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

Iraqi Kurdistan says it’s open for business


Semi-autonomous region woos the West with high-profile ad campaign
By Michael E. Ross
13 November 2006 (CBNNews.com)

While other parts of Iraq remain mired in unrest, the northern region known as Kurdistan is touting itself as an oasis and aggressively courting businesses and tourists.
The push for development includes a Western-style advertising strategy with ads on cable TV, in radio and magazines, and a new investment law approved by the region's National Assembly to attract money from foreign investors. The region's economy already is one of the strongest in the Middle East.
But the semi-autonomous ethnic enclave - the ads call it “the other Iraq,” — is faced with realities that could undermine its aspirations.
Kurdish terrorist groups with separatist goals and a deadly history have taken responsibility for recent bombings. That fact, tied to the violence in greater Iraq and a government with a reputation for corruption, has dampened investment enthusiasm.
Full-court press
The U.S. ad campaign, which has a counterpart in Europe, is underwritten by the Kurdistan Development Corporation, with offices in London, Berlin and Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan. It emphasizes a region ready for economic development.
In a TV commercial, people of all ages are seen building a community — planting trees, driving bulldozers, working in a laboratory — in images meant to convey a model of modernity, an area bustling with industry.
“See the promise,” intones the ad's narrator. “Share the dream,” says a young girl, who walks toward the viewer bearing a bright, glowing globe.
On a companion Web site, investors and tourists are invited to “a place where the universities, markets, cafes and fair grounds buzz with progress and prosperity.”
Bayan Rahman, chairman of the corporation, said the ad campaign's purpose was “to raise awareness of the Kurdistan region among the grassroots of America, to make people aware that the Kurdistan region exists - some people still mix us up with Kyrgyzstan and Kazahkstan — and that the region is peaceful and stable, and we are rebuilding.”
“There’s a misperception of what northern Iraq is,” said Sal Russo, president of the Russo, Marsh & Rogers ad agency, which created the ads. “This is going to be a long-term project, to educate Americans to the realities of the region."
Business and tourism
Under the new investment law, foreign investors have the same rights as Iraqi investors, with full ownership of their projects. Companies may transfer profits or income abroad without having to pay taxes or customs.
The law also gives foreign investors major incentives, including exemptions from all noncustoms taxes and duties for 10 years. Imported equipment, machinery, tools, parts and other expenses are now largely exempt from taxes.
Iraqi Kurdistan also hopes to increase tourism to its historical attractions — museums, castles, mosques and other architectural sites, some dating to the 12th century.
‘An emerging market’
Several U.S. companies have paid a visit, including Ford, General Motors, Cummins, Motorola, Federal Express and DaimlerChrysler. Investors from the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Lebanon, already are in the region. The leading British trade association, representing engineering, healthcare and oil production companies, also has visited.
The oil-rich north, the heart of Iraqi Kurdistan, is certainly an incentive for investment. One Kurdish oil official estimated the region has reserves of 45 billion barrels of oil, and 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. But some U.S. oil companies have been reluctant to invest in refineries there because of fears of sabotage or injuries to their workers.
“We are interested and they are interested,” Shell Oil Co. president John Hofmeister said in July, of Shell's investment in the region, depending on safety for its employees. “We need those conditions in place to take it to the next level,” he said. “It's too soon to make a judgment on how close we are. I suspect we could be a few years away.”
“The Kurdistan region is secure,” Rahman insists. “It doesn't mean we're immune from terrorist attacks but in terms of all-out civil war, there's no insurgency, there's no terrorism.”
“Property prices are going up. People who invested a few years ago are doing very well,” said Rahman, who is based in Iraqi Kurdistan. “Today we have five universities and soon we'll have six. Compare that with 1991, when we had one.”
“People recognize that Kurdistan represents an emerging market,” she said. “There are risks that go with that.”
‘A virtual oasis,’ or not
Americans, Russo added, “haven't heard the story, the heroic story, of Iraqi Kurdistan. It's a virtual oasis in the middle of an area with pretty nasty neighbors.”
But other observers don't buy such rosy scenarios. For them, the main obstacle to more U.S. investors is Iraqi Kurdistan’s government and its history of corruption.
The region's government is controlled by the Barzani family, which includes President Massoud Barzani, who leads the ruling Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani. Both are descendants of Mustafa Barzani, who founded the party in 1946.
The Barzani tribe has been accused of using murder, torture and intimidation to solidify its hold on power. In 2005, mobs believed to be KDP sympathizers stormed the offices of another rival, the Kurdistan Islamic Union, killing some of that group's members.
Last October, the KDP’s intelligence service, the Parastin, arrested and imprisoned a Kurdish journalist for writing articles critical of the government. The Parastin has also been blamed for arrests of other scholars and intellectuals for criticizing the Barzani dynasty.
On Sept. 1, Massoud Barzani banned all government offices from flying the Iraqi tricolor flag.
‘The elephant in the room’
“In a lot of ways it's like a Mafia-run state,” said Michael Rubin, a Middle East scholar with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
“Corruption is a huge problem in Kurdistan — it's the elephant in the room,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that foreign investment won't work out. Investors want a return on their money. Big businesses will want some protection from shenaningans in the ruling family. With foreign investments, the more the better. But there are still unresolved questions about the rule of law.”
“It's sort of like investing in Chicago in the 1930's,” Rubin said, comparing the region to the American city where organized crime once ran rampant. “It's not a capitalist paradise yet.”

Hello all. I think I may have been misunderstood on a very important point of our discussion. The idea I presented, was to begin considering a reevaluation as a process over a period of time and not as a discrete and singular event. The .05 level presented was simply a model and a place to begin a debate on the idea that economic behavior is different at different price levels. I appreciate and understand the fact that the CBI could RV at a very high level if that is what they have planned. But, with that being said, the .05 level was just a point of discussion, NOT a prediction. I picked this level simply to begin a discussion on how much dinar do YOU think they could remove at this price level. (small bunch, big bunch?) Also, that they would continue to have the power to continue to raise the price level over a short period of time as they see fit. So, if I was misunderstood, I am sorry. Lets continue the good work in our posts and help others in understanding this very complicated process. Thank you.

Guys, just had an email from my dealer who has always been very 'conservative' in his estimations to date on a reval, timescale, rate. He thinks something is certainly happening/on the move as a result of the recent auctions.

Interesting....... Iraq Stock Exchange Data - Quotes, News and More for the ISX updated the top of their site.

Baghdad Time: 04:54pm, 11/17/2006 ~ market is closed | $1 USD = 1454.64 IQD ^

The price has been at 1463.xx for some time and now it reads 1454.64.

Originally Posted by Adster

Guys, just had an email from my dealer who has always been very 'conservative' in his estimations to date on a reval, timescale, rate. He thinks something is certainly happening/on the move as a result of the recent auctions.

Gee does he not read the Rolclub? We knew that Monday

Been doing the FARM JIG ALL WEEK even on a foot that had surgery monday

Adster good luck with your surgery too.

New day for detective work

Originally Posted by MrsCK

Gee does he not read the Rolclub? We knew that Monday

Been doing the FARM JIG ALL WEEK even on a foot that had surgery monday

Adster good luck with your surgery too.

New day for detective work

True, but his conversatism for a dealer has always surprised me! Takes a lot for him to say something like this, so I see it as a good sign.

Rest up yourself Mrs and dig us up some good articles!

Thanks.

When do we think the dinar will RV? I personaly think it will be anytime but would like to hear some opinions from some other members.

Originally Posted by MrsCK

Gee does he not read the Rolclub? We knew that Monday

Been doing the FARM JIG ALL WEEK even on a foot that had surgery monday

Adster good luck with your surgery too.

New day for detective work

He MrsCK make sure they only operate the foot and not your eyes or brains!

We need them here on the RolClub.

Good luck to you too with your surgery. I think you are laying there more relaxed if they RV before monday.

economic researcher : the investment law, the key to economic growth required

أكد أهمية تفعيله وتنفيذهHe stressed the importance of activating its implementation
بغداد - حيدرالربيعيBaghdad-Haidaralerbei'i
Is the birth of the new Iraqi investment law, the most important and significant economic decisions reliable Iraqi many of the observers and specialists in the Iraqi affair. وقد عّده العديد من الباحثين والخبراء الاقتصاديينThe number of researchers and many economists

The basic building block in the growth of the economies of all the country which will contribute greatly to the elimination of unemployment and the alleviation of inflation as well as the transfer of expertise, science break into Iraq by the investing companies.
فOf other investment law that would improve all aspects of life, business, industrial, tourist and thereby improve the social situation of the Iraqi people. However, this law has meant a lot of work and expertise and the economic benefit from it so as to make good on top of these things provide the security side, which deems (Manaf jeweler), an economist at the Iraqi Center for Economic Reform most important thing in attracting investors and capital into Iraq. He says jeweler : Let us when a group of specialists concerned with the economic situation and to expedite the completion of the Investment Law and legislation matters of security on the ground was less severe than it is now. Despite all the security conditions, the timely minimum investment environment was available and today we find ourselves in the security situation is bad and impacted negatively on the economic and investment environment as well as the reluctance of the process of the reconstruction of Iraq and the accompanying from the failures of implementation because of administrative corruption class base and lack of seriousness P j-oriented economic reconstruction and rational through the involvement of all concerned in the economic process, whether civil society organizations (businessmen, the Iraqi Union of Industrialists and the Chamber of Commerce. etc.) as well as university professors and Exchange Commission and the Iraqi media, because all they are concerned the real process of building a for economic and jeweler adds that the failure to the security side, led to the dismal failure and a big vacuum in the economic performance from the flight of most traders and industrialists out of Iraq.
Therefore, we can deduce that a simple survival of things as they are now render investment law void and become legally dead because we will not provide for this fledgling air we breath of is the stability in all its facets as we will eventually get tired economy into a debilitating medicine is not particularly high inflation, we are witnessing an unprecedented rate in the world as well as T. the cessation of all economic sectors, which will help to raise the gross domestic product (such as housing, industry and agriculture).

My Chinese Fortune Cookie Said Something Good Will Happen Soon. I Think This Weekend.