Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 22/06/2010 - 04/10/2010

Integrity: corruption, terrorism financing and parties

Commission on Public Integrity revealed, for there is no information indicating that "some of the outcomes of financial and administrative corruption are in the major fund some of the insurgent and terrorist operations."

The head of the Integrity Commission Judge Rahim Ugaili, said in previous statements, the existence of some of the allegations and evidence to suggest that some of the proceeds of grand corruption are in some operations, especially in areas dominated by the former armed groups, as well as the indicators show that some of the proceeds of corruption Used to fund some political parties and support its activities.

http://www.uragency.net/index.php?aa=news&id22=9175

"Manufacturing and energy, " Saudi Arabia is" considering investment opportunities for oil and gas sector in Iraq and Qatar

Officials said the company was carefully studying the investment in Iraq's oil industry as well as investment in gas production in Qatar through contracts with companies operating in the two countries for building offshore platforms for oil and gas production.

The officials of the Saudi company, which owns 6 companies with the participation of local and international investors, about the size of investment in the construction of production platforms, offshore oil and gas company sites in Saudi Arabia about (of 133 million dollars), reaching the maximum capacity of the company is about 30 thousand tons per year during the current period, Pointing to the expansion of investments in the future to meet the demand platforms produced by the company.

The Director of Finance and Administration in the Star Abdullah everything that the company is capable of producing platforms weighing between 15000 tons and less than 2500 tons, and everybody speaks during a tour of the manufacturing platforms, where she is preparing the company to deliver platforms offshore in the coming period.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/Display....aspx?id=13247

Economist : Iraqi laws need to be several changes to attract capital

Said an economist at the Ministry of Finance Crescent miller "The Iraqi laws need to be several changes to attract investors and foreign capital, and we expect the new parliament to proceed with a package of laws and make some adjustments in this area."

The miller in contact with the Independent Press Agency (Iba) "Some of the investment law as law No. 13 of 2006 on the right to own land need to be amended and to appreciate the reform to attract foreign investors."

He explained, "for leasing land under the Act identified fifty years and then extended to a hundred years, but can not because of foreign capital to enter the country without the enjoyment of the right to own property as in investment projects in the Kurdistan region of Iraq."

He noted the miller, "The right of property of foreign investors will not affect the housing sector in the country to the fact that the area is large enough to house more than an enumeration of Nefoussa many times," noting that "Iraq needs to enact laws to support investment and emphasizes speed in decision-making."

http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=27529

Only 7 million Iraqis deserve ration card - minister

Only seven million Iraqis deserve to be enrolled in the state-subsidized ration card system, the Iraqi acting trade minister said on Wednesday.

"The Trade Ministry has started a process to cancel items supplied to Iraqis who have a monthly income that exceeds ID1.5 million," Safaa al-Din al-Safi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

He noted that the Ministry is capable of supplying ration card's items to those who deserve them.

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

Mattis named overall US commander of Iraq, Afghan wars

General James Mattis was named Thursday as the new head of US Central Command, or CENTCOM, which has overall control of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mattis, whose appointment must be confirmed by the Senate, replaces General David Petraeus, who took over direct command of the faltering Afghan conflict after his predecessor was fired for giving a damaging magazine interview.

"The post General Mattis is taking is a critical one at a critical time," US Defense Secretary Robert Gates named told reporters Thursday in announcing his recommendation to President Barack Obama.

Mattis, said Gates, is one of the US military's "outstanding combat leaders and strategic thinkers" and he praised the four-star Marine general for his insights into modern-day warfare, notably "how the armed forces must be shaped and postured for the future."

Petraeus formally took over command of the Afghan war last week after Obama sacked General Stanley McChrystal over an interview to Rolling Stone magazine in which he and his staff made disparaging comments about the vice president and other senior administration figures.

But Mattis has had his own issues of free expression that have gotten him into hot water.

In an on-camera 2005 interview, the general said: "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot.

"You go into Afghanistan; you've got guys who slap around women for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway, so it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Gates said however that appropriate action was taken at the time and that he thought the "subsequent five years have demonstrated that the lesson was learned."

He added he was confident Mattis would now be able to "speak publicly about the matters for which he is responsible in an entirely appropriate way."

Gates issued a memo last week outlining new media rules to better manage the military's contacts with journalists, and said Thursday he had become "increasingly concerned" the military had become "too lax, disorganized and in some cases flat-out sloppy in the way we engage with the press."

Mattis has since 2007 headed the US Joint Forces Command, which plays a valuable support role for the US military and also focuses on transforming future capabilities.

He previously commanded Marine forces in both theaters of war that he now oversees, according to his official biography.

As a brigadier general, Mattis commanded forces in southern Afghanistan in the early stages of the conflict, which began in late 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

He went on to command Marines during the initial invasion and then anti-insurgency operations in the Iraq war.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidAN...0Afghan%20wars

Iraq parliament to reconvene July 13: FM

Iraq's parliament will reconvene on July 13, the last day before a constitutional deadline, the country's foreign minister said on Thursday, in a rare sign of forward political momentum.

"An important meeting of parliament is scheduled for July 13," Zebari told reporters at a media conference in Arbil, capital of Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan, 320 kilometres (200 miles), north of Baghdad.

The parliament, the second democratically elected chamber since the fall of Saddam Hussein, met briefly for the first time on June 14 after an inconclusive March 7 general election, before going into recess.

There was a one-month deadline from that date for members to reconvene, but the parliamentary timetable has been overshadowed by a lack of progress on forming a new government, including who becomes prime minister.

Iyad Allawi, a Shiite former premier, insists as the election's narrow victor that he should become prime minister, especially as his broadly secular Iraqiya coalition had strong backing in Sunni-dominated provinces.

He has warned a failure to see Sunni Arab voters properly represented in power could reignite the sectarian violence that saw tens of thousands killed in the years after Saddam's ouster.

Allawi narrowly pushed serving Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shiite-led State of Law alliance into second place in the election, but the incumbent is doggedly fighting to stay on and serve a second term.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidAN...y%2013%3A%20FM

A local official in Karbala : the statements of Minister of Commerce on the feasibility of the ration card items not responsible

The President of the Economic Committee in the province of Karbala on Thursday, was surprised by the statements of Iraqi Trade Minister, who said the government is obliged to provide food for its citizens, adding that the government deliberately to the sacking of independent ministers, while maintaining Ministers incompetent they are backed by influential political parties in power.

He said Tariq Ktevp Kikhany told Kurdistan News (Akaniwz) announced today that "the statements of Minister of Trade and agency Safa al-Din net on the need to cancel the ration card is the statements are not responsible, because the minister in question was among those who promised the citizens to improve their living conditions and provide better services to them during his campaign in the Recent elections."

"We've been surprised at the statements the net is where the government is obliged to provide food for the citizens, asking," So why the minister pledged to provide five essential items for the citizens? And why does Aitzlm Iraqi citizen now, only two or three at best? Moreover, "most of the food received by the citizens of the ration card are unfit for human consumption."

He Kikhany that "the federal government of double standards towards the ministers, and especially by failing to provide services to the Iraqi people," explaining that "the government deliberately to the sacking of the minister is not linked to a political party, in the remaining ministers are corrupt, and failing in the administration of the ministries they are backed by the party's powerful Power, which led to the increase in cases of administrative and financial corruption in the country," according to his words.

The Minister of Trade and clarity of net debt agency has said some of the media on Wednesday, the Iraqi government was not obliged to provide food for its citizens, particularly with regard to ration cards, which he said cost the Iraqi budget huge sums of money.

The chairman of the Economic Committee in the Karbala Provincial Council Tariq Kikhany was revealed in a previous statement (Akanyuz) for the destruction of its more than 40 tons of adult milk which falls within the ration card items because of its suitability for human consumption, the rejection of large quantities of sugar fossil".

http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/162411/

Iraqi economic : the Iraqi market has seen a significant mobility last June

Iraqi economic expert said today, Thursday, that the Iraqi economy has good mobility during the month of June last in particular with regard to purchase money market difficult.

A member of the Iraqi economy Taher Yassin told the Kurdistan News (Akaniwz) The "month of June last was the best in the field to move the commercial and economic activity in Iraq, because there are no major security incidents, as well as higher per capita income of Iraq, despite the formation of the Civil Service Council Federal House by the former."

"The relative security in the country has contributed to a strong movement to strengthen economic and trade increased by 12.08 in the month of June than the previous months, which confirms the link security to the economy."

Yassin said : "If what remains of the Iraqi market if you've made it clear from the mobility, it will foster economic capacity in the country during the coming period."

Iraq has relied heavily in support of its economy after the oil sector saw agriculture and industry lethargic due to lack of government support for them in recent years.

http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/162560/

Economic stresses the necessity of activating the electronic management of an investment recovery in Iraq

The Iraqi economic expert, on Friday, the Iraqi government to activate the electronic management with a view to accelerate the implementation of economic projects.

Ali Ke Ji told the Kurdistan News (Akaniwz) that "the Iraqi government really need to improve their efforts in the development of the dealings between the institutions and investment companies through electronic communications."

He explained that "administrative dealings in Iraq There have been outdated by the time of modernity since the very opposite of the neighboring countries to Iraq."

The Ke Ji that "the idea of e-government project successful but did not apply on the ground due to concerns of the government in the security file and some service projects."

The Ministry of Science and Technology announced the near completion of e-government project, and confirmed that he arrived at the advanced stage in creating the infrastructure to link the Iraqi ministries unified electronic network.

The government hopes the launch of e-government project for the public service early in 2011, while other ministries will continue to create programs to facilitate electronic transactions management.

The ministries of Communications, Science and Technology had announced last March that year 2010 will witness the completion of the communications infrastructure throughout Iraq, in preparation for the launch of e-government project aimed at providing services to citizens and government departments, which would contribute to the recovery of economic reality In the country and resolve the issue of fiscal expenditure that rests with the citizens.

http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/162648/

China Increases its Investments in Iraq

China didn’t take part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq or the bloody military battles that followed. It hasn’t invested in reconstruction projects or efforts by the West to fortify the struggling democracy in the heart of the Middle East.

Workers at al-Waha Oil Co. in the southern Iraqi town of Wasit are part of the growing investment China is making in the war-torn country. The company is the Iraqi affiliate of China’s state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.

But as the U.S. military draws down and Iraq opens up to foreign investment, China and a handful of other countries that weren’t part of the so-called coalition of the willing are poised to cash in.

These countries are expanding their foothold beyond Iraq’s oil reserves the world’s third-largest to areas such as construction, government services and even tourism, while American companies show little interest in investing here.

“The U.S. really doesn’t know what to do in Iraq.” Said Fawzi Hariri, Iraq’s industry minister. “I have been personally, as the minister of industry, trying to woo U.S. companies into Iraq. There is nothing yet, nothing tangible.

In the past two years, Chinese companies have walked away with stakes in three of the 11 contracts the Iraqi Oil Ministry has signed in its bid to increase crude output by about 450 percent over the next seven years. Only two American firms won stakes in oil deals.

“They made a mistake and overestimated the risk,” said Ruba Husari, an oil analyst in Baghdad who runs the Iraq Oil Forum, a trade website.

The French and Chinese have also made forays into the cement industry. The Chinese have started building a billion-dollar power plant in the south. The Chinese and the United Arab Emirates are in talks to build residential complexes.

The French automaker Renault and Germany’s Mercedes-Benz are in advanced talks to make trucks for industrial transport, according to Iraqi officials. The South Koreans signed a memorandum of understanding to build a multimillion-dollar steel mill in the south and a power plant, and the Turks have scored a series of construction and government services contracts.

Except for a $3 billion contract with General Electric to purchase power-generating equipment for Iraq, Iraqi and U.S. officials are hard-pressed to point to any significant U.S. investment in Iraq.

The U.S. “consistently ranks in the bottom” among investors, according to a 2009 study by Dunia Frontiers Consultants, which tracks private investment in Iraq.

France, which also did not participate in the war, recently set up a center in Baghdad to support French companies seeking to test the waters.

“This is a rich country,” French Ambassador Boris Boillon said. “In this world of recession, in this period of global crisis, we need to get growth and expansion wherever you can find it.”


http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/?p=5542