship to and through its territory, is also sparring with Iraq's Kurds over rebels in the northern Iraq mountains.
Hussain al-Shahristani made overtures to Turkey on a project to build a refinery in Iraq, which badly needs fuels, and other joint projects between the countries' respective oil firms, Today's Zaman reports.
Iraq already has a pipeline sending oil to a Turkish port. The countries have talked of adding another line and increasing flow, which is below capacity, as well as adding a parallel line to send Iraqi gas north.
"Iraq is open to the world when it comes to oil cooperation especially with the neighboring countries," Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told United Press International last week. He said the pipeline is sending between 250,000 and 350,000 barrels per day to Turkey, and the short-term goal is 500,000. Jihad said gas in Iraq's western desert could be developed and sent to Turkey, and on to Europe, via Syria as well.
"So Turkey is a spot of our oil and gas transferring to the outside world," he said.
After a meeting with Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler, Shahristani assured "all contracts will be handled by the central government, referring to the Kurdistan Regional Government's dozens of oil deals with international oil companies.
The move, as well as a regional oil law, has challenged Baghdad's control over the oil sector in Iraq. Shahristani has called the deals illegal, stopped oil sales to two firms that signed with the KRG and threatened to keep all such firms out of future Iraqi oil deals.
Turkey views the deals as emboldening Iraq's Kurds, possibly bolstering their future call for an independent state and empowering Turkey's sizeable Kurdish population. Turkey has recently stepped up attacks, including a five-day incursion, on the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party's camps in northern Iraq mountains. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, Turkey and, ostensibly, Iraq. The organization has killed tens of thousands in its decades-long quest for Kurdish independence and human rights in Turkey.
In an opening on Turkish-Kurdish relations, the Iraq delegation was led by President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.
Analysis: Iraq oil deals moving in phases
Published: March 10, 2008 at 10:35 PM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Editor
WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- With or without a new oil law, Iraq will sign deals with international oil companies aimed at boosting production, the top Oil Ministry spokesman said.
"The Ministry of Oil had to make a move, with or without passing the oil law," Assem Jihad told United Press International in a phone interview from Baghdad, "and set up the suitable plans to increase the oil production."
Iraq oil production is increasing but has only recently been consistently more than 2 million barrels per day. Its workers need modern training, the fields modern equipment and the harmful effects of Saddam Hussein's mismanagement, U.N. sanctions and decades of war reversed.
Jihad said special contracts for five oil fields will be signed late this month or next month, each with a goal of 100,000 bpd improvement. The ministry has been mum on details, but media reports and insider information name Shell, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total in the discussions for Kirkuk, Rumaila, West Qurna, Zubair, Abu Zorgan, Fauqi, Subba and Luhais fields. The later fields may not be included, depending on sources.
"In the near future," Jihad added, the names of companies that qualify to sign longer-term development deals will be announced.
The ministry is moving forward with an ad-hoc plan to increase outside investment in the oil sector as a draft oil law intended to set post-Saddam guidelines for governing the oil sector remains stuck in Parliament.
Various factions, mainly the Oil Ministry in Baghdad and Iraq's Kurds, can't agree on how decentralized -- thus potentially privatized -- the currently nationalized sector should be.
The Kurdistan Regional Government has passed its own oil law and signed dozens of exploration and production deals with international oil firms, the types angering Iraq's oil workers and prompting Baghdad to call them illegal and threaten to blacklist the firms that sign.
Last week the ministry got the OK from the Iraqi Cabinet to move forward with the plan: sign two- to three-year Technical Support Agreements to increase production on the five large fields and begin the process for a bidding round to develop both producing and non-producing discovered oil and gas fields.
Many oil companies have been offering free training to workers and studies of oil and gas fields and structures. The new TSAs will be "formalizing the process of backdoor assistance," one international official in Iraq told UPI. Terms to be worked out include exact compensation. One option being looked at is crude in lieu of cash, but such an arrangement may not jive with U.N. regulations held over from the corrupt Oil-for-Food program, which prevents bartering and requires all oil and gas is sold.
The deals are "sort of maintenance for the oil infrastructure," said Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani, deputy chief of the Parliament's Energy Committee, "not really drilling or extracting of crude." The firms that sign TSAs will transfer technology, training and advice, the ministry says. Security is a big, but not sole, factor for foreign oil companies to largely keep boots off the ground.
Without a new oil law, the ministry is relying on Saddam-era regulations folding almost all power into its hands. It must receive parliamentary approval for the largest contracts and certain types, such as production-sharing contracts. Hasani said many will need to be approved by the Iraqi Cabinet, though, because of their size.
"The Ministry of Oil considers the government as its reference," Jihad said, "and informs it with each step in this direction.
"The government essentially asked the Ministry of Oil to do what it could to develop the oil industry to increase oil production and develop the fields."
More than 115 companies have pre-registered with the ministry to take part in the bidding round, "an invitation from the Ministry of Oil … to invest in the extract sector," Jihad said. "There are many wells and fields that need development."
The deals offered in the tender will likely be service contracts (where a company is paid to carry out certain work). The Middle East Economic Survey reports Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani says the deals won't need Parliament's green light, which means PSAs and other risk contracts aren't being considered now. He didn't disclose either the contract type or the number of fields, MEES reports.
Jihad said the ministry will be transparent, releasing the names of companies and terms of contracts, and holding news conferences as major milestones -- like naming qualified companies -- are reached.
The companies that get the pending five TSAs will not be guaranteed longer-term development deals for the fields, Iraqi officials say, though two or three years of work and study will certainly pad a resume.
--
(UPI Correspondent Hiba Dawood contributed to this report.)
wow this room will go crazy...lol
yeah, these 12's gotta gooo 900 gets me excited...lmao
97 percent of dealers personnel and 3 percent funds ... Gulf stock markets facing challenges stand in the way of integration
Dammam life - 11/03/08 / /
Secretary-General of the Federation of Chambers of the Gulf Cooperation Council Abdulraheem marrow, the Gulf stock markets are still experiencing low levels of disclosure and transparency in listed companies, and monopolize information, and lack of commitment to common accounting standards when preparing their financial statements patrol. The «All these challenges stand in the way of integration of the Gulf stock markets, requires study and overcome first, in order to be more in line».
He noted during his participation in the third session of the Forum on the stock market «Smvks», which began yesterday in Abu Dhabi, that the Gulf stock markets are absorbing a large part of the liquidity of individuals and institutions, thus becoming an important channel for investment and funding source of vital economic projects.
The stock markets witnessed leaps quality and large volumes during the past years. At the level of trading volumes, the value of transactions weekly exchanges Gulf six $ 23 billion, the value of shares listed $ 800 billion, «In spite of the evolution of stock markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council states, these markets are still experiencing focus on the stocks of companies trading without other specific , and limited investment tools, which are limited to the shares of listed companies ».
He pointed to the limited institutional investment, specialized studies show that individual investors on the stock market in the Gulf are 97 percent, which means that only three percent of the investments due to investment funds.
With the current year is the actual implementation of the Gulf common market, approved by the Cooperation Council Summit in Doha recently, which means full equality of the citizens of the GCC States in the human owns and share trading, the stock of the Union of Chambers and the Council of State Chambers of Commerce, the Gulf look bright future for the stocks market opens Gulf area the broad movement of capital between the Gulf capital markets in the GCC countries without any restrictions.
He said that the Forum consider the possibility of unification of legislation and regulations in the stock markets and money in the Gulf, and address a number of issues of concern to this sector investors, particularly the role of banks in financing investment in the sector shares, and also reviews the role of brokerage firms to facilitate circulation, and linking stock markets Gulf , the definition of Gulf citizens factors influencing the rise and decline of shares and encouraging them to diversify investment tools.
He called on participants to the marrow out clear recommendations to find appropriate mechanisms for the modernization and development of stock exchanges, both technical and organizational, including help in increasing the size and absorptive capacity, and also to modernize company laws, and incentives for the establishment of companies listed, and to facilitate transfers of the companies listed companies closed, and accelerate Unification of legislation and regulations of ownership and circulation and incorporation and settlement in the Gulf capital markets.
can't wait man.....awesome
I'd pay off my boat..and all Real Estate..sweeeeet !
thats not crazy..when you have $$ you're eccentric lolol
I think that the seams are stretching now though..lol
lol...we have alot of practice time in..
Iraqi FM says neighbors'' meeting in Kwt "important" for his country
POL-OIC-MINISTERIAL-IRAQ
Iraqi FM says neighbors' meeting in Kwt "important" for his country
DAKAR, March 11 (KUNA) -- Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Tuesday that the expanded foreign ministers' meeting of states neighboring Iraq, which will be hosted by Kuwait in April, "is an important" event that would boost cooperation with these parties and further consolidate security in his country.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Preparatory Ministerial Meeting for the Islamic Summit Conference, he said the meeting, set to be held on April 22, would be attended by high-level international and Arab delegations.
Foreign ministers of the permanent member states of the UN Security Council, the G8, and representatives of international and regional organizations will be taking part, he said, as well as the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The last expanded meeting of Iraq's neighbors was held in Istanbul in November 2007, where participants discussed security in Iraq and other matters. Countries participating the meeting include Kuwait, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and Egypt.
On the preparatory meeting, he said the Muslim nations were facing "major challenges" that required a discussion of priorities and urgent issues such as improving the image of Islam, fighting extremism, and problems like poverty, education, and technology.
Zebari said the OIC needed to be "modernized" and this required more focused efforts to uphold its values.
Thus, he said that there were "three or four key issues" that needed to be emphasized, including the situations in the Palestinians territories and Lebanon, addressing Islamophobia, and improving Islam's image.
"I think Iraq has now gone down in the list of priorities thanks to the improvement in the security situation and the new, elected constitutional regime that has proven its ability to face all these challenges," he said.
He added, "I think now the sense is for all the Muslim countries to support the Iraqi government's efforts to stabilize the situation by reopening their missions and reaching out to Iraq because we have passed the test - many people thought that this new regime is there to go, but we have proven that it is there to stay." The foreign minister noted that there was an elaborate resolution on Iraq, which had obtained the consent of all the OIC members and stood by the country's elected constitutional government.
Also, he said the OIC pledged to open an office in Baghdad and called on all Muslim countries to reopen their diplomatic missions in the Iraqi capital.
"We are expecting in early April a delegation from OIC to visit Baghdad ... Iraq is a rich country, and what is important is the political outreach more than (financial) assistance," he added.
Asked about the Turkish operation against rebels of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, Zebari said he had just held a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan in which they discussed the border issue.
"We hope that this will be the last military incursion into Iraqi territories. This issue of PKK terrorism needs to be addressed jointly and not unilaterally, because the unilateral use of military force can only complicate matters. This is the understanding that we have," the foreign minister said.
The Turkish Army had launched a land operation into northern Iraq on February 21 with the aim of wiping out PKK rebels, classified by Turkey, the EU and the US as a terrorist organization. Turkish troops withdrew February 29.
Zebari noted that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani had recently visited paid a "historic" visit last week to Turkey and held-high level talks with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul and Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying that this was a positive move toward "containing this tension between two Muslim neighboring countries." And on the presence of an American envoy at the summit and criticism that was raised by some Muslim countries over this issue, Zebari said, "The US is the biggest power and it has a problem of image in the Muslim world ... so if Russia can have an observer, then why not the US." US President George W. Bush had appointed in late February Sada Cumber as his country's first-ever envoy to the OIC, in an effort to clean up the tarnished US image in the Muslim world.
(end)
weird, in my market browser I see IQD at 1202...hmmm
Yeah, the other scenarios don't jive with what the current situation is over there...at least what we see in the news anyway...go Dinar baby
What Iraq could look like in the next five years
Published: Tuesday, March 11, 2008
More On This Story
Iraqis still ask if U.S. invasion was worth it
Iran's rise owes much to Iraq and Afghan wars
Timeline: Iraq from invasion to brink of civil war
Story Tools
The following are a range of views on what Iraq could look like in the next five years.
JOOST HILTERMANN, DEPUTY PROGRAMME DIRECTOR AT INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP THINKTANK FOR MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA
"In the worst-case scenario, Iraq would slowly disintegrate into a failed state following a significant drawdown of U.S. troops and fall prey to the ambitions and fears of its neighbors.
"In the best-case scenario, a new U.S. administration would seek and reach some kind of accommodation with Iran, bringing regional tensions down a notch and removing or at least reducing Iran's spoiler role in Iraq. This would open the way toward an accommodation among Iraq's primary political actors. Elections would take place, but real democracy would remain a goal far over the horizon.
"The most likely scenario is one in between: No real accommodation with Iran, but a shared understanding between the U.S. and Iran of their common interests in Iraq; a significant drawdown of U.S. forces, but projection of sufficient military force to prevent the country's total disintegration; no accommodation at the top, but ongoing local conflicts."
STEPHEN BIDDLE, SENIOR FELLOW FOR DEFENCE POLICY AT THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS IN WASHINGTON
"Nothing about Iraq approaches certainty. And the policies of the next [U.S.] Administration are obviously very important.
"But I think there's a decent chance that we could get to something like stability in Iraq over your time frame. It would be a highly imperfect form of stability -- closer to Bosnia than Germany or Japan [after World War Two], with a very weak central government and a very decentralized security solution ... that depends on a continued presence by U.S. peacekeepers to prevent a resumption of violence. But this would be vastly preferable to an also-plausible alternative: a regionwide war if we withdraw too much too soon from an unstable Iraq."
ANTHONY CORDESMAN, IRAQ EXPERT WITH THE CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES THINK TANK IN WASHINGTON
"No one can predict where Iraq will be in five years' time and it is almost absurd to try. What one can predict is what it will take to create an Iraq with some degree of security and stability.
"The Iraqis must steadily move towards political accommodation, develop far more effective governance and security forces, use their oil export revenues in ways that serve all of Iraq's people, and use the security forces to bring security to all Iraqis without favoring one ethnicity or sect.
"The U.S. must shape its force reductions to conditions in Iraq, not rush them to suit some timetable dictated by U.S. domestic politics, and must continue to provide advisers and aid until Iraq is ready to stand on its own. All the other scenarios end in failure for Iraq, defeat for the U.S., and far more serious security problems throughout the Gulf."
ADNAN AL-DULAIMI, KEY FIGURE IN IRAQI ACCORDANCE FRONT, MAIN SUNNI POLITICAL BLOC IN PARLIAMENT
"Our view towards the future of Iraq is surrounded with pessimism, because the events which are happening now are a preface to what will happen in the future.
"Iraq's southern provinces are moving close to conflict over power and fortune. American forces will not withdraw from Iraq, and even if they did a long-term presence will be maintained. The influence of neighboring countries will continue to grow."
MAHMOUD OTHMAN, KURDISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
"The future of Iraq depends on many elements, among them agreement among the political blocs and the role of neighboring countries towards Iraq. I have hope that the coming years will be better than previous ones."
HAMEED AL-MUALLA, MP AND SENIOR MEMBER OF THE SUPREME ISLAMIC IRAQI COUNCIL, ONE OF THE BIGGEST SHI'ITE PARTIES IN PARLIAMENT
"The coming five years will witness the emergence of a new Iraq. With the recent passing of key laws by parliament, the clock has ticked, announcing a new start for a country that has suffered years of isolation and a series of setbacks."
"I believe that in five years Iraq will overcome all hurdles and take its role as an influential country."
NASSAR AL-RUBAIE, HEAD OF POLITICAL BLOC LOYAL TO SHI'ITE CLERIC MOQTADA AL-SADR
"America will practice a long-term policy aimed at undermining the government, the same policy adopted with Saddam's regime, and then the government will become a skeleton which will be recreated by U.S.-made flesh."
HASSAN AL-SHIMMARI, PARLIAMENTARY LEADER OF SHI'ITE FADHILA PARTY THAT CONTROLS SOUTHERN BASRA:
"The American-Iranian conflict will have a long-term influence on Iraq's future. If America decides to leave Iraq, Iranian influence will grow bigger and (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad has expressed Iran's readiness to fill the vacuum."
Reuters © 2008
Close
Iraq faces budget surplus
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago
Iraq isn't spending much of its own money, despite soaring oil revenues that are pushing the country toward a massive budget surplus, auditors told Congress on Tuesday.
The expected surplus comes as the U.S. continues to invest billions of dollars in rebuilding Iraq and faces a financial squeeze domestically because of record oil prices.
"The Iraqis have a budget surplus," said U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. "We have a huge budget deficit. . . . One of the questions is who should be paying."
Walker and the other auditors did not give a figure as to the likely surplus. U.S. officials contend that Iraq's lack of spending is due primarily to Baghdad's inability to determine where its money is needed most and how to allocate it efficiently. Two senators have called for an investigation into the matter.
Democrats say the assessment is proof that the Iraq war as a waste of time and money. The U.S. has spent more than $45 billion on rebuilding Iraq. And while officials in Iraq contend that much progress is being made, many projects remain unfinished and U.S. troops are still needed to provide security.
"They ought to be able to use some of their oil to pay for their own costs and not keep sending the bill to the United States," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
In recent months, Iraq experienced its highest oil production and export levels since the war began five years ago, said Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
That spike in revenue combined with the highest oil prices in history, "coalesce into an enormous revenue windfall for the Iraqi government," Bowen told the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Whereas Iraqi officials estimated $35 billion in oil revenues last fall, Bowen said the final number is likely to be closer to $60 billion.
"That certainly gives them resources to carry forward with an extensive reconstruction plan," Bowen said.
But according to other U.S. officials, a major problem is that Iraq does not have the capacity to allocate the money without it being wasted or pocketed by corrupt officials.
"I think they are beginning to do more," particularly in improving its military and buying new weapon systems, said Claude Kicklighter, the Pentagon's inspector general. "And I think that's certainly the trend that we should be following."
The Government Accountability Office estimates that the U.S. has designated $6 billion to rebuild Iraq's energy sector and $300 million to develop Iraq's government ministries. But GAO contends that the U.S. doesn't have a strategic plan on how to accomplish either goal.
The State Department told investigators it believes the Iraqis should be responsible for devising such a plan. GAO disagreed.
"In our view, it's a shared responsibility. U.S. taxpayer money is involved," Walker said.
Last week, Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John Warner, R-Va., asked GAO to investigate what Iraq is doing with its oil revenue. The senators estimated that Iraq will realize "at least $100 billion in oil revenues in 2007 and 2008."
Top Kuwait MP hails Arab parliament meeting
Politics 3/11/2008 5:47:00 PM
IRBIL, Iraq, March 11 (KUNA) -- Kuwait's top lawmaker here Tuesday praised the ongoing Arab Parliamentary Union conference as a message to the world that Iraq was on the right track to regain its regional position.
Jassem al-Kharafi, speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly (parliament), was addressing the 50th session of the 13th conference of the union, which kicked off here earlier in the day.
He said Arab presence in the conference demonstrated appreciation for reconstruction achievements by the Iraqi people, and for their efforts to consecrate their freedom, unity and independence.
"The 'Arab' participation is a message to the world that Iraq is in on the right track to regain its regional position and to play its constructive role in the march of the Arab nation. So, we have to make it an influential message through a successful and fruitful meeting and through our support for the Iraqi people," he said.
The gathering comes amid very complicated events in the Arab region that will surely pose serious repercussions to Arab and regional security and stability, he said.
In this context, he urged the Arab Parliamentary Union to play a part in rearranging the Arab house from within and strengthening Arab structure.
He pointed to deep brotherly relations between the Kuwaiti and Iraqi people, as well as Kuwaiti parliamentary support for a united democratic independent Iraq.
The people-to-people relationship is ushering in a fresh stage that requires everyone to ensure mutual respect and good-neighborliness, to abide by international legitimacy and to sincerely seek to cooperate together constructively, al-Kharafi said.
He voiced hope that the coming Arab summit would come up with concrete solutions to Arab issues, urging all Arab countries to work hard to ensure a successful summit and to favor supreme national interests in their resolutions.
The retreating inter-Arab dialogue has escalated Arab issues and disagreements and has even led to inability to tackle Arab issues within legitimate national frameworks and charters, he lamented.
This could result in further splits and divisions and pave the way for internationalizing Arab issues, he said, calling on Arab parliaments to play a more active role in this respect.
He urged Palestinian leaders to work hard to rebuild the bridges of trust and communication among each other through constructive dialogue that could restore Palestinian unity and help the Palestinian people regain confidence in their potential and capabilities.
"Palestinian leaders are more required today than ever before to rebuild the bridges of trust and communication through a committed constructive dialogue that could restore Palestinian unity," he said.
On Lebanon, the top Kuwaiti lawmaker alarmed that the conflict among Lebanese rivals would bring bare consequences to Lebanese unity, security and stability and to the future of generations to come.
Therefore, he urged Lebanese leaders to adopt a quiet rational dialogue that should abide by national constants and aim to maintain national unity, a thing which would eventually take the country to the shore of safety.
In his speech, al-Kharafi also condemned Israel's continued brutal aggression on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, urging the international community to move immediately to stop Israeli atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories, to protect the defenseless Palestinian people and to lift the strangling Israeli blockade on Gaza.
Finally, he thanked Iraq for warm welcome and hospitability, wishing it a successfully organized parliamentary conference. (end) sbr.ms.abd.mt KUNA 111747 Mar 08NNNN
too much cofee nice? lmao
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said that government has intensified its efforts to use the stability in security conditions in country to work for reconstruction and economical development and to give major facilities for businessmen and investors in fields of reconstruction and development in Iraq.
Saleh said that government decided to make 2008 a year for reconstruction and economical development and to work with all its energy to get advantage out of stability to activate reconstruction projects and present the wanted facilities to the private sector to take its role in this field
http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_article...&article=28367
Op-ed's $3 trillion Iraq war estimate doubted by PentagonStory Highlights
In Washington Post, economist figures Iraq war will cost $12 billion a month
Pentagon spokesman says $3 trillion "seems way out of the ballpark to me"
White House spokeswoman says she doesn't know where figures come from
Nobel Prize-winning economist, former CFO at Commerce Department wrote piece
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bush administration officials Monday expressed doubt about an economist's column published over the weekend saying the war in Iraq will cost the United States more than $3 trillion.
U.S. soldiers aim their rifles Monday behind a military vehicle during a patrol at Al-leg, Iraq.
That number "seems way out of the ballpark to me," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.
"I'm not an accountant. I'm not an economist. And I think that those who are have questioned the methodology of this particular survey," Morrell said.
The op-ed piece published in Sunday's Washington Post was written by Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University professor who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton. The co-author was Linda J. Bilmes, a former chief financial officer at the Commerce Department who teaches at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
The two say the war is running a tab of $12 billion a month -- $16 billion including military action in Afghanistan. And, they maintain, the economic downturn resulting from it is likely to be the greatest since the Great Depression.
"That total, itself well in excess of $1 trillion, is not included in our estimated $3 trillion cost of the war," the column said. "Others will have to work out the geopolitics, but the economics here are clear. Ending the war, or at least moving rapidly to wind it down, would yield major economic dividends."
Don't Miss
Authors: U.S. economy could fall casualty to wars
Bush sending Cheney for Mideast talks
Officials: 5 U.S. troops killed in suicide blast
Photos capture a long war's moments
Morrell said Monday the Iraq war has cost the United States $406.2 billion through December 2007.
"I think they [Stiglitz and Bilmes] throw everything in the kitchen sink into the survey, including the interest on the national debt," he said. "So it seems like an exaggerated number to us."
The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and antiterrorist efforts abroad could cost $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years, according to an October 2007 estimate by the Congressional Budget Office. More than 70 percent would go to support operations in Iraq, and the figure included the estimated $600 billion spent since 2001, Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag said in testimony before the House Budget Committee that month. That estimate also included projected interest, because the government is borrowing most of the funds required.
Stiglitz and Blimes' op-ed said that because Bush and Congress cut taxes after going to war, despite the massive deficit, the war had to be funded by more borrowing.
"By the end of the Bush administration, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan plus the cumulative interest on the increased borrowing used to fund them, will have added about $1 trillion to the national debt."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino refused Monday to dispute the numbers contained in the piece.
"I don't know exactly where he gets all of it," she said. "I think that some of the things that he looks into in terms of veterans care, that we're going to take care of our veterans in the future -- absolutely, those types of things have to be included, but it's very hard to anticipate, depending on conditions on the ground and circumstances, how much the war is going to cost."
Modern equipment for U.S. soldiers, with technology that saves lives, is expensive, she noted.
"I don't think anybody is arguing that our men and women who are out there on the battlefield shouldn't have access to the MRAP [mine resistant ambush protected] vehicles," she said. "Those vehicles are very, very expensive. But they have helped save lives and prevent injuries. And that's just one example of the many things that we are spending money on."
Morrell noted the Pentagon still has a $105 billion war request for Iraq and Afghanistan pending in Congress.
"We here in this building are certainly doing our part to try to calculate as best we can, for the Congress, for the American people, what we think this is going to cost, even as the Congress has failed to provide us with the money we need to fight the war," he said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada also addressed the piece in his floor remarks on the budget Monday.
"Seven years into the Bush administration, tax breaks for big business and the super-wealthy have combined with a $12 billion per month war in Iraq and cuts to investments in our workforce and infrastructure to create a budget deficit of more than $400 billion and a national debt that has grown by $3 trillion," Reid said. "The result? An economy that is failing millions of American families." E-mail to a friend
All About Afghanistan War • Iraq War
FACTBOX: Challenges facing Iraq 5 years after U.S. invasion
Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:54am EDT (Reuters) - Following are some of the challenges Iraqi Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki faces, five years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.
* SECURITY
-- Violence is down 60 percent since last June, but the U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, says the security gains are fragile and easily reversed. Some 20,000 extra U.S. troops that were sent to Iraq in 2007 to help curb sectarian violence will be withdrawn by July. With a smaller U.S. military operational footprint, the test now will be whether Iraq's security forces can hold on to those gains.
* ECONOMY
-- The International Monetary Fund expects higher oil output to push Iraq's gross domestic product up to over 7 percent this year, from just 1.3 percent in 2007. But there is still high unemployment and little inward investment, and the United Nations estimates that 4 million Iraqis are struggling to feed themselves while 40 percent of the country's 27 million people have no safe water.
* SUNNI ARAB INSURGENCY
-- The Sunni Arab insurgency against Maliki's government has waned sharply after Sunni Arab tribes and some nationalist insurgent groups joined so-called Awakening Councils last year and took up arms against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, a resilient enemy that the U.S. military calls the greatest threat to peace in Iraq. Despite being largely driven from Baghdad and western Anbar province, al Qaeda militants have regrouped in the north and continue to stage large-scale suicide bombings.
* CONCERNED LOCAL CITIZENS
-- Maliki's Shi'ite-led government has kept at arm's length concerned local citizen groups, mainly Sunni Arab men tasked by the U.S. military to man checkpoints and guard residential areas. Analysts warn that the groups -- which include former insurgents -- could rebel against the government if it does not do more to incorporate them into its security forces or give them other jobs. So far, it has agreed to integrate about 20 percent of the 80,000 volunteers into the police force. Continued...
MEHDI ARMY
-- Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has committed his feared Mehdi Army militia to a ceasefire through to August. An initial truce was credited with helping to reduce rampant sectarian violence, but there are rumblings among the Mehdi Army rank and file who accuse U.S. forces of exploiting the ceasefire to target them. If they feel they are being pushed too far and take up arms again, Iraq could be plunged into renewed bloodshed.
* PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS
-- Iraq is due to hold provincial elections later this year that Washington hopes will increase the involvement of Sunni Arabs, who boycotted the last polls in 2005, in the political process. But there are fears that the elections could intensify the struggle for power between rival Shi'ite factions in Iraq's oil-rich south and trigger a new wave of violence.
* LEGISLATIVE PROGRESS
-- After months of deadlock, and under U.S. pressure, Iraqi political parties passed a series of laws earlier this year that are viewed as important for national reconciliation. But any progress has proven tenuous. Iraq's presidency council refused to approve a provincial powers law, key to holding provincial elections, and sent it back to parliament. It is also unclear, how, if or when a law relaxing restrictions on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party holding public office will be implemented. There is also still no agreement on an oil law to lay a legal framework for foreign companies to operate in Iraq and determine how revenues from vast oil reserves are shared.
* REFUGEES
-- Iraq has been hard-hit by a brain-drain that has robbed it of much-needed doctors, engineers, scientists and other skilled professionals. They are among 2 million people who have fled the country. The United Nations estimates that only 36,000 people have returned since security improved. There are also 2 million people displaced internally.
* KIRKUK: Continued...
The fate of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, claimed by Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, is a potentially explosive issue that many Iraqis fear could spark bloodshed. The government failed to hold a constitutionally required referendum by the end of 2007 to determine its status. Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region has agreed to a six-month delay while the U.N. special envoy to Iraq tries to move the referendum process forward.
(Writing by Ross Colvin; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
ISX opens with 6-million-share contract
Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Tuesday , 11 /03 /2008 Time 2:26:22
Baghdad, Mar 11, (VOI) - The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) opened its session on Tuesday with a 6-million-share contract at a value of 1.050 Iraqi dinar (1 U.S. dollar =1,221 Iraqi dinars) per share.
The contract was concluded by an Iraqi company, which bought the shares from the Islamic Bank.
Another contract was concluded by a foreign company, which bought 5 million shares from the Commercial Bank at a value of 1.650 Iraqi dinar.
The Iraqi Stock Exchange holds three sessions a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
SK
thx no
Debating Devolution in Iraq
Reidar Visser
March 10, 2008
(Reidar Visser is a research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and editor of the Iraq website www.historiae.org.)
For additional background, see www.historiae.org and Reidar Visser, “Basra: Reluctant Seat of ‘Shiastan,’” in Middle East Report 242 (Spring 2007). Order the issue here.
In early August 2007, Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a Shi‘i preacher affiliated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, made headlines with striking comments to a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor. The cleric revealed in an interview with Sam Dagher that “a massive operation” was underway to secure the establishment of a Shi‘i super-province in Iraq, to be named the “South of Baghdad Region,” and projected to encompass all nine majority-Shi‘i governorates south of the Iraqi capital. Saghir claimed that his party had already drafted detailed plans for how such a super-province would be governed -- plans of such importance to Iraq and the region that there was “no room for misadventures.”[1] While Saghir did not mention a timeline for this remarkable undertaking, other Supreme Council supporters of the idea were less reticent: “The Shiite federal region will be announced in April 2008,” wrote one enthusiastic proponent.[2]
The date was not chosen at random. April 2008 is the month when the law for implementing federalism -- adopted by the Iraqi parliament in October 2006 -- comes into effect. For the first time in Iraqi history, areas of the country that desire a special federal status similar to that already enjoyed by Kurdistan may initiate a procedure for transforming themselves from ordinary governorates into “federal regions,” potentially acquiring such privileges as the right to establish local paramilitary forces and the right to negotiate local deals with foreign oil companies. In order to obtain the rank of federal region, a governorate must hold a referendum in which no less than 50 percent of the electorate votes and a simple majority votes yes. If multiple governorates wish to band together in one federal region, the proposition must pass such a referendum in each province tagged for inclusion. (Only the Baghdad province is prohibited from forming part of a greater federal region.) If one targeted governorate says no, the federal project founders.
PUTTING THE SUPER-PROVINCE ON ICE?
For a while, it seemed that Supreme Council leaders were on track to realize their grandiose federal ambitions south of Baghdad. The Supreme Council already held a very strong position inside the Iraqi government, thanks not least to its excellent relations with Washington and Tehran -- both of which capitals, somewhat incongruously, consider the Shi‘i Islamist party their number one partner in the Green Zone. The Supreme Council’s project also dovetailed nicely with the aspirations of the twin Iraqi Kurdish parties, which have long sought allies willing to engage in quid pro quo bargaining over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which they aim to embrace inside expanded boundaries of the present Kurdistan Regional Government. (The Supreme Council could find Kurdish backing helpful for its similar designs upon areas of the Sunni Arab-dominated Anbar governorate.) And in September 2007 another potential ally entered the limelight: Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) sponsored a Senate resolution recommending that Iraqi elites answer the question of federalism through a nationwide “conference settlement.” Such a “conference” would be alien to the provisions for gradual “bottom-up” federalism in the 2005 Iraqi constitution, but would be precisely the sort of setting where the polished Supreme Council leaders would have the upper hand and where the cumbersome, but more democratic constitutional modalities could be dispensed with altogether.[3] (In December, Biden’s non-binding “sense of Congress” resolution passed.)
On January 13, 2008, however, other Shi‘i actors, including loyalists of Muqtada al-Sadr, several branches of the Da‘wa party and many independents, joined Sunni Arabs, Turkmen, representatives of the Yazidi and Shabak minorities, and secularists of all communal backgrounds in signing a “Baghdad charter” that addressed the federalism question from a different perspective.[4] The document expressed deep concern about bids by regional entities to cut deals with foreign oil companies, adding that the status of Kirkuk (which the Kurds hope to absorb into their federal region through an early referendum) should be resolved only through negotiation and consensus, so that the city becomes a “model of national unity, coexistence and social integration of the people of a single united homeland.” The declaration also inveighed against the resort to ethno-sectarian principles in structuring Iraqi politics. Funds from the national budget, for example, should be distributed among provinces according to their relative demographic weight, not communal quotas.
Weeks later, this noteworthy cross-sectarian coalition asserted itself once more. On January 28, Baha’ al-Araji, a Sadrist, spoke before the Iraqi parliament on the issue of the draft law for the powers of governorates -- those that already exist, not the envisioned federal regions. He emphasized, firstly, that the powers the draft law gave to provincial assemblies should come into force only after new local elections had been held and, secondly, that it was necessary to insert a timetable for those provincial elections in the law. Al-Araji was supported in this stance by the Fadhila party (a spinoff from the main Sadrist bloc) and other Shi‘i Islamists, as well as Sunni Islamists, secularists and minority representatives.[5] The opponents of a timetable for elections were the Kurdish parties and the Supreme Council, which also voiced concern about the relatively large role given to the central government in supervising the existing governorates.
With the eventual passage on February 13 of the non-federated governorates act, Iraqi Shi‘a, and indeed Iraq as a whole, had moved very far from the imaginative federal plans described by Saghir to Dagher less than six months before. Through their actions in the legislature, substantial segments of the “Shi‘i” contingent had demonstrated commitment to another, less sectarian vision: consolidation of the existing system of government in Iraq south of Kurdistan, with a meaningful role for the central government, and with no administrative lines drawn to separate “Shi‘i” from “Sunni” areas. The Supreme Council, for its part, had apparently been outpaced by the comeback of this vision. In the January 2005 local elections, which some Shi‘i parties boycotted, the Supreme Council had managed to gain a foothold in several provinces south of Baghdad (though not in Basra and Maysan, sites of the main southern oilfields). Now, in an attempt to avoid the insertion of a date certain for provincial elections in the governorates law, the Supreme Council cited practical problems that would accompany early polls because many local offices of the Iraqi electoral commission remain inoperative. That argument, of course, would logically apply with equal force to any referenda upon new federal regions. Hence, if the Supreme Council is to remain consistent in its rhetoric, the southern super-province project must be put on ice until local elections offices are ready.
THE SUPREME COUNCIL’S BOMBSHELL
There could be other players in the federalism game come April 2008, however. On February 20, Wa’il ‘Abd al-Latif, a former judge and now member of Parliament for Basra, told the southern television channel al-Fayha that he was about to start efforts to create, “in accordance with the constitution,” a “region of Basra” limited to Iraq’s second city and environs, and thus separate from the rest of the Shi‘a of Iraq. In fact, this project dates back five years, and is the only federalist movement among the Shi‘a that cuts across party lines: It receives support from secular politicians (like ‘Abd al-Latif), from tribal leaders and from Islamist opponents of the Supreme Council, such as Fadhila.
Basra’s regionalism shows that Iraqi Shi‘a are not divided into two camps on the issue of federalism, but rather into three: centralists who want a strong Baghdad government, small-scale federalists and those advocating larger, ethno-sectarian regions. On many issues, however, the centralists and the small-scale federalists see eye to eye, as with regard to administration of the oil sector, where ‘Abd al-Latif, like many centralists, has spoken in favor of control by Baghdad. The main cleavage with respect to the question of devolution in Iraq is thus more accurately characterized as setting off the ethno-federalists (the Supreme Council and the Kurdish parties) from all the other groups. Indeed, the latter might well be thought of as “conservative moderates” or even “centrists” for proposing a decisive halt to the demolition of existing Iraqi structures of government that was initiated by US administrator L. Paul Bremer back in 2003. In the centrist view, it is time to start reconstruction in Iraq on the basis of existing infrastructure, instead of destroying even more of the current system, or generating further potential for civil conflict through divisive federal adventures and imagined sectarian “regions” of which no one had even heard prior to 2005.[6]
Notwithstanding the trend toward centrism in the Iraqi parliament, the ethno-federalists had one more card to play. At night on February 26, in the middle of a parliamentary recess and on the eve of the Arba‘in religious holiday, the Supreme Council’s ‘Adil ‘Abd al-Mahdi slipped a bombshell into a letter to his colleagues on the three-person Iraqi presidency council. By the terms of the 2005 constitution, this council is composed of a president (currently, Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) and two vice presidents, all three of whom have the prerogative to veto legislation passed by Parliament. In his February 26 missive ‘Abd al-Mahdi, one of the vice presidents and a Bush administration favorite, announced his veto of the recent law on the powers of the governorates.[7] In his view, many of the law’s provisions for a degree of central control over the governorates were “unconstitutional.” ‘Abd al-Mahdi clearly stretched the legal limits on his power to the maximum: According to the constitution, vetoes must be declared within ten days of receipt of laws at the presidency council, and the letter was sent 13 days after the disputed piece of legislation’s passage. Even in the middle of the holiday season, other Iraqi politicians reacted furiously, with ‘Abd al-Mahdi’s fellow Shi‘i Islamists in the Sadrist and Da‘wa movements prominent among the protesters.
What happens next with the law on the powers of governorates? The answer is not entirely clear. From the constitutional point of view, the process should be straightforward. Once Parliament reconvenes in mid-March, its members can debate the law and send it back to the presidency council, which will have to adopt it by consensus or reject it within ten days. It then goes back to Parliament, but this time the legislature has the power to ratify the law without presidential consensus. The caveat is that ratification must take place not by simple majority but by three-fifths super-majority (not two-thirds as claimed in some news stories). A complicating factor is that, through certain arguments in his letter, ‘Abd al-Mahdi enters the domain of constitutional review, which properly belongs to Iraq’s federal supreme court, instituted by the 2004 Transitional Administrative Law and still operative pending the establishment of a new court pursuant to the 2005 constitution. In fact, that court has already issued an opinion on the powers of the governorates, specifically limiting these to areas not among the “exclusive powers of the federal government” enumerated in the constitution.[8] But ‘Abd al-Mahdi refers to “legal experts” in his own office who will come up with suggestions for amendments. This practice of circumventing the emerging Iraqi judicial structure is quite typical of the ethno-federalist bloc. Lately, the Kurdish parties have been trumpeting a legal opinion that essentially argues that the Kurdistan Regional Government’s law on oil is more in tune with the Iraqi constitution than the draft law of the central government -- the problem being that the author, British lawyer James Crawford, is not a member of Iraq’s federal supreme court, whose very existence is ignored in his brief note.[9]
BUSH’S BIDEN POLICY
A great challenge to the diverse centrist coalition is the immense support given to its ethno-federalist opponents by players outside the 15 Iraqi governorates that are not part of a federal region. Firstly, there is the powerful backing of the Kurdish parties for the Supreme Council, which often seems aimed at depriving Baghdad of any real capacity for governance. The Kurdish parties are aligned with advocates of “soft partition” in the United States, like Sen. Biden, who tirelessly conjure images of an Iraq neatly split in three and who are programmatically opposed to any restoration of a powerful Baghdad in Iraq. Even in more modest statements, champions of “soft partition” insist on unconstitutional “conferences” that might well serve to perpetuate the hegemony of the ethno-federalists, who are proven masters of the art of backroom deals. The international media, for its part, simply refuses to recognize the existence of the second party in the ongoing two-way struggle. Instead the media read every single move on the Iraqi political scene as part of a “battle” between Iraq’s “main contending factions, the Shiites, the Sunnis and the Kurds” -- as seen, for example, in coverage of the law on the powers of governorates, largely presented to American readers as a “Shiite objective” in a grand compromise where the Kurds got “their” budget and the Sunni Arabs “their” amnesty law.[10] The deep intra-Shi‘i divisions on the governorates law and the Sadrist demands for a strong amnesty law were conveniently ignored; only the ethno-federalist players were even acknowledged.
Arguably, though, the greatest problem for the Iraqi centrists is what may be termed “Bush’s Biden policy.” While Washington speaks an admirable language of fidelity to strong central government, in practice it consistently extends material and moral support to the opposite camp, the ethno-federalists that share Biden’s vision for Iraq. In 2003, Bremer acceded to Kurdish demands to maintain peshmerga militias; in 2004, the US let the Kurdish parties introduce the fateful concept of “disputed areas” into the Transitional Administrative Law, whereby the old regime’s displacement of individual Iraqis can be redressed by collective demands on territory framed in an ethnic language. Since 2005, when it launched the divisive project of a single sectarian region south of Baghdad, the Supreme Council’s relationship with Washington has prospered. Whenever there is talk in Washington about an alternative to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the discussion tends to focus on the Supreme Council’s man (and the instigator of the presidential veto of the governorates law), ‘Adil ‘Abd al-Mahdi. ‘Abd al-Mahdi’s accession to power would probably mean the evaporation of the last remnants of centralist thinking in the Iraqi government, currently represented by Maliki personally, as well as figures like Oil Minister Husayn al-Shahristani. Conversely, Washington maintains little or no contact with representatives of the centrist trend whose vision for the future is far more compatible with the long-standing stated objective of US policy: a unified, multi-ethnic Iraq.
It is policy contradictions like these that facilitate the persistence of ethno-federalist dominance in Iraq, despite clear signs that this current is losing influence in the Iraqi parliament and among the Iraqi people south of Kurdistan. The ethno-federalists may not enjoy a parliamentary majority, but they have secured control of two of the three seats on the Iraqi presidency council. They cannot dictate the legislative agenda, but have managed to jostle their way to a blocking majority on the committee charged with revising the Iraqi constitution. Today, in a most ironic manner, Iraqi politics has come almost full circle in a gradual liberation from sectarianism: An institution originally designed in 2005 by the ethno-federalists to protect communal interests -- the presidency council -- is now being used by one of the vice presidents, ‘Abd al-Mahdi, to guard his ruling faction against democratic pressures framed in Iraqi nationalist terms, including from a majority within his “own” Shi‘i community. There are signs that at least some groups inside the government have had enough of the centrifugal forces associated with the ethno-federalists, with the Supreme Council’s complaints about the police in Nasiriyya and Basra suggesting that its supposed monopoly on the security forces south of Baghdad is much exaggerated. But until US policymakers realize the growing importance of the centrist trend in Iraq there can be no real alternative US policy: The major “alternatives” to Biden’s ideas on the Democratic side -- withdrawal or a focus on fighting al-Qaeda -- would only mean a freeze of current power structures and an irreversible head start for the axis of the Kurdish parties and the Supreme Council. These parties, notably, have benefited and continue to benefit from a disproportionate share of US spending on supposedly “national” institutions of government, including the arming and training of branches of the country’s security services. In the meantime, those Iraqis trying to push their country’s politics in a more sensible direction will continue to face a formidable opposition, made up of the combined forces of Republicans and Democrats in the United States, Iran and their ethno-federalist Iraqi partners.
Endnotes
I don't think a slow grow is the answer. This currency needs to be brought up to current Gulf neighbor's value in order for Iraq to take advantage of it's huge wealth...just a matter of when...
Ex-Insurgents Now Key to Iraq Success
Central to the success of the Iraq surge has been the cooperation of the “sons of Iraq,” former insurgents now working with the U.S. military. Gen. Petraeus says he's confident they’ll stay loyal, despite their growing number of complaints.
Video:
http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&fg=r...5f486a&from=34
Arab parliamentary conference due in northern Iraq .. historic -- Talabani
IRBIL, March 10 (KUNA) -- Iraqi President Jalal Al-Talabani described as historic on Monday the unprecedented holding of the conference for Arab parliamentarians in this northern Iraqi city, due on March 11-13.
The president, addressing inauguration of a new session of the National Assembly of Kurdistan (the local parliament), indicated that the holding of the conference in the predominantly-Kurdish city signalled unity and territorial sanctity of Iraq.
He expressed hope that the conference would be held amid a brotherly atmosphere, noting that the Kurdih natives of the city would warmly welcome the Arab guests.
Today's session of the legislative assembly of the Kurdish administration witnessed lectures by Noureddine Bouchkouj, Secretary General of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union, Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, and Adnan Al-Mufti, the Chairman of the Kurdistan Parliament.
The 13th conference of the union is due to begin on Tuesday in Irbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan, with participation of representatives of Arab states to address various issues such as questions concerning, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, human rights, sustainable development in the Arab world, revising the charter of the federation and the election of a new president for Iraq.
The chairman of the local legislative assembly has affirmed significance of the conference for it will manifest the Arabs' support for the local leadership vis-a-vis of the chain of events witnessed in the country since 2003.
Ninetneen member states of the 22-country union will take part in the conference. Somalia, the Comoros and Libya have declared that they will boycott it.
Announcement No.(1123)
D.G. of Foreign Exchange Control
The 1123 daily currency auction was held in the Central Bank of Iraq day Tuesday 2008/3/11 so the results were as follows :
Details Notes
Number of banks14-----
Auction price selling dinar / US $1209-----
Auction price buying dinar / US $----------
Amount sold at auction price (US $)76.290.000-----
Amount purchased at Auction price (US $) -----
Total offers for buying (US $)76.290.000-----
Total offers for selling (US $)----------
Economics: With the Iraqi dinar continues to rise
Inflation continues to threaten the economic development process in the country
Baghdad - Lamia Numan
It seems that the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar did crystallize concepts new economic policy of the country, despite the rise but inflation is still sabotaging the Iraqi economy and the citizen's pocket,
Certainly, the economic reforms of the monetary policy and of real investment and export oil and the flight of capital and government spending and conditions of the International Monetary Fund and attract foreign investment, unemployment and other effects, and debt accumulation and economic burdens left by the former government remains hesitant in its monetary policy to develop the plans and programmes and conventions for the advancement of the Iraqi economy .
These hubs economic declaring itself an attempt to stabilize the Iraqi dinar and reduce inflation and serious attempts by the Iraqi Central Bank to raise interest between this and that the economy swings between IMF conditions and the debt States to Iraq and the natural resources of oil, gas, uranium and other minerals in addition to the wealth of animal and agricultural and other remains unused and scattered smuggled illegally outside Iraq.
To find out the problem and we see economic approach dialogue with Dr. Kamal Basri, an economist in the Prime Minister's Office to review with him the whole what goes on in the corridors of the Iraqi economy problems and reforms could push for recovering the value of the Iraqi dinar.
We review starting axes and conditions of turmoil, instability and insecurity, unemployment, lack of investment projects to attract foreign investment, capital flight and industrialists, traders and others and neglecting investment law, neglecting the private sector, all aspects affected negatively on the financial and economic returns, development and this is what contributed to the deterioration of a citizen increased of the paragraph.
Dr Basri that the high proportion of citizens living in poverty because of the economic challenges that stand in the way of the problem of unemployment, poverty and the low standard of living of large segments of society, and unemployment is estimated at 18 percent after they were after the war about 30 percent in addition to the dominance of hidden unemployment in the sectors , which have a high proportion of employment versus small contribution to the gross domestic product and tackling poverty and deprivation by Iraq to develop policy and economic support is a list of government support to cover the prices of oil derivatives, the ration card, a network of social protection, the costs of electricity and water and to support farmers and others.
Because of the fruits of improved security situation there has been continued decline in the rate of inflation and increasing purchasing power due to improved movement of people, goods and erratic movement of the market and the return of optimism to the people, helped to raise the value of the dinar.
Perhaps economic recovery also be activating the investment law provides facilities for Arab and foreign investors?
The Congress approved the Law of Public Investment Act 2006 and activating to increase contributions sectors generally, and therefore increased employment, exports and the entry of modern technology for the development of those sectors and increase production.
Q: What are the actions on this matter?
Simplify map to chart Iraq and simplify investment procedures to enter the business and residence and to initiate the establishment of projects and reconstruction, and others, and to create a competitive environment to lure investors and make Iraq a rival to the Arab and international, in addition to the search for ways of accelerating the response of banks and insurance companies for investment requirements.
This is the other side, the past year has seen, especially after the second half increased government investment has amounted to the rate of implementation of investment projects in the ministries "including the Kurdistan region" 68 percent hit rate of implementation in the provinces to 74 percent after the rates
Low in 2006.
Current efforts focus on simplifying contracting procedures and the opening of bank credit and the opening of the high contracting powers.
Q: Of the Central Bank of Iraq and the granting of interest rates on deposits and revenues to 20 percent, however are still steps the Central Bank to absorb inflation floating!
success if the inflation induced by providing liquidity undesirable, but inflation in Iraq is due to other factors, but this does not expect the policy of high interest rates to deal with the problem, recent statistics indicate the decline in the inflation rate in January 2007 to 15 percent on it was inflation in recent years.
But it is certainly saying that the policy of lifting the value of the Iraqi dinar against the dollar would reduce the prices of imported goods and improving the purchasing power of the Iraqi currency.
The high interest rates led to difficulties for borrowers at a time when economic policy is still in place are open supportive private cumbersome political results of the previous era, no doubt that monetary policy led to the stagnation and contraction of private economic activity, and thus the emergence of a situation contradiction between monetary and fiscal policies .
International Monetary Fund demanded that Iraq increased the prices of fuel and deliberative prices in the local market and trade for the gradual reduction of the inflation rate, as the Government has taken a decision to lift the prices of oil derivatives is provided cover protects the poor from the implications of the high prices?
The policy of support prices of oil derivatives is one of the facades centralized policy for the planning and distribution of resources and because of the complexity of the loss and corruption and the smuggling of products to neighbouring countries because of the price difference, and the unequal distribution of national income affect the class and the impoverished class is the rich benefit most, We do not forget distort the price structure and the disruption index of economic feasibility in addition to the absence of policy rationalization of the use of oil derivatives and therefore increase the potential demand for domestic production, which led to the government to import oil derivatives from neighboring countries.
There is also the absence of economic incentive to the private sector to address the problem of the shortage suffered by the market in the supply of oil derivatives, these problems explain the situation looting suffered by the Iraqi economy.
Despite the efforts of the Iraqi government and American pressure to the member countries to reduce the debt owed by Iraq, since the days of the previous regime or extinction, but that did not help to raise the value of the Iraqi dinar rate, are there economic reforms and expenditures international players in this regard?
Start Limits Iraqi debt estimated 140 billion dollars, the Iraqi government has been holding agreements with the Paris Club and the International Monetary Fund for the purpose of settling those debts, and is expected to complete by Iraq's pledge with the International Monetary Fund to undertake economic reforms, which included write off 80 percent of the debt.
That the state and society between only two options, the choice between continuing the pattern of current spending or look for other alternative There is no doubt that the alternative chosen by the show of support progressive option is correct and courageous step to correct the mistakes of the past.
As for the reformist policy is consistent with the requirements of reform advocated by the International Monetary Fund necessary for the return of the Iraqi economy to the area of international relations, it is useful to mention that States Länder stipulated in the Paris Club debt for the purpose of fighting Iraqi and 80 percent discount to get Iraq confident IMF.
During the signing of agreements assistance and support of the Convention EPCA "Alabka", which was signed in November of 2004 and the Convention on SBA, to continue support of government-directed work to drain the limited resources of the State nor beneficial envisaged class did not provide the required investment in basic services to the community, but to achieve financial interests Some of the state's resources and makes vulnerable to corruption and loss has helped economic and strategic agreement with the International Monetary Fund to improve the performance of the economic situation.
Ears: a deliberate ways to make cash balances for the growth of the Iraqi economy and banishing the spectre of inflation is evident in the set of indicators related to the security situation, and attract investments and the presence of strategic economic operate by the State of the changes and stimulating capabilities Iraqi economy, which would raise the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar and put away the spectre of inflation experienced by several countries.
http://www.google.com/translate?u=ht...&hl=en&ie=UTF8
Russia, Nigeria Cut Gas Sales, Raising Importer Costs (Update1)
By Dinakar Sethuraman and Angela Macdonald-Smith
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Russia is forcing Exxon Mobil Corp. to abandon plans to export natural gas to China. Nigeria is requiring explorers to share output with its citizens. Indonesia will cut sales to Japan.
Countries holding almost half the world's gas are curbing shipments to meet growing domestic use, hurting importers from the U.S. to Japan. Prices for the heating fuel may rise 50 percent within five years on the New York Mercantile Exchange as a result, said Chris Jarvis, president of Caprock Risk Management in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. He anticipated the rally in gas prices during the past month.
While raising energy costs, the policies will limit opportunities for Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, who are struggling to reverse a five-year production decline of 23 percent in the U.K. North Sea and 42 percent in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Natural-gas use is rising 2.5 percent a year, three times the rate for oil, according to BP Plc statistics.
``All the gas is concentrated in places where you don't have access,'' said Frank Harris, co-head of the natural gas practice at the Edinburgh-based Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd., an adviser to 24 of the world's 25 biggest oil and gas companies. It's ``a major concern for oil majors,'' he said.
In Russia, the energy ministry told Exxon Mobil in August that gas from the $17 billion Sakhalin-1 project off the nation's eastern coast should be sold into the domestic market, not exported. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants the gas to feed an economy that's growing 7.6 percent annually. Putin two days ago said his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, will also be a ``nationalist.''
Exports Squeezed
Exxon planned to build a pipeline to China, where the 10 billion cubic meters a year of Sakhalin gas could meet 18 percent of China's needs, based on 2006 consumption.
Changing export policies in Nigeria and Egypt threaten projects that would ship 45 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas to the world market annually, equal to about 33 percent current supply, Wood Mackenzie's Harris estimates. The 45 million tons are almost fourfold larger than the U.S.'s LNG imports in 2006, according to the Energy Department.
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua said last month that a new state-run company would start requiring explorers to sell a portion of output locally. Nigeria, Africa's most-populous nation, holds the continent's largest gas reserves, yet only about 40 percent of its population of about 140 million citizens have access to electricity, according to the World Bank.
Total SA, Chevron Corp., Shell and ConocoPhillips have put on hold two LNG projects, at Brass and Olokola, until the government sets its policy on supplies to the domestic market. The gas would have been more than enough to meet India's annual consumption, based on BP's statistics.
Cheap Gas
Caprock Risk's Jarvis said restrictions on liquefied natural gas exports will tighten global energy markets.
Demand for LNG, or gas chilled for shipment in tankers, is the industry's fastest-growing business, with growth of about 10 percent a year, Shell and Total estimate.
Compared with fuel oil, natural gas costs 18 percent less, based on the amount of energy in each fuel. Crude prices have tripled since 2002, pushing governments to seek more of the industry's record profits and limit access to regions that typically harbor natural gas too.
``The correlations between gas and crude oil will become tighter as the LNG market becomes more important on a global scale,'' Jarvis said in an interview. Natural gas in New York may rise to $15 per million British thermal units by 2013, he said.
`Prices Will Rise'
``When you are in a supply-constrained situation, prices will rise,'' said Darren Jones, president of global gas for Houston-based ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company.
Wood Mackenzie's Harris said he expects oil and natural gas prices will converge. If that happens, a $10 million investment in natural gas on the Nymex would return 22 percent, or $2.2 million.
Indonesia lost its top ranking as an LNG exporter to Qatar in 2006 as Southeast Asia's most populous nation diverted exports to meet soaring domestic needs. The economy grew 6.2 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31, near the fastest pace in 10 years. State oil company PT Pertamina will lower supplies to a Japanese buying group by 75 percent after the current contract expires in 2010, Vice President Iin Arifin Takhyan said in October.
``By 2011 we see a very tight global natural gas market,'' said Stacy Nieuwoudt, an analyst at energy investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities Inc. in Houston.
Gas Holder Priorities
Chevron, which is seeking to expand an LNG venture in Angola, respects governments' desires to direct supplies to domestic markets, said John Gass, president of Chevron's global gas business.
``At the same time host countries also see the value of exporting their gas on world markets,'' Gass told reporters today in Bangkok. ``The companies that are going to be successful in the future are the ones that are going to be able to balance I would say those complimentary priorities that resource holders have.''
Natural gas provides 22 percent of the world's energy, behind coal's 23 percent and oil's 40 percent, according to BP. The world's known gas reserves may last about 63 years, compared with 41 for oil, the BP statistics show.
Increasing demand and a lack of supplies meant that Japan and South Korea this winter paid more than double the U.S. benchmark gas price to attain cargoes from as far away as Trinidad, the biggest LNG supplier to the U.S.
U.S. natural gas futures for delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana have risen 29 percent so far this year on the New York Mercantile Exchange, outpacing a 9 percent gain in benchmark U.S. crude prices. Nymex gas for April delivery was trading at $9.682 per million British thermal units at 9:59 a.m. London time today.
``We have seen this year a situation where there was strong appetite for LNG, forcing buyers to pay oil prices or even a premium,'' said Philippe Sauquet, senior vice-president of Total Gas & Power Ltd., a unit of Paris-based Total.
To contact the reporters on this story: Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at dinakar@bloomberg.netAngela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 10, 2008 06:04 EDT
Mashhadani: Kurdistan province is entitled to conclude oil contracts with foreign companies
الأرشيف Archive
دليل المواقع Sites
المواقيت الشرعية Timelines legitimacy
الطقس Weather
الكتّاب Book
معرض الصور Photo Gallery
الأسـعار Prices
اسأل الفقيه Ask Faqih
اتصل بنا Contact Us
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
قال رئيس مجلس النواب العراقي محمود المشهداني, الإثنين, إنه يحق لإقليم كردستان إبرام العقود النفطية مع الشركات الأحنبية "وفقا للدستور" العراقي. Said House Speaker Iraqi Mahmoud Mashhadani, Monday, it is entitled to the Kurdistan region contracts with the oil companies Cnabih "in accordance with the constitution" of Iraq.
وأضاف المشهداني، خلال مؤتمر صحفي عقده اليوم (الإثنين) في مدينة أربيل بإقليم كردستان شمالي العراق, أنه "بحسب الدستور العراقي، يحق لإقليم كردستان إبرام العقود النفطية مع الشركات الأجنبية." He added Mashhadani, in a press conference held today (Monday) in the city of Arbil in northern Iraq's Kurdistan province, said that "according to the Iraqi Constitution, the right to the territory of Kurdistan conclude oil contracts with foreign companies."
لكن رئيس البرلمان استدرك قائلا "لكن في لجنة إعادة صياغة الدستور هناك من يطالب بأن تكون إدارة الثروات النفطية بالعراق مركزية، ونحن في طريقنا إلى تغيير بعض النصوص الدستورية"، دون أن يوضح ما إذا كان ذلك التغيير سيقر هذه المطالبات، أم سيؤكد على حق الإقليم في إبرام العقود. لكن رئيس البرلمان استدرك قائلا "لكن في لجنة إعادة صياغة الدستور هناك من يطالب بأن تكون إدارة الثروات النفطية بالعراق مركزية، ونحن في طريقنا إلى تغيير بعض النصوص الدستورية"، دون أن يوضح ما إذا كان ذلك التغيير سيقر هذه المطالبات، أم سيؤكد على حق الإقليم entering into contracts.
وكانت حكومة كردستان وقعت، العام الماضي، (15) عقدا نفطيا مع شركات أجنبية، ما أثار أزمة سياسية بين حكومة الإقليم والحكومة المركزية في بغداد. The Government of Kurdistan, signed last year (15) oil contracts with foreign companies, the effects of political crisis between the Government of the Territory and the central government in Baghdad. واعتبر وزير النفط حسين الشهرستاني أن تلك العقود "غير قانونية"، لأنها أبرمت قبل صدور قانون النفط والغاز العراقي، وقرر حرمان الشركات التي وقعت تلك العقود من الاستثمار في بقية أنحاء العراق. The oil minister Hussein Shahrastani that those contracts "illegal", because it entered into prior to the issuance of the law the Iraqi oil and gas, and decided to deny the companies that signed contracts to invest in the rest of Iraq.
وأوضح المشهداني أن " المحكمة الاتحادية هي التي ستحسم مسألة العقود النفطية التي أبرمها الإقليم مع الشركات الأجنبية." Mashhadani said that "the Federal Court that settled the question of oil contracts concluded by the province with foreign companies."
وعن قانون النفط ، قال رئيس مجلس النواب " أنهينا أكثر من (90% ) من القانون، ويتبقى بعض الجوانب الاقتصادية والفنية.. وننتظر أن يبدأ البرلمان العراقي مناقشته خلال دورته القادمة." And petroleum law, the head of the House "ended more than (90%) of the Act, leaving some aspects of economic and technical .. and wait to begin discussing the Iraqi parliament during its next session."
وتعارض عدة قوى برلمانية وسياسية مشروع قانون النفط والغاز، الذي أقرته حكومة نوري المالكي واحالته على البرلمان العراقى، في تموز/ يوليو من العام الماضي. The forces opposed to several parliamentary and political bill of oil and gas, which was approved by the Government of Nuri al-Maliki and be referred to the Iraqi Parliament, in July last year.
وتقول تلك القوى المعارضة للمشروع، ومنها (جبهة التوافق العراقية) التي ينتمي إليها المشهداني، إن القانون يعطي "امتيازات" غير مسبوقة للمستثمرين الأجانب في إقامة المنشآت والمصافي النفطية واستثمارها لفترات تصل إلى (50 عاما)، وإنه يكرس سيطرة الأقاليم على الثروات المملوكة لكل الشعب العراقي. وتقول تلك القوى المعارضة للمشروع، ومنها (جبهة التوافق العراقية) التي ينتمي إليها المشهداني، إن القانون يعطي "امتيازات" غير مسبوقة للمستثمرين الأجانب في إقامة المنشآت والمصافي النفطية واستثمارها لفترات تصل إلى (50 عاما)، وإنه يكرس سيطرة الأقاليم على الثروات المملوكة لكل الشعب Iraq.
ويتمتع أعضاء مجلس النواب العراقي حاليا بعطلة شتوية لمدة شهر، بدأت منذ منتصف شباط / فبراير الماضي. The members of the House Iraqi currently winter vacation for a month, started in the mid-February last.
OOOOOOPS LOL