Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

Originally Posted by RollsRoyce

Fourth: . . . My opinion is that they think the Currency value issue is *finis*. . .

Does that mean its finished and done and will revalue, or that it is finished as in DONE and no revalue to come?


edit... never mind.. i see you said Finish as in "YES!" it is GOOD.

Behind all the violence, some signs of progress
By Linda Robinson

Posted Sunday, November 5, 2006

Samir Sumaidaie, Iraq's ambassador to the United States, is under no illusions about the difficulty of achieving peace in his country. His deputy chief of mission has lost three nephews to the violence engulfing the country-two of them killed by Shiite militia members when they went to a Baghdad hospital to retrieve wounded neighbors, the third by Sunni insurgents while visiting a cemetery to mourn one of the dead. "Extremists have a way of finding reasons to continue fighting," says the gray-haired engineer, who was ambassador to the United Nations before coming to Washington last April. But he has not lost hope.

Obscured by the reports of spiraling violence and the latest contretemps between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. officials is the surprising fact that the Iraqi government itself has laid out a timeline for dealing with the most contentious issues tearing the country apart. Achieving a timeline is not the same thing as reaching substantive agreement on solutions, but it may provide the kickstart for a last-ditch attempt to avoid fullblown civil war-and if deadlines matter, it is a measuring stick of the Iraqis' own making.

"Outlaws." Two months ago, the Political Council for National Security-which includes the prime minister, the president and vice presidents, the head of parliament, and their deputies-agreed on 15 items to be accomplished between September 2006 and March 2007, ending with a referendum on constitutional amendments. The timetable has already slipped by a month, but they have made progress on two key items: The parliament passed a foreign investment law last month and is debating legislation on how the oil industry will be run and profits divided among the Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish populations. Sumaidaie expects the measure to pass this month. The next item is revising the de-Baathification process that drove many former regime bureaucrats and soldiers into the insurgency rather than offering them incentives to support the new government.

By all accounts, the toughest items on the agenda are those slated for December, when a law offering amnesty to Sunni and Baathist insurgents and demobilizing militias is supposed to be passed. A U.S. defense intelligence official with long experience in Iraq seriously doubts whether Iraq's Shiite-majority government will offer a genuine olive branch to Sunni insurgents, whom it deeply mistrusts, or defang the Shiite militias that, to many senior Iraqi officials, are the clearest means for ensuring Shiite dominance over Iraq. He points to the fate of Iraq's 8th Division general who dared to confront the powerful Shiite militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the city of Diwaniya: A Sadr official was appointed to investigate him. And, the U.S. official warns, "Without really reaching out to the former regime members who are in Damascus supplying guidance to the insurgency groups and having a real amnesty ... this is not going anywhere."

Maliki, says Sumaidaie, wants to pursue a "holistic" approach against the militias, which are made up of criminals, political figures, and unemployed youths, a strategy "based on peeling all these layers off one at a time." He cites Sadr's recent public denunciation of specific "outlaw" militia leaders as "an important step toward breaking the problem up into manageable chunks." Ultimately, Sumaidaie says, "the question must be put to Moqtada [al-]Sadr, 'What kind of Iraq do you want ... a divided country ruled by warlords [or] a thriving country?'"

This story appears in the November 13, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report

USNews.com: Looking for Light in Iraq

Question? Do we know what these 15 items are?

Cheers!
DayDream

Now I took Spanish in school.....but isn't that pronounced "finee"...like Italian or French for finished?

You beat me RR! lol!

05 November 2006 (Al-Sabaah)

Ambassador of European Commission in Baghdad Alca Callow stressed on importance of holdingdualdealings with European States and showed the will of these states to open up to Iraq and widening fieldsof cooperation during his meeting with Trade Minister Dr Falah Hassan, said Spokesman of the Ministry to Alsabah.

On the other hand Dr Hassan renew Iraq's wish to cooperate with European Commission to benefit from advanced experiences of its states and investing it to build workforces abilities.

Europe to open up to Iraq in all fields | Iraq Updates

Originally Posted by www.xealthy.com

to Admin and all other members:

I sometimes get and Eyeball icon on my screen. Not all the time but, when I do I can pull up a record and the Report show Troy Bank (one of Rolclub Advertisers - sorry) Just giving information. I have a pretty good AV package, So from now on when my spyware comes on - I am loggin off. Just letting you know when I see it, that means they are watching- whoever THEY ARE!!!!!!! hummmmmmm


Maybe Merik can look into this for us.

Eyeball? LOL Down by the taskbar? It's just letting you know that the site is serving you a cookie.

05 November 2006 (Al-Sabaah)
Hassan Sarii, state minister for marshes' affairs has said that minister's council has allocated 151 million dollars for two years to develop marshes projects, adding that these projects will be started with charging of prime minister and include rebuilding infrastructure, building health care and educational facilities and providing drinkable water and electricity from one side, and working on investments on marshes area.

151 million USD to marshes projects | Iraq Updates

05 November 2006 (Arab News)

The economic achievement in Iraq is often ignored, overshadowed by the violence in the country, Iraqi and American officials said. “The economic team has made significant progress,”said US deputy secretary of treasury Robert Kimmit who was in Kuwait for the International Compact for Iraq meeting. “They have stable currency, they have sizable foreign currency reserves, there are almost back up to pre-war level oil production, and they are able to finance a considerable part of their own government operations,” he told reporters at a conference late Tuesday.

There remains a gap on Iraqis resources however with what the country needs, which is why the government is calling for international support in its Iraq compact. The Iraqi government outlined its economic strategy to put forward, that is hoped to primarily diversify the country’s economy and decrease its reliance on oil. “Agricultural horizons are very promising but we are encountering impediments which need huge investments to overcome. We have been facing the problem of water supplies with our neighbours,” said its Minister of Planning and Development Cooperation Ali Baban.
Iraq however stressed that it will not go back to subsidies policy and will continue to keep its economic sectors “open”. But Iraq also will not expedite privatizations of its industries despite the government’s leaning towards an open economy. “We should not rush as some negative results may accompany any unplanned privatization process,” he said. The government is studying plans to privatize state factories, but most of the factories depend on costly government assistance, and recent move of “keeping the import door open” and without regulations and restrictions has put an end to many factories, he said.

While the Iraqi government remained committed to adopting free market policy, Baban said the removal of subsidies and facilities have hurt the agricultural and industrial sectors. To strengthen the industries, the government is asking the private sector firms to merge. “Many of the private factories are still small and cannot do the required task .. . we are trying hard to urge the Iraqi businessmen to merge their companies and establish big ones,” he said.

The government also believes that merging Iraqi small banks into big banks is necessary. It currently has 25 private banks. “Our idea is to have some kind of minimum capital for banks, to at least 20 billion Iraqi dinar. Some of the very small banks that do not have the capacity will have to merge, or otherwise they would have to raise the capital alone,” he said. The country also has six state-owned banks, the biggest of which are Rafidain and al Rasheed Banks.

Iraqi central bank is also trying to get private banks to participate more in the country’s economic activities, and for Iraq to be less dependent on the Trade Bank of Iraq, which is financed by a consortium of foreign lenders such as Citigroup and JP Morgan to provide trade finance services Iraqi banks are unable to offer. “We would like government’s import activities to be more diversified. We want all banks to participate, this is our policy in the future. Trade Bank is doing fine, but we don’t to have to be completely dependent on that,” he said. Al Shabibi said the central bank is currently succeeding in its fight against inflation.

“We are using interest rate and we sell our own bills to skim liquidity. The inflation rate now is at 51 per cent, down from 70 per cent previously. Whether it will continue to go down, we will have to see,” said al Shabibi. The Iraqi government has given out six licenses to foreign banks in 2004, including to National Bank of Kuwait, Arab Banking Corp, HSBC and Standard Chartered. Only Arab Banking Corp operates a full-fledged branch in the country; the others opted to enter Iraq via a local partner.

Government committed to adopting free market policy | Iraq Updates

Yep! Wow! August and October auctions gone from the history.

Originally Posted by day dreamer

I keep checking it and it still doesn't show up for me,
only shows through sept. and then nov. 1st & 2nd

Sorry day dreamer....I was referring to the Al-Mada Daily News site.

Cheers!
DayDream