Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 01/10/09 - 27/03/10

IFC and Japan Host First Global Trade Finance Training for Iraqi Bankers

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is holding its first training seminar for Iraqi bankers, helping improve their knowledge of trade finance operations so Iraqis banks are better able to join international trade networks and promote the country's economic development.

In cooperation with the government of Japan, IFC is hosting a seminar for Iraqi bankers in Beirut, Lebanon, on February 2 - 3, 2010.The event will promote tools for managing risks associated with trade finance products and services and help Iraqi banks join international trade networks. The seminar will include sessions on documentary credit, trade finance rules, guarantee instruments, trade finance-related treasury mechanisms, and applying IFC guarantees to trade finance transactions.

"This training program for Iraqi banks under the IFC Global Trade Finance Program will help private sector banks in Iraq improve their trade finance skills, contributing to the growth of the Iraqi economy," said Georgina Baker, IFC Director.

The Japanese government has supported IFC's trade finance initiatives, contributing nearly $2 million for training programs for financial institutions in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. To date, Japan has supported 12 trade finance training programs in Asia and Africa, training 472 bankers from 66 institutions.

Toru Shikibu, Japanese ****utive Director at the World Bank, said, "We are pleased to support the Iraqi banking sector in cooperation with IFC's Global Trade Finance Program. This training will help Iraqi banks become part of a global trade network and build new relationship between Iraq and other countries, including Japan."

In the next few months, the Japanese government will support up to nine trade finance training programs in Asia and Africa, including Bangladesh and Mali.

Launched in 2005, the IFC Global Trade Finance Program supports trade with emerging markets worldwide, seeking to increase developing countries' share of trade and promote cross-border flows of goods and services. The program has provided over $6.5 billion worth of guarantees to 177 issuing banks in 80 countries, and has held 77 training courses reaching 1,775 bankers in over 30 countries.

IFC is the only international financial institution focused exclusively on the private sector, the engine of sustainable development in emerging markets. Along with IBRD, it is currently seeking a capital increase to strengthen its ability to create opportunity for the poor in developing countries--including by increasing trade finance in the Middle East and North Africa.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZA...i%20Bankers%20

Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq? (3)

Politics is like football. The winner is only declared at the end of the game. But in football, the game is time-limited. In politics it is timeless.

Politics has one important characteristic to share with football. In both neither the winners nor the losers retain their status for ever.

However, politicians have the natural tendency of sticking to power no matter what. Thus the idea of a military coup is the only issue that is a matter of concern for Iraqi politicians inside government or outside.

Iraq is a country of ‘miracles’. Miracles not in the sense of things that are good. It is a country of miracles in its tragedies which those in power see as feats of success.

Otherwise how could someone expect Iraq’s most ranking officials paying gratitude to the U.S. for invading their country. How would one expect the highest level official to describe foreign occupation of his country as “liberation.”

No one knows how aggravated conditions have become in Iraq as the U.S. Here I mean its military commanders and not the administration in Washington.

But conditions are moving from bad to worse and provide no guarantees to all the players involved in them.

No one in Iraq in current circumstances can guarantee something for another. Because all of them own nothing. And for this reason all the players are paranoid, fearing what lurks ahead.

The unknown hiding somewhere is a coup that will turn everything upside down.

There are good signals for this to happen. The first is the open desire of Iraqi politicians to steal whatever comes to their hands, particularly the things that lead to swift wealth. Corruption is not only rampant. It has become a culture.

Saddam Hussein did not have 10 percent of the military and security might – national and foreign – currently deployed in Iraq. Still it was extremely hard to penetrate his security ranks.

Despite massive military and security forces the country is being infiltrated and security conditions are in shambles.

Iraq’s political cards are so mixed that the card of a military coup has been inserted in them without anybody noticing it.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index...02-05\kurd.htm

Will there be a coup d’état in Iraq? (4)

There are two possible scenarios when talking about the specter of a coup in Iraq in the aftermath of the U.S. occupation of the country.

The chaos, which some described as “creative”, was in their eyes a means to put the house in order. They believed partial or total destruction leads to reconstruction.

This is what armed groups fighting under the umbrella of resistance might resort to do as part of a coup to change the status quo.

The other likelihood is a bid by an army general or armed factional groups to barge into the presidential palace as a final resort to gain power. Of course the possibility for this to happen is almost impossible so long as U.S. troops are in the country.

In the second instance there is no need for the plotters to bring radio and t.elevision under their control. Media are no longer pivotal for a coup. Every faction have their own media today.

Who will be storming the presidential palace? Certainly the armed forces. And if Iraqi political factions and their armed militias contemplate such a step, they will have to do it through their stooges in the army.

This might have been the reason which prompted Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki to issue orders forbidding political factions from meddling in the army affairs.

Maliki is aware of the conspiratorial nature of the Iraqi army. He knows the army which he raised might turn against him.

The Iraqi political scene is bound to change once U.S. troops are out of the country.

Once withdrawn, local forces will take over, and Iraq’s file will no longer be of international interest. It will be purely a domestic affair.

The possibility of a coup in these circumstances will be even higher. But no plotter and no coup would have the ability to spread control across the country. Coups will only have dominance over certain regions.

All countries in the region are readying themselves for the post-U.S. Iraq – an Iraq without U.S. troops.

The withdrawal of U.S. troops will amount to the coup that brought them in – through this coup the U.S. occupied Iraq in a humiliating and barbaric operation in which all slogans of democracy, freedom, human rights and liberation were trampled on.

Have Iraqi factions, those in the government and outside, prepared themselves for the post-U.S. Iraq? That is a question for which the answer is negative at least for the time being.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index...02-06\kurd.htm

Looks like a new war waiting in the shadows.

Open for business
A wide variety of construction opportunities are waiting in Iraq

Government projections of population growth in Iraq, which run at 2.6% annually, lead it to believe that almost two million housing units will be needed by 2015.

As efforts at reconstruction have created demand for construction expertise and the money needed to pay for it, the construction and building material industries have become ripe for investment.

In short, Iraq needs everything. Even the humble brick is in short supply, with the government estimating demand exceeds local supply fourfold. While Iraq's domestic construction sector is growing, the government does not feel it has the capacity to cope with the expected demand, which is driven by greater stability, returning refugees and a general trend toward urbanisation.

While significant sums have been set aside for reconstruction and infrastructure development - US $16 billion in the 2009 budget - the government has acknowledged that public financing will not be enough.

A recent overview of the housing and construction market, published by the government said: "Private capital and expertise will be needed to build and sustain the huge infrastructure investment needed. In housing, for example, the government expects that up to 85% of home building will be carried out by the private sector."

Key opportunities exist in the building materials sector, construction and housing. According to the government investment licenses have been approved for $2 billion from a total of 40 projects. The Iraqi government also claims that a UAE developer has signed on to work on a $5 billion project, which is intended to include a hospital, apartments and shopping malls, all within the former Rashid Military base in Baghdad.

The government also seems keen to push the idea of local partnerships. It is at pains to emphasise that what local developers lack in knowledge of current techniques, they make up for in their understanding of the legal and regulatory structure.

This inside knowledge could prove invaluable, as doing business in Iraq can be costly, frustrating and difficult. For the first time in many years, however, the opportunity is so great that it easily outweighs the pitfalls, as many first-movers from the international and Gulf region are finding.

To open the lid on the business environment in Iraq, Construction Week tracked down Baghdad residents John Desrocher, minister counsellor for economic coordination, US State Department, and Gary Soper, first secretary, head of UK Trade and Investment, Iraq.

"Iraq is very keen to see more companies establish operations there, but also to broaden that whole dialogue to include trade as well," explains Soper.

However, getting your investments off the ground in Iraq will be an uphill task. "This is a country which is essentially rejoining the world economy for the first time in decades," says Desrocher.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/580807-open-for-business

Dollar sales reach 169m on Monday

The Central Bank of Iraq’s (CBI) dollar sales rose to $169.950 million in its daily auction on Monday, compared to $82.740 million in the previous session.

“The demand hit $10.430 million in cash, covered at an exchange rate of 1,170 Iraqi dinars per dollar, and $159.520 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 15 banks that participated in today’s session offered to sell dollars.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=126642

U.S. State Department plans to dramatically increase the numbers of staff in Iraq

News magazine «Foreign Policy», published in Washington, said the Foreign Ministry plans to add hundreds of new staff to the crew diplomatic developments in Iraq, in order to strengthen its presence outside Baghdad while US troops prepare to leave next year.

The magazine said in a report published yesterday on its website, the ministry has asked financial increase of about two billion dollars for fiscal year 2010 for use in Iraq, indicating that most assignments will be used to open consulates and three permanent «regional development teams of temporary ».

The report adds that this funding will enable the recruitment of 129 staff members for a total of 664 employees in Iraq with the end of the fiscal year.

It will be one of the consulates in Basra in what will be the other in northern Iraq. The regional development teams will be working on «demarcation lines» between Kurds and Arabs near Kirkuk, Nineveh and Diyala.

The magazine said that the amount of $ 735 million of additional funds had been listed as dedicated to the needs of security for the protection of civilians in the new offices. Have been described request as «very urgent to calm the sectarian conflicts - ethnic and political strategic opportunities».

Have been baffled by some to be the request relates to assignments of additional financial and not through the allocation of the budget of the US State Department in 2011. He answered Jacques Le Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to this question by saying «the important point in this regard is the timing, there is a plan to transfer all responsibilities from the army to civilian control through a fixed timetable and to be able to make this transition work smoothly, there is a good amount of work that must be done in advance ».

He said there is more demand in the budget for 2011 to $ 2.6 billion for Iraq and will be allocated the sum of the needs of long-term.

Experts say that the attention of the U.S. long-standing ethnic tensions in Iraq «will be strong over the next few months, while continuing fragile reconciliation process there».

The sheikh of U.S. diplomacy and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, published last Wednesday, an article in The Washington Post, which he sharply criticized the US policy toward Iraq and considered «a retreat from commitments on a very important country». Kissinger warned that any downturn would mean the survival of US there is little overlap between Iraq and Iran «where this would leave the region threatened to reignite».

In the context of related research Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi with US Secretary of State the Iraqi political scene and the readiness of the armed forces and the relationship with neighboring countries, according to a statement by his office.

In a statement posted on the official website of Hashemi's Vice President of the Republic, "he met during a visit by now to Washington and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss the priorities that should be adopted between Iraq and the United States to activate the Strategic Framework Agreement in particular and Iraq in a dire need for services, the United States in various fields."

The statement said that the meeting "also discussed the political scene in Iraq and other issues related to readiness of the armed forces in addition to file-Iraqi relations with neighboring countries and the GCC."

According to the statement also said that al-Hashemi "met in Washington and Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa to discuss bilateral relations between Iraq and Bahrain and ways of developing and upgrading them to serve the interest of the two brotherly countries."

The statement quoted Foreign Minister Al-Khalifa, "the desire of the Kingdom of Bahrain to develop prospects for cooperation with Iraq in various fields and its commitment to and understanding of the need to restore Iraq to its relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council and its insistence that Bahrain will continue its efforts in this area to convince the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council re-diplomatic representation in Iraq and the revitalization of bilateral relations in various areas as a prelude to the restoration of Iraq's role in the organizations, the Gulf States did not participate in since 1990 until now."

http://translate.googleusercontent.c...SPdP0fMC21Vtkw

Bleak outlook for Iraq's lonely hearts

Zina Nabil, a pretty 28-year-old Sunni Arab, thought she had found her man. But like many other Iraqi women, she was forced to abandon her marriage plans three years ago because of sectarian hostilities.

"I fell in love with a very nice, well-educated man. But my parents rejected him when they learnt that he was a Shiite."

Nabil was then 25, an age that is considered old for a woman in Iraq to be getting married, and she thinks her chance of happiness has passed.
"Since then I've just stopped thinking about marriage, to avoid finding myself in the same situation," she sighed forlornly.

The issue of sectarianism in Iraq has turned the search for a spouse, already problematic for other social and financial reasons, into a quest for the Holy Grail.

In Iraq's conservative society, the only opportunity for a single woman to meet someone is often through her job, if she has one. But unemployment is high -- 18 percent, according to the United Nations, and much worse among young people -- confining more unmarried women to their homes.

"I'm not going to meet people at home," lamented 24-year-old Rula Mohammad, a Sunni who graduated in political science but remains jobless.

"My marriage prospects are made worse by the country's sectarian problems. My parents would not allow me to marry someone from a different religious group."

The conflict between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities between 2006 and 2008 killed tens of thousands and brought the country to the brink of full-blown civil war, opening wounds that are still raw.
It also created a new generation of widows.

During the first five months of 2006, at the height of the sectarian blood-letting, between 90 and 100 women lost their husbands each day, according to Iraq's association for women's rights.

"It's not that members of the two communities don't fall in love with each other now," said Rula. "But not doing so just avoids problems."

The single status of women has become a serious concern in Iraq, according to Sawsan al-Barrack, 50, in charge of women's affairs at the ministry of human rights.

"It is a big problem today for women, who are more numerous than men, initially because of the war (1980-1988) war with Iran, which killed one million people.

The problem of inter-communal marriages is largely new in Iraq, where the community one belonged to was previously of little importance in the quest for a spouse. ****uted dictator Saddam Hussein's regime comprised a Sunni Arab elite but was largely secular.

"The situation deteriorated after the fall of the former regime and the sectarian violence that followed."

Sociologist Suha al-Shamaa, who also works in the women's section at the human rights ministry, said: "Before the US occupation of 2003, the question of which community a woman belonged to was not asked. Today it's essential."

Official Iraqi statistics show that there are 102 men for every 100 women, but the ratio varies significantly depending on the age group, underpinning the plight of Iraq's single women.

Men aged up to 24 are more numerous, while they are equal in number between 24 and 29, and women between 30 and 49 are in the majority, according to a study carried out in 2008 by the United Nations' World Food Programme and Iraq's central organisation of statistics.

As many as 41.5 percent of Iraqi men and women over 12 years old are single, the WFP says, and 4.2 percent are widowed.

"I am one of those women who missed the boat," said Azra Kamal, 36, who works at the ministry of health. "I studied, and then when I was ready it was too late, even though I have never given up hope of finding a man."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...me7sjB9zNly3zQ

Iraq seeks strategic economic partnership with US

Iraqi Trade Ministry said on Tuesday that Iraq needs the U.S. as an investor and strategic partner to form a developed economy.

"Iraq wants to expand its economic and trade relations with the U.S.," the Ministry said in a release received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

It said that Iraq has the parameters to qualify as a strong and developed economy in the region.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZA...ip%20with%20US

Five-year development plan completed - minister

The Iraqi minister of planning said that his ministry has finished its development plan for the years 2010-2014.

“The plan has focused on the oil and electricity sectors, considering that oil is the main source of income to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and investment plan budgets,” according to a statement by the minister, which was received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

The plan’s investment program includes more than 2,700 projects worth nearly $186 billion U.S. dollars, the statement indicated.

The minister is expected to hold a press conference on Feb. 15 to present an outline of the plan.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=126690