Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 16/08/07 - 03/11/07

REYADH HUSSEIN


MANAMA: Iraq is capable of becoming a super economic power both regionally and internationally, says Iraqi Ambassador to Bahrain Ghassan Muhsen. At a Press conference held at the Regency Inter-continental yesterday to discuss the upcoming Gulf Iraqi Expo (GIX) in Bahrain, Mr Muhsen said that there are investment opportunities in Iraq and that the security situation there is 75 per cent safer than it was in March last year.

The event will be held from November 1 to 3 at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre.

"The reason for the event being re-scheduled is because of the security factor. We were going to hold the event last March but we decided to postpone it to allow the situation to become more stable in Iraq," Muhsen told the GDN.

He said that the event will definitely be held on its designated date from November 1 to 3 and there will be no postponements or delays.

"GIX is an highly important event which is taking place in Bahrain," Mr Muhsen said. "The exhibition will be for both Iraqis still in the country and those residing outside.

"It is also an important event for business people interested in investing in Iraq as the volume of trade has been modest since the invasion of Kuwait.

Also attending was one of the organisers of the event, I-Vision chairman, Murthada Kamal Aldin, and the marketing and logistics representative for the expo, CTM Management chairman and chief executive Saeed Rajab Z Omar.

"The idea of GIX is to promote business between Iraq and the GCC," Aldin said.

"There will be delegates attending the conference from around the world but the core of the event is to build business links between Iraq and the GCC states.

"Companies from Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia are now investing in the north and south of Iraq in places like Kurdistan, Najaf or Diwaniya.

"The new investment law passed by the Iraqi parliament will help resettle the situation in Iraq and help share the new vision for the country. The aim of GIX is to help build bridges though the Gulf countries."

So far 13 countries have confirmed their participation, including all six GCC states as well as Iraq, Pakistan, India, the US, Egypt, Jordan and France.

The final list of exhibitors will be confirmed on October 1. However, there are already 180 directly registered companies who have completed their registration with the organiser, and 120 companies are currently negotiating space and their type of participation.

"GIX is expected to be a full networking event," Muhsen said.

"As well as the exhibition we have planned conferences to be held to discuss opportunities for investors in Iraq and the correct way in which to enter the Iraqi market.

"The confirmation of the attendance of the Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, as well as seven Iraqi ministers in sectors of planning, labour, trade, oil, housing, health and industry will aid the commencement of talks.

"Unido will also be present to arrange meetings between officials and businessmen alike.

"We have also asked Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki to attend GIX to boost relations with Bahrain, as Bahrain is an important nation in the GCC.

"We have been working to promote Iraq and the Iraqi Ministry of Trade has opted for Bahrain as they feel it is the right place to organise such an event."

The event is expected to be attended by 12,000 participants of which 1,250 are pre-qualified Iraqi businessmen. [email protected]

The importance of completing the files of Iraq's debt

[9/12/2007]

The Finance Minister said on Saturday that it was important to complete the files of Iraq's debt and send letters to the creditor nations, which their debts has not been settled, with the need to submit a final report of their debts.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Finance said that Finance Minister, Baqir Jabr al-Zubaidi, said that "the end of December of the current year will be the deadline to stop calculating interest on the debt of Iraq, while more than 55 credit State has resolved their debts in accordance with the terms of Paris Club."

The statement said that Baqir al-Zubaidi met with the directors of the Land Bank and reviewed theie most important activities in their constituencies where al-Zubaidi, according to the statement, instructed the general manager of the Iraqi Fund to exhort all efforts in coordination with the Foreign Ministry to collect Iraq's debts to the States (Yemen, Bangladesh, Jamaica, Afghanistan, Mosenbek, Uganda, Madagascar, Tanzania and Mauritania).

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4512

The Council of Arab economic Extinguishes 70% of Iraq's debt

Source: Qabas Kuwaiti-12/09/2007

The Economic and Social Council of the Arab League to extinguish 70% of the debt accumulated by Iraq to account Arab organizations and a number of decisions that contribute in supporting the Iraqi national economy.

He said Iraqi Trade Minister Abdalvlah Sudanese press in a statement published yesterday that the Economic and Social Council approved the Arab and debt reduction of Iraq to account those organizations by 70%.

In addition to the commitment of bilateral agreements signed between Iraq and the Arab Organization for Civil Aviation and the Arab Organization for Atomic Energy, as well as a number of other decisions represent a significant turning point in the Council's work towards Iraq, which came after the ministry to submit a working paper to the package approved by the members of the Council unanimously.

He added that decisions included emphasis on Arab organizations interested in industrial and agricultural development and environmental need to provide substantive and organizational support for these sectors in Iraq and reconstruction.

Iraq Business Directory | Iraq Business News | Online Directory

Italian Exhibition comes to an end

13 September 2007 (Kurdish Globe)

Due to the region's rapid development and security, the organizers of the fair have set the stage for an even larger Italian Trade Fair in 2008.

After five days of the Italian Industry and Technology Exhibition in Erbil, the exhibition hall finally closed its doors on Monday, September 10. Around 80 companies from different sectors of production and services participated in the exhibition, which was organized by the Italian Axis Fairs & Services Company.

Many Kurdish officials, businessmen, and ordinary people visited the exhibition hall, and a number of contracts were signed between the Italians and local businesses; however, the number and size of the bonds were less than what both the Italians and Kurds anticipated before the exhibition began.

Kurdistan Region's President Massoud Barzani also visited the fair on its fourth day, describing it as successful and hoping for more trade activities in Kurdistan Region.

The president asked foreign companies to invest in Kurdistan by bringing their technology and to participate in the reconstruction process in the region. He said that the main advantage of the Kurdish region that attracts foreign investors is the security and stability that the region enjoys.

The Italians appreciated the security and thanked Kurdish security officers for the protection that was provided to them.

The organizing company of the fair intends to arrange an even larger Italian Trade Fair in May 2008. Axis Fairs & Services secretary general, Dr. Angelo Caspani, believes the success of this fair will encourage a much greater number of Italian companies to participate in the May 2008 fair.

"We are here because as Italians we believe in this country of yours, in your desire for peace and your wish to work with Italy," Caspani said in the opening speech of the exhibition on Thursday, September 6, 2007. "Ours is not an act of courage, but an embrace for a people, a country that was the cradle of civilization, in which we believe and for which we have envisaged a bright future."

Many of the participating Italian companies decided to participate in future fairs in Kurdistan because, according to them, Kurdistan has the potential to be a good market for quality Italian products. They were happy to see the region developing rapidly and saw the fair as a step toward the participation of their country in the process.

"The fair is a good start and I hope it will be followed by other such fairs," said Perin Davis, owner and general manager of Peron S.R.L. Company. "I am ready to participate in future fairs since I believe in this region's development and the security here is very good for business."

There were different views about the fair from academics and businessmen. Some think that this is a good step to change Kurdistan from a market of the Chinese, Iranian, Turkish, and other low-quality products to a market of Italian and European high-quality products. They believe that bringing in high-quality products reduces the threat on the national wealth caused by Chinese products.

Still, others think that the prices of Italian products are unexpectedly high compared to what is currently available in the markets of Kurdistan and the income of the Kurdish people. In their view, though, the quality and the technology are very good and useful for today's Kurdistan, but they would hardly find a market in the region.

"This fair only makes us sad and nothing else," said Abdullah abdul-Qadir, a visitor at the fair, while watching a video on an LCD screen of how buildings are constructed in Italy. "The sad point is that when I look at their (Italian) technology and lifestyle, then I know how much we are lagging behind the Western world and how hard it is to reach them."

Italian Exhibition comes to an end | Iraq Updates

A Vital Oil Law for Iraqis

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Joshua Partlow's Sept. 5 article on the Iraqi oil law ["Missteps and Mistrust Mark the Push for Legislation"] mistakenly took issue with the U.S. effort to mediate among Iraqi leaders to achieve an agreement on a law to regulate the country's hydrocarbon sector.

First, the agreement within the Iraqi cabinet on the basic law in February was a major achievement. It is a requirement of the constitution. Moreover, all Iraqi factions said that an agreement on oil and gas revenue was an essential political condition for stabilizing the country. Only if all Iraqi communities knew that they would fairly benefit from these resources would they commit themselves to Iraq's new political order. The issue was fundamental to achieving a national compact.

Second, contrary to implications in the article, Kurdish leaders, including Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, endorsed the key provisions of the law governing control of resources and distribution of revenue.

Third, the law balanced federal and regional interests. It established a federal council -- with representation of the regions -- as the policymaking body for energy. It provided that revenue would go into a single national account and that regions and provinces would directly receive a share of revenue based on population.

Fourth, the article did not critically examine misplaced accusations that the oil law was designed to enable Americans to take control of these resources. Iraqi leaders themselves sought to enable international investment in this sector because they understood the inefficiency of Iraq's past statist and overcentralized policies.

The inability of the Iraqi parliament to complete this and related legislation on model oil contracts and other issues is an indication of how much is at stake and of the difficulty and importance of this legislation.

Achieving stability and prosperity will ultimately require Iraqi leaders to return to this draft law and the fundamentally sound bargain it contains.

ZALMAY KHALILZAD
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
New York

washingtonpost.com

Press Briefing by Tony Snow

September 12, 2007

Q Right. But at the national level and the benchmarks that everybody seems to have forgotten, the 18 benchmarks -- and now you're talking about Anbar, it's almost you're redefining success.

MR. SNOW: No. Look, benchmarks were something that Congress wanted to use as a metric --

Q You signed off on it.

MR. SNOW: -- and we're going to produce a report. But the fact is that the situation is bigger and more complex, and you need to look at the whole picture.

But let's talk about some pressure on the Iraqis. Number one, I've just talked about the fact that you've got these grassroots movements. Do you not think that people in Iraq, themselves, are putting pressure on the political system? My sense is that they probably are. Number two, the President has made it absolutely clear that he expects to see political progress, and he's made it clear to the Iraqis that within the American political system there is an insistence that the political factions within Iraq figure out how to get together on important pieces of legislation. Again --

Q But, Tony, he's done that for a long time, and there is no real significant political progress on the national level.

MR. SNOW: Well, actually -- General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker pointed out some interesting things that have been going on at the national level, without necessarily the enactment of national legislation. For instance, there's a lot of talk about the oil law, when do you come up with a hydrocarbon law. Well, it turns out the government has been redistributing oil and natural gas revenues to provinces --

Q It's really their only revenue, right?

MR. SNOW: Well, but they've been doing it. You're asking about --

Q At far lower levels than you wanted them to.

MR. SNOW: Look, they've started doing it sort of de facto. What we would like to see is an oil law passed. You have seen de facto de-Baathification. And the members -- lower levels of the Baath party have, in fact, been readmitted to civil society in other parts of Iraq. You have started to see a recognition that these matters of reconciliation have to take place. Do we want to see more political progress? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Q Are there any mechanisms, any sort of forcing -- anything new that the administration has planned to push the Iraqi government? Or is it just status quo, we're just doing the same thing, having the President call the Iraqi government and say, we want you to move?

MR. SNOW: There is constant communication, and they understand what our strong feelings are. The other thing, once again, is that -- it's pretty clear that very significant things are going on in Iraq, and that there has been real progress. And it is important now for the political figures to catch up with the progress. They seem to be a lagging indicator in some respects. And the President, the ambassador, the generals, people on the ground continue to provide pressure on the Iraqi government.

>>>>><<<<<<<<<

Q Tony, you said earlier that some of the benchmarks are not that important. Which specific benchmarks --

MR. SNOW: I'm going to have to go back -- there were a couple --

Q -- what were you referring to?

MR. SNOW: If you take a look at the report that was issued in July -- and I apologize, I did not look at it today -- there was one benchmark, for instance, that they said that would actually be harmful to meet this benchmark at that particular juncture. I'll go back and look through it. But there was an acknowledgment in the July report that a couple of the benchmarks didn't quite get at what you needed to. Look, I don't want to disparage benchmarks; they are an input. The question is whether they are sufficient, whether they give you a whole view of what's going on in Iraq, or do they provide a starting point for doing the debate. We think it's important to get all the inputs and all the information available.

Q Does the President also believe, like perhaps you do, that some of the benchmarks are not that important?

MR. SNOW: I didn't say that. I said, if you take a look at the report itself, it says that some of the benchmarks, at least at this juncture, are not entirely appropriate and do not necessarily measure. The President thinks these are -- look, these are a commitment we made. We made a commitment to take a look at the benchmarks. Were they the whole story in Iraq? No. Are they important for considering what's going on in Iraq? Yes. Would you limit your reporting to 18 questions that have been put together by Congress months ago? No. You would ask yourself, what are the full pictures?

So what you do is you start with the notional picture that's created by the benchmarks, and you move forward.



Complete article at:
Press Briefing by Tony Snow

Iraq issues tenders for international oil companies


MENAFN - 13/09/2007

(MENAFN) The Iraqi Oil Minister announced that Iraq will issue tenders to international oil companies to develop its oil fields regardless if awaited law to regulate its energy sector is further delayed, Iraq Directory reported.

He went on to add that the Iraqi government has given its approval to the country's draft law in July of the current year but has still not been discussed by the parliament.

It is worth mentioning that the postponement of the bill will not hamper plans for the development of the sector which accounts for more than ninety percent of the Iraqi government's revenues.

MENAFN - Middle East North Africa . Financial Network News: Iraq issues tenders for international oil companies

Finance Minister urges importance of finalizing Iraq's debts

MENAFN - 13/09/2007

MENAFN) The Iraqi Finance Minister emphasized the importance of completing the files of Iraq's debt and sending letters to the creditor nations that have still not settled the country's debts, Iraq Directory reported.

He also stated that by the end of December 2007, the calculation of interest on the debt of Iraq will be finalized and that over fifty-five credit states have resolved their debts in accordance with the terms of Paris Club.

It is worth mentioning that a meeting was held with the finance minister and directors the Land Bank to review the most important activities in their constituencies and the general manager of the Iraqi Fund was instructed to urge all efforts in coordination with the Foreign Ministry to collect Iraq's debts.

MENAFN - Middle East North Africa . Financial Network News: Finance Minister urges importance of finalizing Iraq's debts

Iraqi oil talks on verge of collapse

Conflict between Iraq and Kurdish North set backdrop

By James Glanz, The New York Times on 9/13/07

PrintEmail DoubleClick Any Word Page 1 of 1 BAGHDAD - A carefully constructed compromise on a draft law governing Iraq's rich oil fields, agreed to in February after months of arduous talks among Iraqi political groups, appears to have collapsed. The apparent breakdown comes just as Congress and the White House are struggling to find evidence that there is progress toward reconciliation and a functioning government here.

Senior Iraqi negotiators met in Baghdad yesterday in an attempt to salvage the original compromise, two participants said. But the meeting came against the backdrop of a public series of increasingly strident disagreements over the draft law that has broken out in recent days between Hussain al-Shahristani, the Iraqi minister of oil, and officials of the provincial government in the Kurdish north, where some of the nation's largest fields are located.

Al-Shahristani, a senior member of the Arab Shiite coalition that controls the federal government, negotiated the compromise with leaders of the Kurdish and Arab Sunni parties. But since then the Kurds have pressed forward with a regional version of the law that al-Shahristani insists, much to the irritation of the Kurds, is illegal.

Many of the Sunnis who supported the original deal have also pulled out in recent months.

The oil law is one of several crucial pieces of legislation and wider political agreement that the Bush administration has been pressing for to show progress toward creating a functioning government and healing the country's divide.

One of the participants in yesterday's meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, who has worked for much of the past year to push for the original compromise said some progress had been made at the meeting, but that he could not guarantee success.

"This has been like a roller coaster. There were occasions where we seemed to be there, where we seemed to have closure, only to fail at that," said Salih, who is Kurdish.

"Given the seriousness of the issue, I don't want to create false expectations, but I can say there is serious effort to bring this to closure," he said.

The legislation has already been presented to the Iraqi parliament, which has been unable to take virtually any action on it for months.

Contributing to the dispute over the draft law is the decision by the Kurds to begin signing development and service contracts with international oil companies before the federal law is passed. The most recent instance, announced last week on a Kurdish government Web site and first reported by The Wall Street Journal, was an oil exploration contract with the Hunt Oil Co. of Dallas.

The Sunni Arabs who removed their support for the deal did so, in part, because of a contract the Kurdish government signed earlier with a company based in the United Arab Emirates, Dana Gas, to develop gas reserves.

The Kurds maintain that their regional law is in fact consistent with the Iraqi Constitution, which grants substantial powers to the provinces to govern their own affairs. But al-Shahristani believes that a sort of Kurdish declaration of independence can be read into the move. "This to us indicates very serious lack of cooperation that makes many people wonder if they are really going to be working within the framework of the federal law," al-Shahristani said in a recent interview, before the Hunt deal was announced.

Kurdish officials dispute that contention, saying that they are doing their best to work within the constitution while waiting for the Iraqi parliament, which always seems to move at a slow pace, continues to consider the legislation.

"We reject what some parties say - that it is a step towards separation - because we have drafted the Kurdistan oil law depending on article 111 of the Iraqi constitution which says oil and natural resources are properties of Iraqi people," said Jamal Abdullah, spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government. "Both Iraqi and Kurdish oil laws depend on that article," Abdullah said.

The other crucial players are the Sunnis and Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki. The main Sunni party, Tawafuq, which insists on federal control of contracts and exclusive state ownership of the fields, bolted when it became convinced that the Kurds had no intention of following those set guidelines.

But the prime minister's office believes there is a simpler reason the Sunnis abandoned or at least held off the deal: Signing it would have given al-Maliki a success that they didn't want him to have.

"I think there is a political reason behind that delay in order not to see the Iraqi government achieve the real agreement," said Sadiq al-Rikabi, the senior political adviser to al-Maliki. Al-Rikabi was at yesterday's meeting.

Ali Baban, who as a senior member of Tawafuq negotiated the compromise, said that allegation was untrue. "I have a good relationship" with al-Maliki, Baban said.

"This is an issue of Iraqi unity," Baban said.

Al-Maliki has suggested returning to the original language agreed to in February and attempting once again to push the law through the parliament. Salih says that there is basic agreement on returning to that language, but conceded that Sunni participants in Wednesday's meeting might insist on a deal that includes changes to the Iraqi Constitution to safeguard their interests in the distribution of revenues.

A law on how the revenue should be shared is being developed as a critical companion piece of legislation to the draft law.

The central element of the compromise, known as the hydrocarbons law or more simply as the oil law, was agreed to in February after months of difficult negotiations among Iraq's political groups and was hailed as a sign of reconciliation in a country riven along ethnic, sectarian and regional lines.

The main parties in those negotiations were Iraqi Kurds, who were eager to begin signing contracts with international oil companies to develop their extensive northern fields; Arab Shiites, whose population is concentrated around the country's vast southern fields; and Arab Sunnis, with fewer oil resources.

Somehow negotiators managed to strike that balance, but soon after, the agreement began to unravel.

When the draft emerged from that council, the members of some parties, particularly the Kurdish ones, thought that the careful balance struck in the draft had been upset, and they accused al-Shahristani of meddling. Then the law languished in parliament and, said Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, the Kurds decided to send a signal that they would not wait indefinitely and they signed the contract with Dana Gas.

"It served as a reminder: 'If you keep stalling, life goes on,"' said Zebari, who is Kurdish.

- Ahmad Fadam, Ali Hamdani and Khalid al-Ansary and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed to this report.

Iraqi oil talks on verge of collapse - News

Marshall plan mention

Follow the Money
New York Sun Editorial
September 13, 2007



While the Democrats in the Congress were calling General Petraeus a liar for arguing that things were getting better in Iraq, one of our favorite publications — Grant's Interest Rate Observer — was circulating around town with a cover story called "Strongest currency, best bourse." It turns out that is in neither Switzerland nor Britain nor Japan nor America but Iraq, which, Grant's reports, "has turned into a capital magnet." Says it: "The only thing stronger than the Iraqi currency is the Baghdad stock market." And it adds this classic Grantian formulation: "Money is sometimes misinformed, but it is never insincere. Something is afoot in Iraq.
Grant's says it hasn't gotten to the bottom of what is afoot. "One could mention," it quotes its correspondant Ian McCulley as enumerating, "the country's healthy petrodollar harvest, the central bank's decision to use the exchange rate as a policy tool against inflation, the central bank's 20% overnight interest rate, the declining Iraqi inflation rate (to 30%, year over year, from last year's triple digits) or the simple fact that Iraq has one of the few floating currencies in the Gulf." But it notes that whatever the reason, the dinar has climbed to 1,235 to the dollar from 1,480 at the start of 2004. It says that on the Baghdad bourse, local investors anticipated the opening of the market to foreign capital in August by bidding the market up 58% in July.

Well, neither Grant's nor we would want to make too much of the Iraqi economic indicators. The whole stock market, Grant's notes, is capitalized at but $2 billion. It's a war situation and there can be a lot of distortions. But neither would we want to make too little of it. The key point is which way the arrow is pointing. As well as the potential, which is enormous. One of our favorite moments in the whole Iraq debate is when a broadcaster asked Ahmad Chalabi whether he thought Iraq needed another Karzai, a reference to the Afghanistan strongman. Replied Mr. Chalabi: "No, Iraq needs another Erhard," a reference to the Free German economist Ludwig Erhard, who, in 1948, moved to sound currency and set the stage for the West German economic miracle. Grants noted that the Guardian reported the other day, "There are some tentative signs of political reconciliation in Iraq." Concluded Grant's: "Maybe the smart money saw it coming."

Follow the Money - September 13, 2007 - The New York Sun