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

Do we know for a fact the fil is to be enacted on the 9th? I understand about the 30 day quote and it automatic being done on things but has it been stated by Iraq?

Yes I know this is not dinar-related but just to update everybody and hopefully Iraq will be #151.

Vietnam officially joins the World Trade Organization

(Voice of Iraq) - 07-11-2006
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Geneva (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization formally on Tuesday to Vietnam's accession to membership, thereby becoming a member No. 150.

Vietnam officially join the Organization after 30 days of the adoption of the National Assembly of the membership.

The WTO General Council decision adopting the deal reached by the working group for consideration of the membership of Vietnam late last month as a formality.

Seeking Vietnam, which has a population of 82 million people and its economy is growing rapidly to join the organization for 12 years.

$25 million to ‘reconstruct’ Najaf
$25 million to ‘reconstruct’ Najaf
07/11/2006
Source: Azzaman
The Ministry of Finance has allocated $25 million for the reconstruction of the holy city of Najaf, Governor Asaad Sultan said.

Sultan said the money is part of allocations the government has set aside “to reconstruct the war-torn cities and town in four Iraqi provinces.”

Najaf, the capital of a province of the same name, was scene of pitched battles in 2004 between fighters of Mahdi Army led by the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and U.S. occupation troops.

The city was heavily damaged and residents say traces of destruction still linger on.

Four other major cities have sustained massive damage in operations by U.S. troops.

Falluja has borne the brunt of these operations. It was al most turned into ghost town when U.S. troops attacked to flush out insurgents.
Samarra and Tal Affar have also sustained large-scale destruction.

Sultan, Najaf’s governor, said the government will deposit the money in the city where the provincial council has drawn a long list of projects to be implemented.

“The Ministry of Finance is determined to open an account in the holy city of Najaf to deposit $25 million which the province’s share of the money allocated for the reconstruction of areas destroyed by wars,” the governor said.

Meantime, Sultan said he visited South Korean embassy in Baghdad where he thank the ambassador for his country’s efforts in rehabilitating Najaf.

South Korea is actively taking part in reconstructing the province’s health system has granted Najaf’s health department $1 million.

nomy
Govt committed to adopting free market policy’
07 November 2006 (Arab times)

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 progr-ess,”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.

There had been some talk about buying dinars from cbi.

Yesterday, I spoke with my dealer whom I speak with now on more of a friendly basis then him trying to sell me more dinars. We spoke about the soldier in Iraq who is a friend of a friend, and was told that he could not buy anymore, and then several others that we here at RC have heard about. So, I asked him to get in touch with his boss the ask how they are receiving their dinars. It took his boss a while, but he finally got in touch with their guys who are doing the buying in Iraq.

They were still able to obtain the dinars, however at a higher price than previous. Their guys did say that this would be the last time for them to be allowed to purchase them, because it is going to "happen" this week.

Also, the people that get the dinars for the company that I deal with; say that they buy them directly from the CBI. Now, I think there is someone in this forum (military person) that said that there is a bank within the CBI that does sell them. So perhaps it is just a matter of details.

Thought this may be of interest to some.

Originally Posted by Caroline

I haven't posted in months, but read this forum frequently. These figures are drawing me out of the woodwork.

I am not more knowledgeable than you, but this seems to me also to be very good news. Isn't this a massive buyback of the dinar on the part of the CBI?
If not, what is it?

Caroline

I don't see a big buy-back of Dinar a good thing. With a decent reval the CBI would get get back more than enough from speculators cashing in.

Am I wrong with this line of thinking?

A facilitated loan from Japan
China and Australia are willing to support and develop the Iraqi oil sector
07 November 2006 (Al-Sabaah)

Japan granted a facilitated loan to Iraq of three billion and (500) million USD for the development of oil and gas sector in the whole country, while China and Australia expressed readiness to support the oil sector and intensify the efforts to improve it. The Oil Minister, Dr. Hussein Shahrastani, said during a press conference held in Baghdad last Wednesday: that his recent visit to each of China, Australia and Japan resulting in the approval of the Japanese government to grant facilitated loans amounting to 3.5 billion dollars to develop the Iraqi oil industry.

He added that the ministry allocated one billion dollars of the loan to be used for developing Basrah refinery and establishing an oil floating port in Basra as well, adding new units for the conversion of black oil to oil derivatives, adding that he met with officials of major Japanese companies specialized in the oil sector to activate all joint activities to serve the interests of the two friendly nations. He pointed out that Japan expressed its willingness to build a large refinery in the city of Nasiriyah, and that China is also ready to support the Iraqi oil sector and implement the contract concluded with it about developing Al-Ahdab oil field as well as modifying it to suit the quality of Iraqi oil, which China wishes to increase its imported quantities, pointing out that Iraq welcomed the increase in the volume of Iraqi oil exported to China because it is considered one of the major international markets in the world oil consumption.

The minister confirmed reaching a preliminary agreement with China to set up a small refinery in Iraq to provide oil derivatives, adding that the ministry will adopt the principle of transparency in future contracts with fine international companies and be base its prospective contracts on the economic benefit of Iraq and not on the basis of political relations exercised the previous regime. During the conference, Ashahrastani tackled the plan prepared by the ministry to raise the level of Iraqi crude oil production to reach (3) million barrels a day at end of this year: (2.250000) barrels from he southern fields, (750) thousand barrels from the northern fields and reach to four and a half million by 2010. The rates of Iraqi oil exports now reach one million and seven hundred thousand barrels per day. He reported that the Oil Ministry also prepared a plan for the provision of sufficient quantities of kerosene for the citizens, that (200) liters will be distributed during for the next few days for each family in preparation for the winter season, assuring the citizens that large quantities of kerosene are available, especially in Baghdad and the ministry is distributing two million liters per day among the population. The minister announced a plan to provide large quantities of liquid gas for the city of Baghdad; since the terrorist are continuously targeting the pipeline of transferring gas to it, the ministry started transferring this material by tanks. The Oil Ministry is working to increase the production capacity of liquid gas in the whole country and invest it properly to meet the needs of the country.

The oil minister confirmed that the oil wealth belongs to all the people of Iraq and that it should contribute to unify the country and not divide or disperse it and no party is entitled to contract with any company or invest the fields located within its region away from the rest of Iraq. He proposed to establish a federal body that includes all segments of Iraqi people specialized in legislating investment laws concerning oil fields and studying contracts for the implementation of these projects. Ashahrastani denied any intention to increase the prices of oil derivatives in the current stage.

Originally Posted by MOM2TWO

There had been some talk about buying dinars from cbi.

Yesterday, I spoke with my dealer whom I speak with now on more of a friendly basis then him trying to sell me more dinars. We spoke about the soldier in Iraq who is a friend of a friend, and was told that he could not buy anymore, and then several others that we here at RC have heard about. So, I asked him to get in touch with his boss the ask how they are receiving their dinars. It took his boss a while, but he finally got in touch with their guys who are doing the buying in Iraq.

They were still able to obtain the dinars, however at a higher price than previous. Their guys did say that this would be the last time for them to be allowed to purchase them, because it is going to "happen" this week.
Also, the people that get the dinars for the company that I deal with; say that they buy them directly from the CBI. Now, I think there is someone in this forum (military person) that said that there is a bank within the CBI that does sell them. So perhaps it is just a matter of details.

Thought this may be of interest to some.

If I am reading this correctly, they (CBI) are saying it will happen this week?

Originally Posted by MOM2TWO

There had been some talk about buying dinars from cbi.

Yesterday, I spoke with my dealer whom I speak with now on more of a friendly basis then him trying to sell me more dinars. We spoke about the soldier in Iraq who is a friend of a friend, and was told that he could not buy anymore, and then several others that we here at RC have heard about. So, I asked him to get in touch with his boss the ask how they are receiving their dinars. It took his boss a while, but he finally got in touch with their guys who are doing the buying in Iraq.

They were still able to obtain the dinars, however at a higher price than previous. Their guys did say that this would be the last time for them to be allowed to purchase them, because it is going to "happen" this week.

Also, the people that get the dinars for the company that I deal with; say that they buy them directly from the CBI. Now, I think there is someone in this forum (military person) that said that there is a bank within the CBI that does sell them. So perhaps it is just a matter of details.

Thought this may be of interest to some.

That is very promising! Hopefully, because of your raport with your dealer, he wouldn't just pass along the typical sales pitch "....it's going to happen this week." unless he felt it was truthful. I'd love to have that be the case.

Still, we need to take info from dealers with grain of salt, because while they want this thing to take off as much as we do, they are still in a business, and it ain't good for business to tell clients that "it won't happen."

Thanks for the info, and keep those tasty tidbits of good news comin'!

NO, the guys that do the acual buying told the President of the company that sells them to me, that they would no longer be able to ship them dinars. However, they did make their last purchase either yesterday or the day before.