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

The Iraqi government criticized the UN to deploy reports indicating a deterioration in the economy in the country

UN adviser in the Iraqi government ended its mandate today, Tuesday, reports the internationalism that refers to the increasing poverty in Iraq. Ahmed Rashid told the Kurdistan News (Akaniwz) that "the Iraqi government considers the hybrid in the reports indicating a deterioration in the economic and food for Iraqis exaggerated."

He added that "most of those reports were not issued by the UN to deploy committees working in Iraq, but depends on local non-specialized, which increases the complexity of the problem."

He explained that "the value of the Iraqi capita income rose by a report of the Economic Commission of the Government, 1.8 percent from the previous year, which confirms that the economic power to the Iraqis is growing albeit weak".

Estimates of a survey conducted in 2008 to 930 thousand of Iraqis suffer from food insecurity, while 6.4 million people exposed to the risk of food insecurity in the absence of public distribution system for food. The Iraqi economic expert said that the proportion of financial income of the Iraqi people rose up to 1.8 after the opening of the economy caused by the improvements in security in the country. Abdul Samad's machine (Akaniwz) that "the financial capacity of the Iraqi people rose by 1.8 for the former recipients in more than 55% of the Iraqis."

He pointed out that "the percentage comes against the backdrop of economic developments in the country after the reduction of violence in the past two years and the end of sectarian violence."

He said that "preliminary studies indicate a continuing decline in poverty in the country despite the continued suspension of government employment until the formation of federal service."

He resisted, saying that "it significantly affected the per capita income of Iraq, but did not hamper its growth due to the adoption of most Iraqis for jobs and private enterprises in the financial Mdjulathm."

The Iraqi Council of Representatives had voted in its first session on the draft law of the Federal Civil Service Council. The draft law on Civil Service Board the first law to be voted by three months after the resignation of Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, from office. The vote on the law after the Federal Court approved the ratification of the laws.

http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/174853/

Government adviser : investment projects in Iraq will double by 2012

The adviser in the Iraqi government ended its mandate, on Wednesday, that the coming stage will witness significant developments in the reality of economic projects and investment, especially following the improvements in security in the country, expecting to increase investment to double by 2012.

Salam al-Quraishi told Kurdistan News (Akaniwz) that "the government has during the past two years the implementation of investment projects as a result of significant relative improvement in the security situation in the country."

"The coming period will witness significant developments in the implementation of investment projects after he became the number of international companies coming to Iraq more than 479 companies, most investment."

Qureshi added that "the government has dealt over the previous period in a flexible manner with the work of investment companies as authoritatively stated in the investment law, which passed in the first parliamentary session."

Acharalqrici and that "the Iraqi investment law of the best laws legislated by the House of Representatives as the former protects the rights of the investor and the government together."

The Iraqi National Investment Authority has pledged to increase investment projects in the coming years is consistent with the needs of the country.

And formed the National Commission for Investment in 2007 after the new law to invest in Iraq, the body responsible for strategic investment projects of a federal nature exclusively, with the regional and provincial bodies responsible for investment planning and granting investment licenses in their areas.

http://www.aknews.com/ar/aknews/2/174754/

UAE firms looking at Iraqi oil industry - ambassador
Energy companies from the UAE are interested in investing as Iraq’s oil and natural-gas industries seek to boost output, a government official said.

“There are indicators that the UAE will have a place in the petroleum and energy sector,” Abdullah Ibrahim Al Shehi, the country’s ambassador to Iraq, said on Monday at a gathering of diplomatic officials in Abu Dhabi, the capital city.

Mubadala Development Co, the Abu Dhabi government-owned investor, is among companies that may be interested in expanding to Iraq, Al Shehi said. There is about $5 billion worth of bilateral trade between the UAE and Iraq, and that value is expected to increase to $7 billion next year, he said.

UAE property companies and airlines are looking to Iraq as a market for expansion. Ethidad Airways of Abu Dhabi started flights to Baghdad in April, and Dubai-based Emirates, the Middle East’s largest airline, plans to start flights to Baghdad this Year. Budget carrier FlyDubai travels to northern Iraq.

Abu Dhabi property developer Bloom signed a $12.5 billion contract in March for a housing project west of Baghdad. Dana Gas, based in the UAE emirate of Sharjah, produces fuel in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Iraq, seeking to boost oil and gas output, held two bidding rounds last year to auction rights to develop hydrocarbon deposits. The country is planning a third round for three gas areas this year.

UAE companies previously wanted to invest in Iraq’s oil industry and lost out as other international firms won development rights, Al Shehi said. No U.A.E. companies qualified to bid in Iraq’s first two auctions last year, according to data from the Iraqi government.

Mubadala, which has exploration and production assets in Kazakhstan and Thailand, has joint ventures in the U.A.E. and Bahrain with U.S. producer Occidental Petroleum Corp., a partner to develop the Zubair oil field in Iraq. The Los Angeles-based company may sell part of its stake in the deposit to the Abu Dhabi investment arm, Chief Executive Officer Ray Irani said in October.

Petromal, an oil and gas explorer funded by members of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, aimed to bid for Iraqi assets in auctions last year along with partner Premier Oil, the U.A.E. company’s CEO Radhwan Al Saadi said in an interview in Feb. 2009. Neither company qualified to bid in the auctions last year.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/59505...y---ambassador

BA eyes potential in the Iraqi market - CEO
British Airways is still considering plans to introduce services to Iraq, despite that fact that it has seen growing demand for it to enter the market and several carriers have already introduced routes, the carrier’s CEO Willie Walsh said.

“[Iraq] is clearly a market we are watching with great interest. A number of carriers are starting to fly to Iraq and clearly it is an area we have served in the past and we would look to serve again in the future but there are no plans at this stage,” Walsh told reporters in media conference call on Monday.

“Iraq is a destination [where] we have seen some demand and we believe that there is a potential in that particular market from both a passenger and a cargo point of view. It is one of the destinations we are keeping under review,” he added.

UAE national carrier Etihad Airways said in June it had started non-stop flights from Abu Dhabi to Erbil, becoming the first UAE carrier to operate to Erbil in northern Iraq, and on July 16 Dubai’s low-cost carrier flydubai began flights to the Iraqi city.

In May, Lufthansa, Europe’s second-biggest carrier, said it will restart regular service to Baghdad, the first of the western European and US carriers to resume flights to the Iraqi capital. The German airline will serve Baghdad from Munich beginning September 30, following a 20-year break, and will operate four flights a week.

Abu Dhabi-based luxury private jet operator Royal Jet operates flights to Baghdad and has reported a healthy market in the transport of oil executives to the Iraqi capital. While Air France/KLM, like BA, are still considering entering the Iraqi market, Austrian Airlines is planning to start offering scheduled flights from Vienna to Baghdad from October 31.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/59507...i-market---ceo

The stability of economic and fiscal policy to promote the success of the investment plans

Iraq pursues an open economic policy on the market economy and works to encourage the private sector and give investors ample opportunities to employ their capital in projects that contribute to the rebuilding of the country .. In order to shed light on the reality of economic investment met the morning, an economist Dr. Confident Taha and asked him about the reasons for obstacles and the slow return of investments, and what Iraq has to solve these problems ..

Q: What is the work of Iraq in this direction?
That among the economic transformation of Iraq to reduce customs tariff and the issuance of the foreign investment law, reforming and developing the banking system and other laws relating to intellectual property, patent, trade relations and other reforms related to the new orientation which will include a greater opportunity to expand their trade and development of economic activity in the country.

Q: So why the obstacles and the slow return of investments?
Iraq suffers from a weak investment climate and the varied areas of this foreign investment resulting from the different procedures at the level of macro policy and the improvement of legislative framework on the level of laws and economic decisions and the adoption of a comprehensive program of economic reform, financial, legal and create stability in the macro-economic policy and the issuance of modern laws in the area of improving the climate Investment to attract investors and encourage private local and foreign to correct the imbalance and to achieve stability in economic policy, especially those related to disability, commercial and financial control in the rate of inflation, trade and inflation in check and build the institutional framework of the issuance or modernization of investment laws and the protection of individual property and the issuance of competition laws and trade liberalization And capital and thus support the strategy to promote through the coordination of policies in the areas of media promotion and advertising ..

Q: What are the services provided by the Government to encourage the investor?
Of the most important services in this area is to provide security and create the infrastructure of roads and communications, electricity, water and others to be the state of all its institutions to a favorable climate to attract foreign direct investment and indirect because the investor when he presents the investment decision takes priority political and security stability and the appropriateness of laws relating to To invest in its direction of investment and tax policy and the extent of exemptions granted and economic stability, financial, monetary and currency exchange rate, interest rate, market size and potential to expand and achieve profits. Also, the foreign investor when he makes the decision to invest in a particular country studying administrative procedures and centralized decision and the level of bureaucracy in the State and the level of obtaining taxes and fees and the existence of a database and statistics updated in addition to the knowledge of how difficult the procedure room and stable laws and regulations.

Q: What is the role of services sector in attracting investment?
Must examine the progress in the institutional framework and the provision of guarantees for foreign investors, one of the cornerstones of improving the investment climate and the service sector is the most important sector to attract foreign direct investment at the global level and thus, the privatization of this sector represents one of the reasons the climate model of investment which aims to increase the flow of investment To the state. It must be noted that the oil and gas sectors is a magnet for investments that reverberate strongly in increasing the share of oil countries of foreign investment in the world and as an incentive to attract investment in oil countries, where is a natural resource and a key factor in achieving economic growth.

* What should we do to improve the investment climate?
The need to remove the administrative complexities that impede the realization of investors and raise the cost of investment is reflected in the reduced size of the investment .. Also plays a central issue of economic decision, financial and administrative to perpetuate the lack of investment climate model .. Is to improve the investment climate in the provision of financial incentives, economic and legal to attract foreign investors, where it competes States is currently attracting the largest proportion of foreign direct investment to the needs of these countries into additional resources to finance economic development as well as the need for modern technology that can be obtained through foreign investment.

http://www.alsabaah.com/paper.php?so...age&sid=107428

Banking experts are calling for payment of private banks and commercial work the level of need for economic reform

Banking reality in Iraq is the gestation of a difficult way to achieve the requirements of investment and economic reform measures, although found his bank more than once belonging to the deteriorating situation of the country's operations targeting the banks more than once and hasty decisions that have harmed the banking sector and the struggle for power between the more than Hand.

Banking expert Hatem Kazim says : it's Muslim banking work, and a lower level of education and awareness in the banking, which is conventionally in the banking and trading the financial markets between the citizen and the departments of banks to the enacting of laws more flexible and to avoid overlapping financial regulations.

He adds that the decision to merge the private banks was not right because Iraq is still affected greatly on the security situation and political deteriorating living, which makes banks experiencing a real crisis and clear without a processor real, and the Ministry of Finance to seek first towards openness to the world and experiences Successful in this area and to cancel the previous legislation that have been developed in the past decade.

What he said Dhafir al-Assali professor of accounting in Al Mansour University College : The private banks are still proactive in supporting and developing the national economy through the implementation of many large investment projects across regions and provinces as well as its contribution to indirect in other projects and support investors and owners of capital and companies through the provision of Loans and written guarantees to companies and contractors, and had performed well despite the difficult situation in the country and better than the government banks through the large increase in the volume of deposits in their balance sheets and attract large numbers of customers and depositors, and possession of considerable financial resources and techniques of advanced banking.

He adds that it is necessary here to activate the Banking Act to ensure that allow them to establish investment projects giant without setting the determinants of lending facilities and credit transfers, in order to contribute to the activation of its role in the national economy and make decisions to facilitate the functions of banks, and the fact there is a clear dispute between the law of investment and bank decisions Central, which put restrictions on banks and its financial activities and banking around much what makes the banking sector too late for other countries, especially with the reduction of interest rates for those banks that the central bank granted by the banks rely heavily, as well as a Marqlat for its work in Iraq in granting loans To its customers within Iraq because of the lack of real guarantees in the country.

http://www.alsabaah.com/paper.php?so...age&sid=107426

Originally Posted by Seaview

Halliburton Wins Majnoon Drilling Contract

Halliburton has won a contract to drill 15 wells at the super-giant Majnoon oilfield, operated by Shell and Petronas, according to a report this afternoon from Reuters.

http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/201...ling-contract/

UPDATE 1 - Halliburton to help develop Iraq oilfield

Halliburton said on Wednesday it has a been awarded a letter of intent to work with a Shell-led consortium developing the Majnoon field in southern Iraq, one of the world's largest oilfields.

Under terms of the letter, Halliburton will serve as project manager for the development work, in affiliation with rig contractor Nabors and Iraq Drilling Company (IDC).

The contract is still subject to final approval by Iraqi authorities, the Houston-based company said.

Shell is lead operator and holds a 45-percent share, partner Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Malaysia's state-owned Petronas) holds 30 percent and the Iraqi state holds 25 percent of the participating interests in all licenses.

Shell says the consortium intends to increase production from the current 45,000 barrels of oil per day to a targeted production plateau of 1.8 million barrels of oil per day.

Halliburton and its larger rival Schlumberger Ltd have both been targeting Iraq, where oil companies have been eyeing new projects after winning contracts from Baghdad.

Halliburton's former unit KBR was one of the U.S. government's biggest contractors in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion.

http://www.londonstockexchange.com/e...entId=10617555

U.S. on track to end Iraq combat mission

The U.S. military is holding steady in its aim to reduce troop numbers in Iraq to 50,000 by Aug. 31, when the 7-1/2 year U.S. combat mission launched by former President George W. Bush comes to an official close.

The last U.S. brigade officially classed as a combat unit formally handed over responsibilities to its Iraqi counterparts on Aug. 7, but U.S. troops have been steadily flowing out of the country on transport aircraft and by road for a year.

"My personal experience is it was worth it. We paid a huge cost," said Staff Sergeant Christopher Hush from the First Battalion of the 116th Infantry regiment which pulled out to Kuwait earlier this week.

U.S. media said on Wednesday the last U.S. combat troops had left Iraq, but U.S. officials clarified there were still 56,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, so the reduction to 50,000 non-combat troops by Sept. 1 promised by President Barack Obama still has a some way to go.

There will actually be little change on the ground in the U.S. military mission in Iraq come Sept. 1 as most U.S. military units began switching their focus to training and assisting Iraqi troops and police more than a year ago when they pulled out of Iraqi urban centres on June 30, 2009.

Much of the U.S. war materiel and many of the soldiers departing Iraq are being redeployed to Afghanistan, where NATO forces are fighting a resurgent Taliban.

The end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq will mark a milestone in the war that began in 2003 with the invasion to topple Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, whose long rule was marked by an eight-year war with Iran, the invasion of Kuwait and economic decline and diplomatic isolation.

More than 4,400 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the invasion, while up to 106,071 Iraqi civilians also died in fierce warfare unleashed between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Muslims who dominated the country under Saddam.

Overall violence has fallen sharply since the height of the sectarian slaughter in 2006/07, when U.S. troop numbers topped out at around 170,000.

But a stubborn Sunni Islamist-led insurgency continues to carry out devastating attacks and Iraq remains a fragile place.

Its leaders have not resolved a number of politically explosive issues that could easily trigger renewed fighting, such as tensions between majority Arabs and minority Kurds, and reconciliation between Sunnis and Shi'ites.

Nor have they been able to form a new government five months after a national election that produced no outright winner, and tensions have been stoked by a steady stream of suicide bombings and other attacks by insurgents trying to exploit the political vacuum ahead of the end of the U.S. combat mission.

Nevertheless, Iraq's tentative experiment with U.S.-imposed democracy holds the potential to upset political power balances throughout a region accustomed to autocratic governance.

PROMISE TO VOTERS

Obama promised American voters he would halt combat missions on Aug. 31 ahead a full U.S. withdrawal by the end of 2011 as agreed in a bilateral security pact signed by his predecessor.

The U.S. president faces a war-weary U.S. public as his fellow Democrats seek to hold on to their control of the U.S. Congress in elections in November.

Obama has said not a single U.S. service member will remain in Iraq come Jan. 1, 2012, even though it will be impossible for Iraq to stand up its own air force and be ready to protect its territorial integrity on its own by then.

With U.S. opinion polls showing Americans tired of nearly a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, any decision to extend U.S. military involvement in Iraq would be enormously risky for Obama, who is up for re-election in 2012.

He would almost certainly face a backlash from Democrats in Congress and from the left wing of his party, which is already disenchanted with him.

The war in Iraq has gone on longer than the U.S. Civil War, World War One and World War Two.

http://in.reuters.com/article/idINLDE67I0NY20100819

Feltman : the formation of the government in Iraq is not easy in light of competition between two major

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said his visit to Baghdad is mainly to promote the next phase of U.S. relations with Iraq, which focuses on the transition from military partnership to a civil partnership.

Feltman said in a press conference today via closed-circuit television from Baghdad that Washington had a real sense of camp about the need to form a government in Iraq.

However, by saying that this is not easy in light of competition between two major blocs, but he stressed the need to form a government in Iraq as soon as possible.

Description Feltman suicide attacks in Iraq that it appalling and alarming But he added, saying that the general direction in Iraq, positive at the moment are attributed mainly to the Iraqi security forces proved their efficiency and large a result, al-Qaeda and people who walk the approach cut off.

He predicted a major change will not occur due to the withdrawal of U.S. forces and, unfortunately, will continue to see incidents of violence such as those that took place yesterday in reference to suicide bombing among a group of persons wishing to volunteer for the Iraqi army.

Feltman said we are dealing with facts and not expectations .. Violence has been reduced substantially and the direction is positive."

The embassy had held during the last days of talks in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime Minister outgoing Nuri al-Maliki and Kurdistan leader Massoud Barzani, in addition to President Jalal Talabani.

With regard to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, he said Feltman that according to the status of forces agreement with Iraq, U.S. forces withdraw from the cities and towns in June 2009, but we still have 50 000 troops performing security arrangements, training and secondary.

Feltman said the U.S. commitment to support Iraq's economy, calling for more investments and bilateral partnerships with Iraq, such as those with Kuwait, for example.

Feltman said that the United States believes in the need to be Iraq's good relations with all its neighbors, including Iran.

http://www.basraelc.com/news.php?action=view&id=1712

Latest batch of U.S. troops begin withdrawing from Iraq this morning

According to NBC News that the last batch of U.S. combat troops leave Iraq with the early hours of Thursday morning, about two weeks before the deadline set by U.S. President Barack Obama to withdraw from the country. The reporter said it was the BBC that troops had begun crossing the border into Kuwait on Wednesday evening.

His announcement comes the withdrawal of U.S. troops invading Iraq under the political atmosphere is charged, complex and unstable, who was born a feeling shared by most observers of the Iraqi that the U.S. wants to leave Iraq to the amount does not care about the dire consequences that left behind victims of thousands and devastated country from all economic and political aspects And security.

The British newspaper The Guardian has criticized the U.S. military's decision to withdraw early and not take the necessary measures to re-constructing it and left it in ruins.

Embroiled in the Iraqi political forces, which came as a result of the U.S. military launched an invasion of a comprehensive in 2003 and installed dialogues difficult and complex to form a new government based on the results of recent elections, but most of these powers, after more than five months to declare the results are still flocking together in order to To reach a deal at the expense of each other without taking into account the suffering of the Iraqi people.

It was scheduled to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of August, to shrink so the U.S. military presence to about 50 thousand soldiers depends on their training Iraqi security forces and assist in counter-terrorism operations, in accordance with the vision set out by Obama. It is scheduled to withdraw the remaining troops by the end of next year.

http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...itics&id=29232