Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 06/05/09 - 04/09/09

Decline in sales of the Central Bank of the dollar

Sales of the Iraqi Central Bank auction of dollar at the dollar Tuesday after the Bank Mapall totaled 177,120,000 dollars at auction.

The bulletin stated the Agency has received the independent press (Iba) a copy of the price of the sale of remittances (1173) dinars to the dollar, including the central bank and a commission of $ (3) dinars per dollar and the cash sales price (1183) dinars to the dollar, including the central bank and a commission of $ (13) JD per dollar and the quantity sold for cash of $ (8,750,000) dollars and the amount of remittances (52,515,000) dollars.

The bulletin indicated that the price basis on which the successful bidder, selling 1170 dinars to the dollar and the number of banks to contribute to the auction (11) bank.

The central bank receive a commission of (13) dinars per dollar with a discount (8) JD from the amounts purchased.

http://209.85.227.132/translate_c?hl...RCOe1ABNlLjT_g

the absence of clear fiscal policy led to the loss of Iraq's wealth

Independent lawmaker Hussein al-Falluja, the absence of clearly defined financial policy based on sound scientific basis leading to waste of money and the loss of great wealth did not get it Iraq for tens of years.

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Shahristani: Iraq gets a 25 percent stake of the second round of licenses decades

Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani said that Iraq will get a stake of 25 percent of development projects, oil and gas fields that have been knocked down in the second round of the contracts of oil investment.

Shahristani said in a press statement Tuesday before the representatives of international energy companies in Istanbul that Iraq intends to propose new contracts for ten oil and gas fields this year.

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Dollar sales down to 138m on Wednesday

The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) dollar sales was down in its daily auction on Wednesday to reach $138.960 million compared to last session’s $$177.120 million.

“The demand hit $8.500 million in cash, covered by the bank at an exchange rate of 1,183 Iraqi dinars, and $130.460 million in foreign transfers outside the country, covered at an exchange rate of 1,173 Iraqi dinars per dollar,” according to a CBI news bulletin received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

None of the 17 banks that participated in today’s session offered to sell dollars.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=118058

Sorry if already posted.......

The oil ministry will ask the signing of granting non-refundable billion and $ 200 million

The manager of contracts and licensing department in the Ministry of Oil Abdul Mahdi al-Amidi, the ministry will request the signing of grant non-refundable total value amounted to one billion and 200 million dollars to award oil contracts in the second round of licenses.

Amidi and promotion during the conference to be held in Turkey and offered ten oil fields for companies, the granting of the signature would be $ 150 million for each of the fields east of Baghdad and Halfaya, Majnoon and West Qurna Phase II, the ministry will ask for $ 100 million in each of the fields remaining six grants Signed.

Amidi noted that the Government will invite all the companies that made offers in the first round to compete again on the same fields after the announcement of the amended terms of the tender.

http://209.85.227.132/translate_c?hl...Fi6j62myjmwzkA

Iraq Shiite leader Hakim dies in Tehran hospital

The leader of Iraq's largest Shiite party, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, died in a Tehran hospital on Wednesday aged 60 after a long battle with lung cancer, five months ahead of key parliamentary elections.

"He died a few minutes ago after battling cancer for 28 months," his son Mohsen Hakim told AFP. He and his brother Ammar had been at their father's bedside.

Hakim, a cleric who helped establish an opposition movement in exile in Iran in 1982 to battle Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime, returned to Iraq after the US-led invasion of 2003.

His Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council swept Shiite areas in first provincial elections after the invasion but in new elections this January the party suffered major losses to the rival list of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

"The body of the head of the SIIC will be transferred to Najaf and the details of the mourning ceremony will be announced in due course," Mohsen Hakim told Iran's Fars news agency, referring to the central Iraqi shrine city where Shiites from around the world are traditionally brought for burial.

The Iranian ISNA news agency said mourners will hold a funeral procession on Thursday at 9:00 am (0430 GMT) from Vali Asr Square in central Tehran to the Iraqi embassy. It did not say when the body would be transferred to Najaf.

Hakim, a former heavy smoker, was admitted to hospital on Saturday after he developed a "medical complication", the son told AFP on Monday.
The cleric, who had been in Tehran for treatment for more than four months, had undergone frequent medical check-ups in the Iranian capital in the past and even visited the United States to see lung cancer specialists.

"Mr. Hakim died in the hospital at 2:40 pm (1010 GMT)," Iranian state T.elevision quoted the head of the medical team treating him as saying. "The advanced stage of cancer had damaged his liver, brain and bones and because of that he died," added the doctor, whom the T.elevision identified only by his last name Masjidi.

A scion of one of the traditional leading families among Iraq's Shiite majority, Hakim took over the leadership of his party in August 2003 after his brother Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim was assassinated by a massive car bomb in Najaf.

He had previously served as deputy leader and head of the party's Badr Brigades military wing.

Their father, Grand Ayatollah Mohsen al-Hakim, was one of Shiite Islam's top spiritual leaders between 1955 and 1970.

But the family has had to contend not only with the rising influence among poorer Shiites of the radical movement of anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr but also with the increasing power of prime minister Maliki.

Hakim's death came just days after the premier confirmed he was breaking his alliance with the SIIC under which he fought the last parliamentary elections in 2005 and will go it alone in the next polls in January. The decision leaves the SIIC facing an uphill struggle to retain its power at the political centre contesting the elections with its remaining Shiite allies.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidAN...ran%20hospital

Hakim's son says ready to lead Iraq Shiite party

Ammar Hakim, the elder son of Iraqi Shiite leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim who died earlier on Wednesday from lung cancer, said he is ready to lead the influential party which his father headed if asked.

Hakim said the choice of a new leader for the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council will be made by the party's central council.

"It will meet and decide on this. I have no intention of nominating myself, but if I am asked to, then I will accept the council's decision," he told AFP.

The party was originally set up by Ammar's uncle Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim in Iran in 1982 as an opposition movement in exile to battle Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.

Abdel Aziz al-Hakim took over the party leadership in August 2003 after his brother was assassinated by a massive car bomb in the central Iraq shrine city of Najaf soon after their homecoming following the US-led invasion of March that year.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidAN...Shiite%20party

Amendments to economic laws - adviser

The process of amending a group of economic laws is underway, the Iraqi premier's adviser on economic affairs said Tuesday.

"The process aims at improving the Iraqi economy," Abdulhussein al-Anbaki told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

"The amendments will be submitted to the Iraqi parliament for approval," he said.

Al-Anbaki did not mention the timeframe set for the process.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZA...-%20adviser%20

25 August 2009

Army aims to stop flow of paper money to Iraq, Afghanistan

The United States hasn't gone cashless quite yet, but in Afghanistan and Iraq, that's the goal -- at least when it comes to the way the Army plans to conduct business there.

Brig. Gen. Phillip E. McGhee, director of Resource Management for U.S. Army Forces, U.S. Central Command, said by the beginning of the fiscal year, Oct. 1, the Army will go cashless in theater when writing up contracts with local vendors.

Instead of paying those it does business with in U.S. currency, the Army will pay the vendors via electronic funds transfer through the banks of Afghanistan or Iraq.

"What we are going to do effective Oct. 1, is we will write the contracts in U.S. dollars and they will be paid through the Iraqi and Afghan banking system in local currency -- that's huge," McGhee said, adding that by mid-August, the contracts will be written in local currency.

Today, the Army brings about $42 million in cash into theater each month. That's down from about $192 million in cash each month last year. Back in 2003, the Army brought in as much as $400 million a month in American currency.

"The reason you did it was because Iraq and Afghanistan didn't have banking systems that you could get money out of it, or do transfers," McGhee said. "So there was a necessity to have cash on the battlefield."

McGhee said the Army loaded those millions of dollars in currency onto pallets in the United States and flew it to Kuwait, where it was broken down for distribution into theater. At the lowest levels, money was handed out the back of mine resistant ambush protected vehicles to the contractors the Department of Defense did business with.

"We actually outfitted MRAPs as Wells Fargo/Brinks trucks and moved cash around the battlefield like that, because it is dangerous out there," McGhee said.

But as banking systems in Iraq and Afghanistan have matured, due to the efforts of the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Treasury and other nations, some banks in theater are now approved for business with the Army. And that means instead of bringing cash into theater, the Army can now deposit money into banks electronically and pay contractors via electronic funds transfer. And contractors can pay their own workers via funds transfer as well.

Less U.S. currency floating around, and more money moving through the banking systems to fill accounts, means less cost for the Army to do business in theater, reduced risk of providing cash to facilitate insurgent operations, and increased confidence in the local currency and banking system, McGhee said.

"When you're using U.S. dollars on the battlefield, there's George Washington, Hamilton, and Lincoln. That's not an Afghan face, that's a U.S. face on it," McGhee said. "Instead you have an Afghani and Dinar -- and now you start to build confidence in their currency and in their systems. That is what we are attempting to do."

Conducting business electronically also saves the Army money, McGhee said. Bringing cash into theater is expensive, due to the security risks involved and the cost of transportation. Spread out over the number of payments the Army currently makes, the cost of dealing in cash is about $32 dollars a payment.

"An electronic funds transfer costs us about $2.50," McGhee said, saying the move to EFT will save the Army about $20 million a year.

Electronic payments are also about safety. Insurgents like to work with paper money, McGhee said, especially American currency.

"You see on the news where they kick down doors, they pull weapons out, pull explosives out, and they pull U.S. currency out," McGhee said. "U.S. currency is the currency of choice for Al-Qaeda and insurgents because you can use those U.S. dollars anywhere in the world. We are reducing that source of funds for Al-Qaeda.

http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/08/25...q-afghanistan/

Ministry of Commerce: Iraq will play third round of negotiations to join the World Trade Organization

The Commerce Department reported that the National Commission on Iraq's accession to the WTO discussed a number of important items in preparation for display at the third round of negotiations which will be fought Iraq with the Organization in Geneva during the next few months.

The statement by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Commission on Iraq's accession to the WTO, which includes a number of concerned ministries held a meeting where the 27 examined a number of files necessary to be discussed with the WTO Secretariat in the next round of negotiations, Iraq due to be held in the next few months.

According to the statement, the participants at the meeting suggested that the National Commission has been accomplished until now more than a hundred out of 155 industry sectors in the areas of services in telecommunications, tourism and agricultural sector support and financial services, insurance, and the regulations for opening foreign banks in Iraq and services Transport and computer service and presented a paper prepared by the Commission subset included data-processing services, database and software services and research and development in the field of medical sciences and humanities in addition to the discussion of file services trade in goods and a substantive amendments that entered on this file.

It was also discussed during the meeting "amendments to laws and legislation on public health and plant health as well as agricultural support file (ACC 4) file as a major substantive and vital linked to agricultural policy formulation, where Iraq has been submitted to the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers to study it from all sides.

And at the same reviewed by the National Committee on legislation to join an item competent legislative plan, which summarizes the inter laws and draft laws submitted by Iraq in the areas of trade regulation, state-owned enterprises, Ministry of Industry and Minerals.

The discussions covered by the statement in one aspect Show Tickets and queries and the answers provided by Iraq in its negotiations with the delegations of States members of the Organization WTO was agreed during the meeting was also to send a copy of the plan to the legislative secretariat of the WTO.

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