Thread: Archive - Latest News Think Tank - 15/01/09 - 04/05/09

Ministries undersecretaries’ council discusses oil sector

Ministries undersecretaries’ council on Monday discussed oil sector in Iraq that was presented by the oil ministry’s undersecretary Ahmed al-Shamaa.

“Al-Shamaa submitted a study to the meeting, which considered legal, procedural and technical challenges that face the oil sector in Iraq,” said a release issued by the Iraqi cabinet and received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

“The meeting decided to summon a number of the oil ministry’s experts to discuss this issue through a number of sessions,” it added.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=112208

MP expects 50% deficit in 2009 budget

A member of the Iraqi parliament’s financial committee, Sami al-Attroshi, on Monday expected a deficit of 50 percent in the 2009 federal budget.

“The deficit will occur although oil prices are stable at $50 per barrel,” lawmaker al-Attroshi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

“We have a surplus from previous years that can be used to fulfill this year’s deficit, but we will have a problem in the coming years,” he added.

“The Iraqi government has been stressing not to use Iraq’s deposits at the Central bank even under deficit in budget,” he added.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=112215

Although the budget deficit, accompanied by a 93 the prime minister to the London Conference to invest in Iraq!!

Informed sources said that the Iraqi delegation will take part in the conference to be organized by the national investment in the British capital of London at the end of this month, consists of (93) personal headed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in addition to a number of ministers and members of the House of Representatives.

The source told the independent press (Iba) today, Sunday, was surprised at the number that will accompany the prime minister to the above-mentioned conference, noting that he was supposed to be limited to VIP direct relationship with the subject, referring to the volume of expenditure borne by the State budget to the delegation of this size, which may expenses up to the figures in imaginary time with the budget deficit and a clear and declared, which requires moving away from nepotism, and ties in the composition of the delegation or any other delegation.

Meanwhile, another source said, did not disclose the name of the considerations regarding the possible reactions from government (as saying) that the government is supposed such a conference was held in Iraq for the purpose of the participation of the largest number of Iraqi authorities are also to be briefed by the companies and foreign investors on the situation in Iraq on the ground reality.

However, the source said may have been lack of or weak logistical support for the convening of such a conference in Baghdad, the result of the lack of hotels and other facilities to receive adequate numbers can be found at the conference is what led the government to consider the holding of Alemtemr outside Iraq.

He explained that the conference is regulated to activate the investment process in Iraq and being a "timid steps" (as described) as a result of deficiencies in the investment law, and revealed the existence of the proposals in the House of Representatives amendments to the law on an investment for the companies urged to invest in Iraq.

The British Department for International Development had earlier said it would support an international conference organized by the Iraqi National Investment Authority, in London in this April 30 to promote investment and trade in Iraq, noting that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to take part in the conference at the head of a delegation of ministers and senior officials in the Government along with more than 100 British and international companies.

The International Conference will provide information on the major sectors available to the foreign direct investment and other investment opportunities in Iraq, and seeks to establish joint projects between British and Iraqi companies and international levels.

According to the ministry, "said the London Conference of 2009 to invest in Iraq, will highlight the recent positive changes," including improved security environment and its impact in opening new horizons for investments in Iraq, which indicated that it represented a huge opportunity for investment and international trade because it contains abundant natural sources of .

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Investment Authority in Iraq, Dr. Sami Al-Araji earlier that the London Conference will be held sponsored by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in collaboration with the Ministries of Industry and British investment, pointing out that the London conference aims to attract European investors to Iraq, He said: "The conference aims to open up the prospects for investment in Iraq to the European countries and we draw upon in order to achieve the deployment of location-mails on the topics of the campaign and also during the London Conference. We will, in any case, the announcement of the investment opportunities of Baghdad, but we will promote it in various world capitals ".

The Sunni call for businessmen and investors from the Iraqis to participate in the London conference, which will be held at the Hotel "London's Mark."

http://209.85.229.132/translate_c?hl...54GhYptP9yvdKg

Finance ministry holds conference on banks

The Iraqi Ministry of Finance on Monday held a conference to discuss the banking sector and the troubles and obstacles facing banks in Iraq.

“The conference was attended by the finance minister, Bayan Jabor,” said a media source from the ministry.

“Foundations and mechanisms that will be adopted by Iraqi banks to deal with Arab and foreign counterparts were discussed during the conference,” he said.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=112220

International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund is a global organization has to support developing countries and poor as well as the States affected by the financial and economic crises faced by the developing countries with regard to their support, they adopt in accordance with the requirements that would bug these countries undertaking economic reforms and a specific financial obligation and that is what was introduced a year after Iraq 2003 to enter into a silo in the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, his brother in order to receive support for a particular itinerary Istnhi the Iraqi economy, which just came out of the walls of the economy, according to the totalitarian-oriented ready-made prescriptions adopted by the Coalition Provisional Authority in a timely manner and continued by successive governments in transition until the current elected government.

Monetary Fund and the development of a set of conditions for Iraq is raising government support for specific paragraphs Kalptaqp supply and oil derivatives, and other operating expenses and the trend of investment and private sector development and the pathways in these conditions as is the reality of the situation was confused and the problems they were confronted with many difficulties in the spread of financial and administrative corruption in the institutions the Iraqi state, Iraq was not implemented during the past six years, however, very little although it has worked the International Monetary Fund to reduce the debt to the Paris Club and by 80%, and signed many agreements in accordance with the terms of grants and soft loans, aid and praised with the procedures adopted by the Government in dealing with budgets, particularly investment by its repeated and monetary policy was praised by experts and, despite what

The scene encapsulates the economic stagnation and outright recession by a combination of factors may have several implications may be in the forefront of violence and terrorism, as well as the political reality that is reflected on the economic and other factors related to the imbalances affecting the national economy and the adoption of the principle already ready-made prescriptions according to IMF conditionality, where as much as men have positive repercussions in the reduction of debt had a negative impact not get rid of the Iraqi economy and oil Tnith productive sectors do not, mind you, not the performance of the private sector, there was no coordination between monetary and fiscal policies at a time requires the existence of government support of broad sectors of the population because of the high indicators of poverty, unemployment and low the standard of living of these groups and the relative improvement of the simple and low-income people in particular categories of staff felt that returns were not high salaries because of rising prices, particularly commodities and goods of daily use, but nevertheless we can say that we can not deal with the conditions of Iraq, the International Monetary Fund is the biggest impediment openness the economy and relieving stagnation and Khmulh, but its impact was not equivalent to structural problems that afflict the Iraqi economy.

http://209.85.229.132/translate_c?hl...WYzdpEyfBtG94w

Trade is a plan to activate the central market

Said Under Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce Soibp Mahmoud had been a plan in order to create a central market to respond to any action may be taken to the next period both at the level of investment and privatization, or, perhaps, of the face leaving the State of the ration-card system.

Mahmoud said in a press release by Radio Dijla directions that the plan will serve as our investment markets to offer more to the aesthetic of the companies which had invested.

He added that there is a problem facing the ministry, a large numbers of workers in the markets in which more than seven thousand, many of whom became an associate member in need of rehabilitation and development of courses. She pointed out that most companies are the companies marketing department, indicating that it is not productive, it needs radical reform to raise the levels of and configured in terms of marketing, whether by car or construction, or supermarkets.

http://209.85.229.132/translate_c?hl...88DY0OWIMQzsnA

The agents of the ministries to discuss issues of oil, the e-Government

Council discussed the ministries and agents of the national strategy for the management of electronic ", sponsored by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Communications and the subject of Amir Al-Bayati," a study on the effect of oil in Iraq, "submitted by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil Ahmed Schamma.

Amir Al-Bayati and vulnerability due to the absence of the productive system in the electronic management of Iraq in the light of the global financial crisis that revealed the weakness of the departments and the impact of the crisis in the processor, the agent pointed out the existence of a relationship between the level of the membership applications of electronic management and increasing rates of corruption in a number of States than Iraq and the extent of impact on the low productivity of the staff member said.

After a number of the following agents and present a paper on this work, pointing to the importance of the subject and the need to intensify the government's efforts in this area, the Secretary-General stressed the importance of coordination between ministries and relevant bodies, in particular, and a committee reviewed the work of the Legal Service of the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, adding to complete the draft Law on electronic signature and electronic transactions, and reviewed his part, Mr. Samir Al-Attar, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Committee's work the problem by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the ceiling to create the foundations of time-electronic applications in the ministries and preparing for the next generation, stressing that the matter is a significant and sustained can not be judged by the full achievement in any period that there was done in an integrated way of highlighting the problems and the same time, financial and legal constraints and the level of interaction of some ministries to adopt the proposals and amendments required to build the foundations of the infrastructure project.

On the other hand, Mr. Ahmed Al Schamma Deputy Minister of Oil, a study on the effect oil exploration and production in Iraq and the challenges of legal, procedural and technical obsolescence of the system as required by the quarrying and the next phase of the increase in the production and updating of work, responding to a number of questions about oil and the level of investment challenges ahead as well as on the level of production of gas and cause less attention to it, and in the end of the meeting proposed by the Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers to call a number of specialists in the ministry to discuss this sector because of the size and depth of questions referring to the importance of requiring the allocation of several sessions rather than one meeting to determine the nodes of the ills and to reach conclusions that would develop this sector.

http://209.85.229.132/translate_c?hl...RfIrp5YFayqToA

Iraq mulls disbanding National Security Council

The Iraqi government is considering dissolving the National Security Council, which a senior MP said had 20 times the maximum number of employees permitted under its charter.

"The number of employees working at the National Security Council has reached 426, while CPA Order 68 limits the number to 20," Sadrist MP Bahaa al-Araji, the head of parliament's legal affairs committee, told AFP on Monday.

The Coalition Provisional Authority, headed by US diplomat Paul Bremer, governed Iraq in the first year after the 2003 invasion and created the NSC in April 2004.

Araji said the Iraqi cabinet on Thursday "voted unanimously to cancel Bremer's Order 68, which established the National Security Council, and I think parliament will confirm this decision.

"In any case, after the end of May there is no operating budget for this council," he added.

There was no record of any discussion about the council's future in the minutes of the cabinet meetings published each week.

An official in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office said it was a "very sensitive issue so nothing has been published but the decision to dissolve the council has been taken."

A senior national security official said the government wants to replace the orders issued by Bremer with new laws but said the "real debate" would take place in parliament.

The council is currently headed by Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a Shiite doctor who led negotiations with Washington over a landmark security pact signed in November that requires all US troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Rubaie has a five-year term in his position as national security adviser and cannot be removed except in case of abuse of authority or bribery. He declined to comment on the cabinet's discussions.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidAN...rity%20Council

Oil export ban costs Iraq dearly, Kurds say
Iraqi oil ministry still seen as a major barrier for export of oil.

Iraq, hungry for investment after six long years of war, is losing millions of dollars a day due to Baghdad's refusal to permit the Kurdish north to export oil, a top official in the largely autonomous region told Reuters. Iraq is losing millions and millions of dollars a day. We lost several billion dollars last year by not exporting from Kurdistan, Ashti Hawrami, Iraqi Kurdistan's natural resources minister, said in an interview.

Who is responsible for that? Not us. We are ready for that oil to be exported, he said.

Iraq, where insurgent attacks persist even as U.S. and Iraqi officials hail a falling sectarian bloodshed from the dark days of 2006-07, is struggling to boost oil output and clinch deals with major global firms to develop its massive reserves. But a dispute over where Kurdistan's boundaries lie is at the heart of ominous strains between Arbil and the government of Shi'te Arab Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad. As Kurds complain of what they see as Maliki's increasingly authoritarian ways, some fear the rift could undermine Iraq's growing security. Especially sensitive is a Kurdish quest for control of disputed areas like the strategic oil city of Kirkuk. The Iraqi Oil Ministry has repeatedly condemned oil contracts Kurdistan has signed with foreign companies as illegal, pitting Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani against Hawrami in a public war of wills.

'World class reserves'
Hawrami, from his residence in the town of Masif Salahuddin, perched on a hilltop outside the Kurdish capital Arbil, spoke of mismanagement and flawed strategy in Shahristani's steps to reinvent an underperfoming oil sector and make new deals. Iraqi output is 2.3-2.4 million barrels per day, below what it was before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

On principle, Baghdad has spurned production-sharing deals investors prefer as it seeks long-term oil and gas deals. Hawrami called that impractical and inefficient - a failed model. It is a dogma-driven process, this nationalistic approach ? It's done for political reasons. Once you politicize the contracts you're asking for trouble. You're asking for reduction of state revenue and you frighten the contractors, he said.

Hawrami had an indignant response to Shahristani's suggestion in a recent interview that partners in Kurdish deals, like DNO International of Norway, were. They are professionals with excellent track records, but even if they are fourth rate or fifth rate companies as the ministry of oil may wish to label them, they have discovered world class reserves, first class operations, at the minimum cost possible. There are few signs Baghdad is poised to end a long-running spat and let Kurdistan export oil through a national pipeline.

Hawrami said Shahristani reneged on promises last year to do so. Shahristani has said Kurdistan is holding back its own oil. Such rancor bodes poorly for hopes for a swift end to Kurds' and Arabs' long impasse over a national oil law, needed to ease investors' concerns about hunkering down billions of dollars in an unproven democracy still mired in violence. It may be even harder to render tough concessions as politicians of all stripes look to December's national polls. I'm not very optimistic at the moment,» Hawrami said.

The need to leverage Iraq's oil resources becomes all the more urgent as the government, which relies on oil for more than 95 percent of its revenue, gr*****s with low oil prices. The drop from a record of $147 a barrel last year to near $50 threatens plans to buy weapons, build schools, pave roads and much more.

We need to rebuild the country now - this year, not next year ... We wasted all that time and should not waste any more.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZA...%20Kurds%20say

Afternoon seaview, thanks for the efforts. Looks like overall, the rumors are much ado about nothing. Iraq still cannot get her act together, corruption is rampanat (as usual), Kurds not happy (need Oil exports, well go figure), more bombers on the streets.. Can you see where I am going? We discussed a while back (a year or so I am sure) that this thing has gone on so long, speculation being so large, that we may not see anything out of the IQD but a small bump. I would rejoice at 100 to 1..But I fear that may not come for years. Yeppers, I am a bit negative these days, but the Mrs. won't talk about cashing out. So on we go, hope against hope that something good comes our way. I know we all appreciate your consistent posting..