Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 01/01/08 - 14/04/08

MP: Ministry's stance on Kurdistan's oil contracts politically motivated

A Kurdistan Coalition (KC) parliamentarian said on Saturday that the oil ministry's decision to ban corporations that have signed contracts with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from investing in Iraq is a form of "political pressure."

"The oil ministry's repeated threats to prevent these companies from investment in Iraq are politically motivated," Abdul Khaleq Zankana told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Describing the ministry's handling of the situation as improper, Zankana called for resolving the issue through dialogue.

"The KRG's contracts with the foreign companies were made in accordance with the constitution," he explained, adding that all differences with the central government should be resolved by the federal court, not by means of threats.

An official spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of oil, Aasem Jihad, said in statements to VOI on Friday that the ministry had invited foreign corporations to invest in the oil field in all Iraqi provinces, including those in the Kurdistan region and in Kirkuk, but excluded the companies that have signed contracts with the region without a prior approval from the ministry.

The region had signed 15 contracts with 20 foreign oil corporations despite the central government's objection and ahead of the Iraqi parliament's final endorsement of a new draft law on oil.

Parliamentary debates on the draft oil & gas law were postponed more than once despite strong pressure from the United States on Iraqi parliamentary bloc leaders to accelerate a new law.

Aswat Aliraq

KC to call for changing oil minister – legislator

A Kurdish legislator in the Iraqi parliament said on Saturday that it would be hard to find solutions to oil-related problems between the Iraqi Kurdistan region and the central government as long as Hussein al-Shahrestani remains as oil minister.

"The Kurdistan Coalition (KC) will have to call for changing Shahrestani if he insists on his position," Hussein Blu told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Blu, whose KC is the second largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament with 55 out of a total 275 seats, criticized Shahrestani's statements pertaining to oil contracts signed by the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region's government with foreign oil corporations.

"Shahrestani's statements only expressed his personal viewpoint and as long as he remains in the oil ministry it would be impossible to reach an agreement on the oil law and its relevant issues," said Blu.

On Friday a spokesman for the oil ministry said the ministry invited foreign corporations to invest in the oil field in all Iraqi provinces including those of Iraqi Kurdistan region and Kirkuk but excluded the companies that have signed contracts with the region without prior approval by the ministry.

"The oil ministry would not allow international corporations that already signed oil contracts with the government of Iraqi Kurdistan to invest in Iraq," Aasem Jihad told VOI.

The Iraqi oil ministry objects the autonomous Kurdistan region's signing of contracts with foreign companies to prospect for, produce and export oil without referring to the central government in Baghdad.

The region had signed 15 contracts with 20 foreign oil corporations in defiance of the central government's objection and ahead of the Iraqi parliament's final endorsement of a new draft law on oil.

Parliamentary debates on the oil & gas draft were postponed more than once despite strong pressures practiced by the United States on the leaders of Iraqi parliamentary blocs to accelerate a new law. The postponement was due to differences among the political powers over some items.

The draft, adopted by the Iraqi cabinet since late February 2007, provides for distribution of oil revenues to Iraqi provinces based on the rate of population.

It also would open the door before foreign investments in the domain of oil and gas prospecting, production and export in Iraq, a country rated by specialized international agencies to have one of the largest reserves in the world.

Aswat Aliraq

Maliki calls for wider political cooperation

In a step that might lead to a political rest in Iraq and contribute to the return of resigned ministers to the government, Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki received a joint delegation from the Accordance Front and the Iraqi List to whom he confirmed the necessity of widening cooperation between all political parties in order to support the political process and push it on the path of national targets. Al Maliki added that the government is deploying utmost efforts to boost the political process in light of security achievements that have been attained so far in addition to projects and plans set forth to rebuild and reconstruct Iraq in the coming period time.

He noted as well that the government is working to upgrade Iraq’s economy and raise the living standards of the Iraqi people.

For its part, the joint delegation of the Accordance Front and the Iraqi National List has affirmed that the visit aims to check on Al Maliki’s health condition and reiterate support to the government.

As for the national reconciliation process, Sheikh Khalaf Al Ubaidi called to achieve it according to appropriate national grounds.

Accordance Front Ministers have submitted their resignation on August 1 2007 after a month of differences following the withdrawal of the six Sadrist ministers and the Iraqi List ministers.

For his part, Sayyed Ammar Al Hakim called for a comprehensive participation of all parties in the political process. Al Hakim called in his Friday prayer in Baratha Mosque all political blocs to be more flexible in their demands stressing the importance of referring to the Constitution to resolve pending issues. Al Hakim called on Accordance Front and the Iraqi List to return to government while urging the government to take appropriate measures for the return of Al Fadhila Party and the Sadrist Bloc. Al Hakim called on lawmakers to work hard in order to accelerate the ratification of projects.

Alsumaria Iraqi Satellite TV Network | Iraq News | Maliki calls for wider political cooperation

Bush: US could stay up to 10 years in Iraq

US President George W. Bush announced that the United States would have a long-term presence in Iraq that could last a decade, however it would be at the request of the Iraqi Government. In an interview with NBC News, Bush was asked about recent statements by Senator John McCain saying that it would be fine with him to have a U.S. military presence in Iraq for 100 years. "That's a long time," Bush replied, adding that there could be a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq at the invitation of the government in Baghdad.

Alsumaria Iraqi Satellite TV Network | Iraq News | Bush: US could stay up to 10 years in Iraq

US prepares to hand over Iraq Anbar security

US Forces announced that they might transfer security command in Anbar Province to Iraqi Forces within the deadline of March or April. US Forces spokesman Admiral Gregory Smith affirmed that specifying the timetable to take over security goes back to Iraqi authorities.

Meanwhile, Diyala operations chief Brigadier Abdul Karim Al Rubaie announced that US and Iraqi Forces have regained command of six villages near Miqdadiya that were under Al Qaeda control. 10 Al Qaeda militants were killed during the operation. Brigadier Al Rubaie affirmed as well that 10 others were arrested without specifying the death toll among Iraqi and US Forces.

Alsumaria Iraqi Satellite TV Network | Iraq News | US prepares to hand over Iraq Anbar security

I'm confused by this one. One minute there pumping oil, then there not, then they are, then there not.......???

Iraq halts pumping crude oil to Turkey

A naval source said today that Iraq stopped pumping Kirkuk crude oil thru northern pipelines towards Turkey yesterday. The reason of the halt wasn’t revealed. One should note that the pumping was resumed one day ahead of the sudden stop.

To that, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler told CNN Turk TV that Turkey will help the United States to manage and transport Iraqi oil in the framework of its endeavors to become an energy center. Hilmi Guler had visited the USA this week with the Turkish President Abdullah Gul in order to hold talks that were centered on energy issues.

Alsumaria Iraqi Satellite TV Network | Economics News | Iraq halts pumping crude oil to Turkey

Zain Iraq implements one network service between 5 Arab countries

General Manager of Zain Iraq telecommunication company Ali Al Dahwi announced that the company is working on assuring communication on all the border passages after it unified MTC Atheer and Iraqna operating systems. In addition, it implemented the project of the one network service between Iraq, Jordan, KSA, Bahrain and Kuwait and averted being submitted to international mobile taxes costs. The General Manager stressed that the customers of both companies MTC Atheer and Iraqna will not need to change their mobiles or SIM cards during change process to the new slogan which is Zain Iraq.

Alsumaria Iraqi Satellite TV Network | Economics News | Zain Iraq implements one network service between 5 Arab countries

Iraq picks 3 firms for cement joint ventures

Iraq awarded production sharing deals to renovate three of its largest state-owned cement firms in the first such joint venture deals with private and foreign investors, a senior industry official said on Friday.

Three Iraqi-led consortiums -- out of 8 that bid -- backed by Romanian Uzein Export-Import, Lebanon's Seament and Germany's KHD won the 15-year contract to upgrade the cement factories in Samawa in the southern Muthanna region, Kirkuk in the north and al-Qaim near the Syrian border in western Anbar province.

Adel Karem, deputy minister of Industry and Minerals, said the three firms had accepted production sharing terms of 30 to 45 percent of their plant's output free of charge to the government after a 3-year rehabilitation plan to brings back capacity to 1.8 million tonnes annually for each plant.

Karem estimated that every firm would be investing around $150 million to revamp their factories, working at 20 percent capacity due to to lack of parts and electricity shortages.

France's Lafarge bid for the fourth plant near the city of Kerbala was rejected after its 12 percent production sharing offer was considered far too low, officials said.

"The offers were below expectations so we will again offer Kerbala to get the best offer," Karem told Reuters in Amman.

Iraq had been working for the past three years to bring foreign investors to invest as much as $2 billion in its cement factories but political interference and instability has delayed the effort, Karem said.

The current Iraqi cement industry's total production, that includes 17 factories, is between 4-5 million tonnes annually, a fraction of its capacity of 25 million tonnes annually, the head of the Iraqi Cement State Company, Salam Ibrahim, told Reuters.

Before the 2003 invasion, Iraq produced around 10 million tonnes annually of cement, also well below capacity due to decade long economic sanctions.

Sanctions, which brought industries from petrochemicals to construction set up under Iraq's former command economy to a standstill, worsened after the war by electricity shortages and rampant corruption, officials privately say.

Currently Iraq imports around 6 million tonnes annually of cement from neighbouring Syria and Lebanon to cover consumption, Ibrahim added.

The joint venture scheme is a reversal of an earlier U.S. backed policy to pursue an aggressive privatisation that would have offered the 240 public enterprises for sale to foreign investors. These businesses operate with a subsidy and investors would have to keep on a bloated workforce.

Karem said the three cement deals would help jumpstart an ambitious multi-billion dollar plan to open the other state-owned enterprises to joint ventures with international investors in 2008.

"This will allow us to proceed ahead with the other cement firms and then move to other industries to allow us to rehabilitate our chemical and fertiliser industries to accelerate reconstruction efforts," Karem added.

This includes renovating and expanding a chemical plant in Basra in which preliminary talks had begun with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Dow Chemical Co, he added.

For decades before the 2003 invasion, oil-rich Iraq had invested billions of dollars to set up a massive industrial base that once made it a major regional economic powerhouse.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=5329

Micro-grants improving Iraq's economy

Micro-grants distributed by the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Teams are helping reconstruct Iraqi's economy amid improved security.

Micro-grants provide businesses in Iraq a way to get re-established or provide entrepreneurs an opportunity to improve local economies as the security situation improves, the American Forces Press Service said.

Lou Lantner with the Mahmudiyah Provincial Reconstruction Team told journalists his PRT awarded 128 micro-grants in the region. He said he may award up to $2,500 to individuals to open, or reopen, a variety of businesses.

"Even if they have no possessions and all their equipment is gone, for a small amount … we can get them back (in business)," Lantner said.

The Mahmudiyah PRT works with the regional Concerned Local Citizens' group to help establish security in the region to allow the economy to recover more effectively.

"We are finding people who are talented, who can contribute, and who want to contribute, because now the security is at a point where they feel somewhat safe," Lantner said.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=5324

Economic boost gives hope to Iraqis
House prices on the up and increased banking business are not readily associated with Iraq. Yet as Humphrey Hawksley reports, there are entrepreneurs who see good times in the horizon.

"This is the entrance hall," said Naimah Abdul Jabbah, throwing open a huge pair of wooden double doors.

"How much?", I asked.

"$1m. Maybe some negotiation. But $1m, I reckon."

He turned to my interpreter to confirm the dollar exchange rate to the dinar, because in recent months Iraq's currency has been creeping up in value.

Business playground

Naimah, in his early 40s, is a leading Iraqi estate agent.

He took over the business from his father and talks of the glory days of the 1980s when Iraq dreamt of becoming a business centre and a playground of the Middle East.

He now sees a glimpse of the good times coming back again.

We were in a large detached house in a fashionable Baghdad suburb, standing under a dust-caked chandelier and next to floor-to-ceiling windows with the top half blocked out in case of a rocket attack or bombing.

"Since the drop in violence," I asked "how much have prices gone up?"

Dubai prices

"10%-12%."

He reached for his ringing mobile phone and switched to Arabic.

"I'm with some people now, but I can make it at 1300," he said, fixing up his next meeting.

Then, he picked up where we left off, "I'm told our prices are reaching those in Dubai."

"But they don't get bombed in Dubai."

"I know," he said amid peels of laughter.

"But Iraq, it's a beautiful place. Many people want to be here."

Just over a year ago, President George W Bush confounded his Iraq war critics by sending more troops to the country, instead of withdrawing them as much of America was demanding.

The plan is called the "surge" and in the past few months, its impact is being felt.

US and newly-trained Iraqi troops go into neighbourhoods, drive out insurgents, stay there, win round the local people and begin development programmes.

It is not all working. Bombers slip through.

There are daily killings. This is a country still very much at war.
But amid it, many Iraqis have a new spring in their step.

Buoyant prices

Buoyant property prices might be one result, just as the jumping, bustling shopping streets in central Baghdad are another - often so packed that you have to jostle your way through, past clothes stalls, shops of electronic gadgets and trolleys brimming with bright, fresh fruit.

Some of those oranges, bananas, apricots and *****s find their way into the window display of the MeshMesha fruit juice and pastry bar run by Ahmed Sabah and his extended family.

Young nephews and cousins, dressed in smart, orange, sports shirts with the MeshMesha logo - which actually means Apricot - blend delicious drinks of fresh fruit for a steady stream of customers - Sunni, Shia, Kurds, Christians.

No-one seems to care as they sit at minimalist tables watching the world go by.

"When it's safe outside, of course business is better," said Ahmed.

"I have four branches - one we've had to close because it was in a violent neighbourhood, but once the war is over we can spread the chain throughout Iraq."

The MeshMesha chain supports five families that between them are raising 25 children still at school and it employs a couple of dozen of its youngsters in the fruit juice bars.

Return of the ATM?

Without work and a sense of the future, many young men head off to join a militia.

"Your money," I asked. "Do you keep it in cash, put it in the bank? How does that work?"

"In a bank," said Ahmed. "And we exchange some into US dollars."

One of Iraq's biggest private banks has a luxuriously designed office above the Baghdad Stock Exchange and I asked a senior executive how business was now compared to those glory days of the 1980s that Naimah, the estate agent, had spoken about.

"People didn't trust the banks, then," said the financier Mohammed Issa.

His accent was East Coast American and he wore a brown suit with a brightly coloured open-necked shirt.

He would have a panoramic view across Baghdad except the window was blocked by glass cabinets with ornamental displays - again to shield against a bomb attack.

"We had, maybe 4,000 clients under Saddam. Now we have 50,000," he explained.

"We've just set up Internet banking so our customers don't have to risk getting bombed by going to a branch.". He paused for a moment. "Yes, once the war's over, we'll have our ATM machines throughout the country."

Check-point fear

In the afternoon we were driving back to the office past what we thought was a routine check-point.

A van had been stopped.

Men in military uniforms waved guns holding open the vehicle's sliding door.

People were shouting. The expression of those in the van were of anger, anxiety and fear.

"What's happening there?" I asked our interpreter.

"I don't know." He shrugged. "It looks like the army, but I think it's a militia."

"What might happen to them."

"I don't know," he said sombrely.

There are glimpses of hope in Iraq, but at the moment only glimpses.

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