Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. before Febuary 2nd 2006

Ministry to hold a fair for Iraqi products in April


Officials at the Iraqi Ministry of Trade announced that the ministry will organize a four-day trade fair for Iraqi products in April, Iraq Directory reported.

The officials added that several companies from both the private and the public sectors will participate in the fair, which aims to reflect the well-being of Iraqi industry in spite of the current unstable security conditions.
Source: MENAFN




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Posted on Sunday, January 28

State Department Official Outlines Plans To Rebuild Iraq


The United States plans to improve the distribution of economic reconstruction funds in Iraq as part of a strategy to support military operations aimed at securing neighborhoods from insurgents and sectarian violence, officials tell a Senate Committee.

Ambassador David Satterfield, the State Department's senior coordinator for Iraq policy, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee January 25 that the Bush administration is working to create a situation where "if, on a given day, a neighborhood has been cleared and secured, we ... are able to move monies, to begin employing people, taking them out of their houses, putting them onto the streets in a positive sense, working, and then to build longer-term sustainable projects to give a stake in the economy of those areas, those neighborhoods."
General Michael Jones, deputy director of Middle East affairs for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the senators that the ability to coordinate economic reconstruction with military operations serves as a "combat multiplier," creating goodwill with the local population and ensuring that cleared areas remain secure.

Satterfield said the key principles of the U.S. reconstruction strategy are decentralizing the effort and supporting Iraqi government and local officials in their priority projects. He said the United States also would renew its diplomatic efforts to obtain political and financial support for Iraq's reconstruction from Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf countries.

He said the administration plans to double its number of provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) from 10 to 20 and staff them with specialized technical personnel, such as agricultural and veterinary experts, to ensure that they are effective.

The PRTs are designed to move civilian personnel out of the Green Zone and into the provinces where they can provide local officials with assistance in governance and economic development.

Satterfield told the senators that the United States has fundamentally transformed its reconstruction efforts over the past 18 months from large projects to small local undertakings.

He said the United States has sought to "reallocate funds to achievable projects, to Iraqi-contracted projects, rather than multinational or design-build contracts, to place greater responsibility and accountability into Iraqi hands" and to improve oversight. He said future projects would likely be focused on microfinance, business development and job creation in coordination with local officials.

Satterfield said the reconstruction of Iraq is ultimately an Iraqi responsibility and that Iraqis would have to take the lead in all future efforts, but he added that they need international assistance to move the process forward. In particular, he noted that the Iraqi government has difficulty in budget execution.

"Iraq does have fiscal resources. It has money in the bank, some 12 1/2 billion dollars from unspent prior budget years, and also a certain amount from windfall profits from unexpected oil prices. They lack the resources, the mechanisms, to move that money within their own budget on an urgent basis," he said.

Satterfield said the primary focus of U.S. efforts to build administrative capacity is improving the Iraqi government's ability to move its funds into effective programs. He added that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to appoint a new coordinator for economic transition to facilitate these efforts.

Source: AINA




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Posted on Sunday, January 28

Baghdad to embark on 500 service projects next month


Baghdad has set a wide plan to repair Baghdad infrastructure, including establishing many vital strategic municipal projects.

"We will witness next week the opening of 500 service projects [valued] at $387 million," said the mayoral media spokesperson.
The spokesperson pointed out that among the projects is a 19 km sewage line in Rusafa to treat blocks, in addition to three sewage reservoirs with the East Tigris Plant and four trash recycling plants.

Source: Portal Iraq




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Posted on Sunday, January 28

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Sources: Operation Baghdad starts on February 5.
The preparations for Baghdad's security operations and the reactions of politicians, people and militant groups are still taking the most prominent headlines of local news in Iraq.

The head of one of the two city councils in Sadr city told AFP that he's ready to cooperate with the Iraqi forces in implementing the security plan. In the statement that appeared on al-Mada Kareem Hassan said "The presence of popular armed committees [Sadr militias] will end automatically when Iraqi forces enter the city because the need for the committees will cease to exist"

We talked earlier about insurgents and terrorists fleeing Baghdad to Diyala, and today there's another report about a similar migration, from al-Sabah:


Eyewitnesses in some volatile areas said that large numbers of militants have fled to Syria to avoid being trapped in the incoming security operations.
According to those witnesses, residents and shopkeepers are no longer concerned about militants whose existence in public used to bring on clashes that put the lives of civilians in danger.
A shopkeeper in al-Karkh [western Baghdad] said that many of them [militants] packed their stuff and headed to Syria to wait and see what the operations are going to be like.
While experts consider this a failure in protecting the plan's secrecy which might lead to the loss of the surprise factor, they also say it indicates the seriousness and resolve in this plan that is already scaring away the militants. PM Maliki pointed out that seeing them run away is a good thing but he returned and said the security forces would chase them down everywhere after Baghdad is clear.

As we said in the last update, Maliki won unanimous support for his plan in the parliament and despite some opposition from the radical factions the major blocs are expressing their support and approval of the plan:


Spokesman of the Accord front Saleem Abdullah said after the session that the principles of the security plan have the approval of the front and "constitutes a quality leap toward serving Iraq's people".
Hussein al-Sha'lan of the Iraqi bloc stressed on the importance of cooperation among political powers to ensure the success of the plan which he called "realistic and well-thought".
Abdul Khaliq Zangana of the Kurdish alliance said the plan would deal a heavy blow to Iraq's enemies and put an end to the crimes of outlaws and their backers.

On the other hand citizens we talked to after the prime minister made his speech before the parliament say that there's no place for mistakes or weakness this time but they also seemed confident that Maliki has prepared the right tools for success.


Meanwhile Azzaman says it learned from "informed sources in Baghdad" that major operations will start on the 5th of February. The anonymous sources, according to Azzaman, said that operations against leaders of militant groups and vital targets will be performed to as part of the preparations for major operations that will start on the first week of February.

Immediately after president Bush authorized the US military to capture and kill Iran's agents who are involved in the violence in Iraq, the Iranian Khalq opposition group released a list with the names of 31,000 Iraqis the group said are paid agents for Tehran operating in Iraq, story in the same report linked above.
Jawad Dberan the spokesman of the national council of Iranian resistance, the political wing of Khalq duing a press conference in Germany, accused Tehran of sending weapons and millions of dollars in cash to Iraq every month.
According to Azzaman which quoted from Jawad's statement, that list includes only elements who were directly recruited by the Quds force in Iran. The list is said to provide the Arabic and Farsi names of recruits, their monthly payment in Iranian money along with the code name they use during operations.

Finally, fierce clashes erupted early this morning between US and Iraqi forces with a large group of militants northeast of Najaf. News reports are giving contradicting accounts on the identity of those militants; on the one hand we have the Washington Post and Reuters say they are Sunni insurgents.
On the other hand the Iraqi website Sot al-Iraq says they are a radical Shia group who call themselves "Jama'at Ahmed al-Hassan" or the followers of Ahmed al-Hassan and that their leader, Ahmed al-Hassan claims to be the messenger of Imam Mehdi. An Iraqi journalist from Najaf told a similar story on the phone to al-Jazeera and said the group is a radical Islamist one that was formed after the fall of Saddam's regime.

A Najaf police spokesman, colonel Ali Jrew told al-Hurra TV that the name of the group is "Soldiers of Heavn" and that their leader's name is Abu Gumar al-Yamani and explained "This terrorist group was planning to kill a number of senior clerics and they claim Imam Mehdi is going to appear soon…our action was based on intelligence we gathered recently and we had arrest warrants". The BBC is still not sure of the group's identity.

I'm personally more inclined to believe the story of the two Iraqi sources. After all it's hard to believe that Sunni insurgents could establish a base that hosts several hundreds of armed men this close to Najaf.

More updates will follow later.

IRAQ THE MODEL

Erbil seeks to become Middle East hub


by Kurt Hofmann
The Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq is spending $300 million to upgrade Erbil International Airport (EIA) in an effort to make the city that sits just 60 miles from the Turkish and Iranian borders an important transportation hub.

"We are in the center of the Middle East and want to play a strategic role in civil aviation," KRG President Massoud Barzani told ATWOnline in Erbil.

A new terminal capable of handling 2.7 million passengers annually is scheduled to be completed by the end of October. The building has three levels, six airbridges, 32 gates (including two for the A380), 22 check-in counters and a 36-metre ATC tower. It should be operational by the middle of next year. A 4,800-metre runway also nearly is finished.

The region is served mainly by charter operators and two scheduled carriers, Royal Jordanian and Austrian Airlines, which launched its twice-weekly service from Vienna last month. A former military base, the airport opened to commercial traffic in April 2005 and handled 166,000 passengers last year. The current terminal will be used for domestic operations once the new facility opens.

Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani told this website, "We need access to the outside. Because of our geographical position, we believe when the new airport is open we will be attractive for other airlines to come. We will soon start to promote EIA." The government has no plans to establish its own airline, he said.

EIA DG Taher Horami said Erbil is positioned to become a hub connecting Europe and Asia. "Our benefits will be that we are ideally located and we will be [much] cheaper, for example in landing fees, than other airports in the region. We don't want to be a second Dubai, but we also benefit from their success," he said.




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Posted on Sunday, January 28

, Communication, Technology and Education Summit


On Jan. 24 the Iraq Development Program (IDP) confirmed that Iraqi Minister of Science and Technology Raed Fahmi will be attending the Iraq Information, Communication, Technology and Education Summit (ICTE) Feb. 27 to 28 in Sharjah, UAE.

Other ICTE guests are Minister of Communications Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Abed Theyab.
The Ministry of Science and Technology's objectives include the establishment of computer and electronic communication standards, providing computer training for government employees and planning for Iraq's information technology programs, according to the IDP.

"The Ministry is looking to work with public and private industry, governmental agencies and educational institutions to lead scientific and technological development for the purpose of fostering the restoration and improvement of Iraq's infrastructure and industrial base," the IDP announcement stated.

"All Iraqi officials will be attending to speak about their ministries' requirements for their relevant sectors in front of an audience of senior corporate executives, before holding private consultations with some of the pre-eminent operators in the ICT and education sectors."

To register for the summit, send an e-mail to [email protected] or visit the IDP site for further information.

Source: Portal Iraq




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Posted on Sunday, January 28

More fuel in Suleimaniya


Nine of the ten oil-distributing centers have distributed fuel in Suleimaniya. Soon, then tenth will do the same; according to sources.

The new system of distributing kerosene, according the vice president of the private projects, Dilawar Nuri, will benefit most residents of the city. "Out of 10 centers, one center has remained."
Expressing his optimism, Mr. Nuri said that fuel crises would soon be eased. He added that more fuel will reach Kurdistan in a near future.

"The High Committee for ending fuel crisis has been holding continuous meetings to find a new mechanism to solve the problem," he said. "A number of options have been discussed; taking into account the imported quantity, the expected quantity and the sources, Beji and Ibrahim Khalil."

Source: The Kurdish Globe




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Posted on Sunday, January 28

Published: 29/01/2007 12:00 AM (UAE)

Iraqis dispute over Ashura celebration
By Basil Adas, Correspondent



Baghdad: The Iraqi government has announced that today will mark Ashura, an Islamic holy day which commemorates the seventh-century slaying of the Prophet Mohammad's (PBUH) grandson Imam Hussain in Karbala.

However Iraqi Shiites have decided to celebrate this anniversary tomorrow.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites are set to flock to the city of Karbala where the tomb of Imam Hussain is, to mark the annual 10-day mourning period.

Harith Al Lami, a Shiite computer programmer, told Gulf News: "This year Al Maliki [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki] prefers to differentiate himself from his voters, so he wouldn't be accused of following the Iranian calendar, and that pleases America as well."

Aziz Al Dulaimi, a Sunni Iraqi citizen, commented to Gulf News: "It seems that Shiites are disagreeing with their government, not only with the Sunnis."

The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution, headed by Abdul Aziz Al Hakim and the Sadr trend, two of the most prominent components of the Shiite ruling coalition, disagreed with Al Maliki and went along with Shiite voters to revive Ashura tomorrow, not today, despite the fact that Al Maliki is part of the Shiite coalition.

Hussain Al Saeedy, an activist in the Shiite Supreme Council, told Gulf News: "It seems that Al Maliki with his differences on the Shiite street concerning the day of Ashura, doesn't want to appear to be Shiite - he wants to win the confidence of Arab Sunnis in the new security plan in Baghdad!"

Some workers at the Prime Minister's Office have chosen to head to Karbala to participate in Ashura tomorrow.

This is the first time the government emanating from the Shiite coalition has had a difference of opinion with Shiite religious authorities in Najaf and Karbala in determining the date of Ashura, when Shiites mourn and weep over Imam Hussain's spirit.

Sunni Arabs participate with their brethren Shiite in commemorating this anniversary.

The following day Shiites express their sadness by parading towards the Mosque of Imam Hussain in Karbala and flailing their heads and breasts with silver blades and swords as part of the mourning ceremony.

US to Reopen Iraq's Factories
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Posted GMT 1-28-2007 19:17:2
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US officials in Iraq are planning to re-open lumbering state industries set up as part of Saddam Hussein's command economy in an attempt to bring jobs to the country's most troubled areas.

Moribund government-owned plants, including ageing tractor factories, tyre manufacturers and cement companies, have been earmarked for a multi-million dollar scheme designed to lure Iraqis away from the insurgents' payroll.

The plan represents an extraordinary U-turn on the part of President George W Bush's officials in Baghdad, who in 2003 insisted on an aggressive privatisation programme which forced Iraq's 240 public enterprises to operate without subsidy, or close.

They viewed the bloated state sector, with its inflated workforce of 300,000 people, as little more than a tool of patronage used by Saddam to cement the rule of his Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party.

Now, however, with the country facing civil war, such Stalinist state enterprises are to get a second lease of life, this time courtesy of a Republican administration better known as a staunch advocate of free-market economics.

Under plans outlined to The Sunday Telegraph by Paul Brinkley, the American deputy under-secretary of defence for business transformation, officials have drawn up a priority list of 10 factories that they plan to kick-start with a $10 million (£5.4 million) cash injection.

Mr Brinkley admitted that some sceptics had jokingly branded him a "Stalinist," but said: "We've looked at some of these factories more closely and found they aren't quite the rundown Soviet-era enterprises we thought they were.

Some have new equipment, savvy managers and a significant amount of idle capacity. By getting people into jobs, we can hopefully cut the unemployment that has been a significant contributor to the insurgency."

US officials have declined to name the factories, fearing they could become targets for insurgents. But they are thought to include a dormant ceramics factory near Ramadi, west of Baghdad, and a factory producing Antar tractors - a copy of a 1950s British design - in Iskandaria, south of Baghdad. Both are Sunni insurgent hotspots.

By any normal measure, both would be considered economic basket cases. However, as in Saddam's time, their main use will be not in turning a profit but in keeping people in jobs. It is estimated that the 10 factories could employ up to 11,000 Iraqis, helping to drain the insurgent recruiting pool.

Even with public assistance, it is far from clear whether there will be a demand for their products. Since the lifting of international sanctions following the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraq has been flooded with imported goods from Asia and the rest of the Middle East, mostly cheaper and better-made than anything state industry offered.

While the US scheme focuses on insurgent-prone areas, a parallel Iraqi government scheme aims to attract foreign know-how and investment to state factories in more stable regions.

Iraq's industry minister, Dr Fawzi Hariri, who came to London last week to woo British businesses, said: "The idea is to rehabilitate them and produce high-quality goods, although one area we are not concerned with is international competitiveness - because everything we produce is required by the domestic market."

He estimated that about £760 million was needed to revamp the state sector, which he hoped would come from both Iraqi government coffers and foreign companies. Most factories, he pointed out, were in areas largely untouched by the insurgency, and investors prepared to shoulder some risk could end up securing assets with huge potential.

Dr Hariri will need considerable salesmanship skills for some items on the state portfolio, such as the General Company for the Vegetable Oil Industry, a leviathan of crumbling detergent factories which deliberately had extra stages of production built in to employ more people.

Shortly after the fall of Saddam, the company had no computers, a motley range of hopelessly outdated products such as "Girl Brand Cooking Oil", and a payroll of 4,000 staff, few of whom ever did more than half a day's work.

The factory renovation programme, which will be jointly funded by the US and Iraq, is billed as part of Mr Bush's new strategy of ramping up economic aid and reconstruction, in tandem with the 21,500 extra troops being sent to help stem violence.

By Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad and Colin Freeman
Telegraph newspaper online

© 2007, Assyrian International News Agency

Fuel Prices Spur Iraqi Inflation In 2006


(epa)
January 28, 2007 -- Reports say Iraqi's inflation hit an average of 70 percent last year, largely due to soaring fuel prices.


The government had set an inflation target of 20-25 percent for 2006.

But the consumer price index jumped by more than 70 percent, while the cost of petroleum products and electricity spiked by more than 80 percent.

When volatile energy prices are stripped out, inflation comes to between 30 and 35 percent.

(AFP)