Thread: Iraqi/Dinar News before 3-12-2007 7:45PM CentralTimeZone

Originally Posted by Mike5200

Industry being revitalised in Iraq: US official by Bryan Pearson
Sun Mar 4, 5:35 PM ET



BAGHDAD (AFP) - Industry is being revitalised in Iraq, despite the raging violence, and creating lucrative openings for entrepreneurs brave enough to do business here, a top US official insists.

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Paul Brinkley, the Pentagon's deputy under secretary for business, has been touring Iraq for the past week with some 45 US business executives.

He told AFP in Baghdad that many dormant state-owned factories would start firing up again "within months."

Already a plant producing vehicles has reopened in Iskandiriyah, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Baghdad, providing valuable job opportunities for locals. "Others will soon follow," he promised.

Brinkley told journalists, who donned helmets and bullet-proof vests to make the trip out of Baghdad to the US military's Camp Victory on Saturday, that economic growth could help quell the city's chronic sectarian violence.

"There is a recognition that security and economic prosperity go hand in hand, and that unemployment in Iraq is contributing to the frustrations of people and creating sympathy for insurgents," Brinkley said.

Since a US-led coalition invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein, most factories have been lying idle or operating at very low rates of production, he said.

Many of these possess modern equipment, while others have machinery at least as good as many enterprises operating efficiently in India and China.

"They can quickly be revitalised," Brinkley said. "The factories served as the engine for the Iraqi economy and must be restarted."

The US government, he added, is working with the ministries of finance and industry as well as with Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh "to get this economic engine running again so that thousands ... can regain employment."

Enterprises that could be restarted fairly easily, he said, included upstream and downstream oil activities, textiles, heavy machinery, chemicals, minerals and electronics, among others.

At the same time, he added, his department is involved in efforts to connect international entrepreneurs with Iraqi business leaders so private concerns and factories can also be jolted back to life.

He and his group had travelled around Baghdad and the provinces or districts of Anbar, Iskandiriyah, Arbil and Diyala, meeting business leaders, farmers and others from across the social and economic spectrum.

Those travelling with Brinkley said they had been surprised at the potential that exists in the embattled country but also at just how far Iraq's dormant industrial capacity has decayed or fallen into disuse.

"The industry ministry controls 200 factory sites, but these factories are running on average at only 10 percent of capacity," said Fred Cook, a US government specialist in labour affairs.

"The ministry has 196,000 workers on its payroll but only a small fraction of these are actively employed in factories. Most are under-employed and paid only a small fraction of what they were previously paid," he explained.

"Our goal is to restart industry and to put people back to work."

Mahdi Sajjad, of British-based Gulfsands Petroleum, said the potential for upstream and downstream activities linked to Iraq's lucrative oil industry -- the country's dominant foreign exchange earner -- is enormous.

His company has already made an offer to deal with Iraq's flared gas -- the burn-off which most other oil producers in the developed world have long been converting to dry and liquid gas.

"We have proposed that we do the processing for free. We will deliver the dry gas to the Iraqi government and then sell the liquefied gas on the open market," Sajjad said. "We are just waiting for the go-ahead."

Julian Burns, vice president of BAE Systems North America, which makes trucks as well as defence and aerospace systems, said he had found in the Iraqis a "resourceful and proud people who are ready to do business."

He was not concerned, he said, about talk of Iraq sliding relentlessly towards civil war.

"I'm a retired army general and I'm here to do business in Iraq," he told AFP. "That in itself is a message."

US official Brinkley, too, shrugged off talk of civil war.

"It's been good to have come here and to have spoken to the people. All say they just want to live in peace.

"In any case, many multinationals do business in other dangerous places in the world. There is no reason they should not do so in Iraq as well."

GOOD READING GREAT POST THANK YOU .........JCWH

Iraq PM vows Cabinet shakeup in two weeks
Updated 1d 14h ago | Comments2 | Recommend12 E-mail | Save | Print |


Enlarge By Khalid Mohammed, AP

The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gestures during an interview in Baghdad, Saturday. Al-Maliki said Saturday he will soon bring new faces into his Cabinet, as his government faces mounting U.S. pressure to take greater responsibility for security and other efforts to stabilize the country.



IRAQI CABINET SHUFFLE

CRACKING DOWN: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says he will reshuffle his Cabinet and pursue criminal charges against political figures linked to extremists.

UNDER PRESSURE: The U.S. has pressured al-Maliki to bring order to his coalition government since it came into power in May, but he had resisted shaking up his Cabinet.

FALLOUT: Some officials said about nine Cabinet members would lose their jobs, including all six loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an al-Maliki ally.




WAR IN IRAQ

Violence: Saddam ammo caches deadly | Homemade 'speed bumps' deadly on roads



Make-believe: Iraqi children imitate life on Baghdad streets | Life in Iraq: A weekly status report on the country, its people



Battle for Baghdad: 'The most dangerous spot I could find' | Photos: Baghdad's neighborhoods



Photo essays: Sniper hunt | Shorja market bombings



Executions: Half-brother hanged | Bush: Saddam hanging botched | Graphic | Photos



American casualties: Toll reaches 3,000 | Contractors: AP: 800 killed, 3,000 wounded | Deadly blast | A look at troops who lost their lives | Graphic





BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's prime minister said Saturday he will reshuffle his Cabinet within two weeks and pursue criminal charges against political figures linked to extremists as a sign of his government's resolve to restore stability during the U.S.-led security crackdown in Baghdad.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also told the Associated Press during an interview at his Green Zone office that Iraq will work hard to ensure the success of a regional security conference.

The conference in Baghdad, tentatively set for next weekend, is expected to bring together all of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, as well as the United States and Britain to find ways to ease this country's security crisis.

Iran has not announced whether it will attend, but Iraqi officials believe that Tehran will send a representative.

Al-Maliki has been under pressure from the U.S. to bring order into his factious government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds since it took office last May. Rumors of Cabinet changes have surfaced before, only to disappear because of pressure from coalition members seeking to keep power.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iraq | Baghdad | Iran | Saddam Hussein | Sunni | Iraqi government | Mohammed | Sadr | Shiites | PM | Maliki | Cabinet | Iraqi prime minister | Nouri | Khalid Mohammed
Nevertheless, al-Maliki said there would be a Cabinet reshuffle "either this week or next."

After the changes are announced, al-Maliki said he would undertake a "change in the ministerial structure," presumably consolidating and streamlining the 39-member Cabinet.

The prime minister did not say how many Cabinet members would be replaced. But some officials said about nine would lose their jobs, including all six Cabinet members loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an al-Maliki ally.

Al-Sadr also controls 30 of the 275 parliament seats, and his support for al-Maliki has been responsible for the government's reluctance to crack down on the cleric's Mahdi Army militia, blamed for much of the Shiite-Sunni slaughter of the past year.

U.S. officials had been urging al-Maliki to cut his ties to al-Sadr and form a new alliance of mainstream Shiites, moderate Sunnis and Kurds. Al-Maliki had been stalling, presumably at the urging of the powerful Shiite clerical hierarchy that wants to maintain Shiite unity.

But pressure for change has mounted since President Bush ordered 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq last January despite widespread opposition in Congress and among the U.S. public — weary of the nearly four-year-long war.

Last month, U.S. and Iraqi troops arrested Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, an al-Sadr ally, for allegedly diverting millions of dollars in government funds to the Mahdi Army and allowing death squads to use ambulances and government hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings.

During the interview, al-Maliki said other top officials would face prosecution for ties to insurgents, sectarian militias and death squads — including members of parliament.

"There has been coordination between us and the Multinational Forces ... starting at the beginning of this year ... to determine who should arrested and the reasons behind arresting them," he said.

Al-Maliki did not elaborate on the U.S.-Iraqi coordination but said Iraqi judicial authorities were reviewing case files to decide which to refer to an Iraqi investigative judge, who must decide whether there is enough evidence to order a trial.

Al-Maliki said he was encouraged by Iraqi public response to the new Baghdad security operation — which has led to a sharp drop in violence in the capital.

He also defended his government, saying it managed to "achieve a lot of harmony and stability" despite attacks by al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein loyalists.

The prime minister did not say how many politicians and officials might be targeted for formal investigation, an Iraqi legal step that corresponds to a grand jury probe.

But five senior Iraqis — two of them generals and three from Shiite and Sunni parties — have told the AP that up to 100 prominent figures could face legal proceedings.

The five spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the subject to the media. All five had direct knowledge of the case review.

U.S. officials have said privately that a number of prominent Iraqis were believed to have ties to armed groups.

One Shiite parliament member, Jamal Jaafar Mohammed, is believed to have fled to Iran after U.S. authorities learned that he was convicted by a Kuwaiti court in absentia and sentenced to death in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait.

Mohammed fled Kuwait for Iran before he could be arrested and returned after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. U.S. officials have alleged he was a conduit for Iranian weapons and supplies smuggled to Shiite militias.

U.S. military officials have expressed concern over alleged Iranian weapons shipments and financial support to Shiite parties allied with al-Maliki. The Shiite-led government hopes the upcoming regional conference will ease tensions between the U.S. and Shiite-dominated Iran — and allay Washington's fears of Tehran's influence here.

The U.S. also hopes the conference will encourage Syria and other Arab countries — most of them Sunni-led — to increase their support for Iraqi's leadership, despite regional unease over the Shiite-led government's ties to Iran.

"In fact the importance of the upcoming conference lies in the fact that the Iraqi government has the ability to serve as a proper venue for solving conflicts," al-Maliki said.

"So we will exert the utmost effort to find solutions to all pending questions, either among regional countries themselves or between them and Iraq, or between them and powers such as the U.S. and Britain and the international community."

Originally Posted by CharmedPiper

The House resumes its sessions tomorrow
Baqir al-Hadi 05 / 03 / 2007-14:43

The Euphrates channel space is that the parliament will resume its meetings tomorrow, Tuesday after the end of the first Legislative chapter for the current year. It added that the first deputy Canal the President of the House of Representatives Sheikh Khaled al-Attiya confirmed that he will be tomorrow, Tuesday held the first hearing of the House of Representatives for the first Legislative chapter for the current year.

She explained that it is expected to be ratified by the House of laws and a number of important projects including the oil, gas and cabinet reshuffle the new law, expected to uproot the Baath. The news agency pratha (father)

..:: æßÇáÉ ÃäÈÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÇÁ ÈÑÇËÇ ::..

Originally Posted by snottynose

Iraq PM vows Cabinet shakeup in two weeks
Updated 1d 14h ago | Comments2 | Recommend12 E-mail | Save | Print |


Enlarge By Khalid Mohammed, AP

The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gestures during an interview in Baghdad, Saturday. Al-Maliki said Saturday he will soon bring new faces into his Cabinet, as his government faces mounting U.S. pressure to take greater responsibility for security and other efforts to stabilize the country.



IRAQI CABINET SHUFFLE

CRACKING DOWN: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says he will reshuffle his Cabinet and pursue criminal charges against political figures linked to extremists.

UNDER PRESSURE: The U.S. has pressured al-Maliki to bring order to his coalition government since it came into power in May, but he had resisted shaking up his Cabinet.

FALLOUT: Some officials said about nine Cabinet members would lose their jobs, including all six loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an al-Maliki ally.




WAR IN IRAQ

Violence: Saddam ammo caches deadly | Homemade 'speed bumps' deadly on roads



Make-believe: Iraqi children imitate life on Baghdad streets | Life in Iraq: A weekly status report on the country, its people



Battle for Baghdad: 'The most dangerous spot I could find' | Photos: Baghdad's neighborhoods



Photo essays: Sniper hunt | Shorja market bombings



Executions: Half-brother hanged | Bush: Saddam hanging botched | Graphic | Photos



American casualties: Toll reaches 3,000 | Contractors: AP: 800 killed, 3,000 wounded | Deadly blast | A look at troops who lost their lives | Graphic





BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's prime minister said Saturday he will reshuffle his Cabinet within two weeks and pursue criminal charges against political figures linked to extremists as a sign of his government's resolve to restore stability during the U.S.-led security crackdown in Baghdad.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also told the Associated Press during an interview at his Green Zone office that Iraq will work hard to ensure the success of a regional security conference.

The conference in Baghdad, tentatively set for next weekend, is expected to bring together all of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, as well as the United States and Britain to find ways to ease this country's security crisis.

Iran has not announced whether it will attend, but Iraqi officials believe that Tehran will send a representative.

Al-Maliki has been under pressure from the U.S. to bring order into his factious government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds since it took office last May. Rumors of Cabinet changes have surfaced before, only to disappear because of pressure from coalition members seeking to keep power.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iraq | Baghdad | Iran | Saddam Hussein | Sunni | Iraqi government | Mohammed | Sadr | Shiites | PM | Maliki | Cabinet | Iraqi prime minister | Nouri | Khalid Mohammed
Nevertheless, al-Maliki said there would be a Cabinet reshuffle "either this week or next."

After the changes are announced, al-Maliki said he would undertake a "change in the ministerial structure," presumably consolidating and streamlining the 39-member Cabinet.

The prime minister did not say how many Cabinet members would be replaced. But some officials said about nine would lose their jobs, including all six Cabinet members loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an al-Maliki ally.

Al-Sadr also controls 30 of the 275 parliament seats, and his support for al-Maliki has been responsible for the government's reluctance to crack down on the cleric's Mahdi Army militia, blamed for much of the Shiite-Sunni slaughter of the past year.

U.S. officials had been urging al-Maliki to cut his ties to al-Sadr and form a new alliance of mainstream Shiites, moderate Sunnis and Kurds. Al-Maliki had been stalling, presumably at the urging of the powerful Shiite clerical hierarchy that wants to maintain Shiite unity.

But pressure for change has mounted since President Bush ordered 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq last January despite widespread opposition in Congress and among the U.S. public — weary of the nearly four-year-long war.

Last month, U.S. and Iraqi troops arrested Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, an al-Sadr ally, for allegedly diverting millions of dollars in government funds to the Mahdi Army and allowing death squads to use ambulances and government hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings.

During the interview, al-Maliki said other top officials would face prosecution for ties to insurgents, sectarian militias and death squads — including members of parliament.

"There has been coordination between us and the Multinational Forces ... starting at the beginning of this year ... to determine who should arrested and the reasons behind arresting them," he said.

Al-Maliki did not elaborate on the U.S.-Iraqi coordination but said Iraqi judicial authorities were reviewing case files to decide which to refer to an Iraqi investigative judge, who must decide whether there is enough evidence to order a trial.

Al-Maliki said he was encouraged by Iraqi public response to the new Baghdad security operation — which has led to a sharp drop in violence in the capital.

He also defended his government, saying it managed to "achieve a lot of harmony and stability" despite attacks by al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein loyalists.

The prime minister did not say how many politicians and officials might be targeted for formal investigation, an Iraqi legal step that corresponds to a grand jury probe.

But five senior Iraqis — two of them generals and three from Shiite and Sunni parties — have told the AP that up to 100 prominent figures could face legal proceedings.

The five spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the subject to the media. All five had direct knowledge of the case review.

U.S. officials have said privately that a number of prominent Iraqis were believed to have ties to armed groups.

One Shiite parliament member, Jamal Jaafar Mohammed, is believed to have fled to Iran after U.S. authorities learned that he was convicted by a Kuwaiti court in absentia and sentenced to death in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait.

Mohammed fled Kuwait for Iran before he could be arrested and returned after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. U.S. officials have alleged he was a conduit for Iranian weapons and supplies smuggled to Shiite militias.

U.S. military officials have expressed concern over alleged Iranian weapons shipments and financial support to Shiite parties allied with al-Maliki. The Shiite-led government hopes the upcoming regional conference will ease tensions between the U.S. and Shiite-dominated Iran — and allay Washington's fears of Tehran's influence here.

The U.S. also hopes the conference will encourage Syria and other Arab countries — most of them Sunni-led — to increase their support for Iraqi's leadership, despite regional unease over the Shiite-led government's ties to Iran.

"In fact the importance of the upcoming conference lies in the fact that the Iraqi government has the ability to serve as a proper venue for solving conflicts," al-Maliki said.

"So we will exert the utmost effort to find solutions to all pending questions, either among regional countries themselves or between them and Iraq, or between them and powers such as the U.S. and Britain and the international community."

Originally Posted by inquisitive1

Parliamentarians and Politicians accused of supporting terrorism were issued arrest warrents in accordance with The Anti-Terrorism Act. Their immunity was lifted and less than ten persons were reported to have been given warrants. Sotaliraq.com - ÕæÊ ÇáÚÑÇÞ

Sorry all for the long quote, however as you can see all of these articles are ties into one another. The reshuffle of the cabinet is already done, because obviously they were arrested. So tomorrow, line up the new guys.....pass the HCL...put a price on your money and lets get this over with. Thanks all for the great posts...I think this ride is almost over with.

Originally Posted by Adster

March 12, 2007
Country: Iraq

Title: Third and Fourth Reviews Under the Stand-By Arrangement

IMF Executive Board Calendar -- Sorted by Date

March 12, 2007
Country: Iraq

Title: Third and Fourth Reviews Under the Stand-By Arrangement

WOoTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Susie whats the good word

Bill

Iraq woos fuel distributors with tax breaks
Reuters | Tuesday, 6 March 2007

AdvertisementBAGHDAD: Iraq's oil minister on Monday urged private companies to take advantage of a two-year tax break on fuel imports and other government incentives aimed at freeing up the market and relieving shortages.


Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani met company representatives in Baghdad to explain the details of a new oil aimed at bringing private companies, both Iraqi and foreign, into oil products distribution.

"The remarkable thing in this law is that the private sector and private companies are free to operate according to market conditions," he told the executives.

"There will be no limitations or restrictions on the quantity of imports or the methods of distribution or the prices."

Shahristani said the government will offer a two-year exemption from customs duties and taxes on imported oil products, and will support private companies by providing storage facilities and other incentives if necessary.

"We hope this summer the private sector will play its role in importing oil products," he told the executives, all apparently from Iraqi companies.

"We will help them in every way we can, either by providing fuel stations until they can build new ones or even providing them with warehouses, so that the private sector can immediately be able to import oil products," Shahristani said.

Iraq has the world's third largest proven oil reserves but its refineries have suffered from a decade of sanctions and four years of violence since the US-led invasion in 2003, hampering investment in the oil industry.

Smugglers, believed to be funding insurgents, siphon off fuel, causing shortages that force people to queue for hours for subsidised fuel at state outlets or pay much higher prices on the black market. The government, meanwhile, has been paying hundreds of millions of dollars a year for imports.

Iraq won a loan accord with the IMF in December 2005 and a $US14 billion ($NZ20.58 billion) debt swap with private lenders.

Since then, the price of a litre of ordinary gasoline has risen from 20 dinars to around 300 dinars as part of a commitment to end subsidies.

Shahristani said the government, which spent $US700 million on fuel imports last year, was determined to end fuel price controls.

"We are aware that the private sector needs to make reasonable profits to develop its work," he said.

"We will never interfere in setting the prices or setting a ceiling on them."

However, he said the government would continue to provide some oil products at subsidised prices "to protect poor families" for a limited period of time.

"We hope in a couple of years that the Iraqi oil ministry will leave the job of distributing oil products entirely to the private sector," he said.

Shahristani said that wherever the state importer SOMO was able to find a competent private company to take over import contracts, it was prepared to transfer existing contracts.

Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said henceforth the oil ministry would focus on the upstream end of the business.

"This step of allowing the private sector to tackle the job of providing and securing oil products will make the Iraqi oil ministry focused on doing its best to raise production and export rates," he said.

Cabinet approval of a draft oil law last month took Iraq a step closer to setting out the framework for foreign companies investing in Iraqi oil production, which will be crucial to revitalising the economy. Parliament still has to pass the law.

Iraq has been wooing foreign investors but poor security, particularly in Baghdad and the western province of Anbar, has kept many companies away.

Iraq woos fuel distributors with tax breaks - New Zealand's source for business, stock market & currency news on Stuff.co.nz

Sure is quiet tonight. Just posting to make sure it works.

Wishful thinking Cigarman but maybe the lull before the storm.

removed my post

Interesting article

Gulf states’ gas production only one-fourth of their reserves
Web posted at: 3/6/2007 2:4:33

Source ::: The Peninsula
Doha • The GCC states plus Iraq and Iran together control 40 per cent of the world proven gas reserve and yet today they still account for less than 10 per cent of global gas production with a small percentage of exports, says a Gulf gas Executive.
Hamid D Jafar, Executive Chairman of Dana Gas in the UAE said yesterday that undoubtedly it is incumbent on the Middle East and particularly the Gulf region to play a major role in global gas business.

"Practically all of the enormous gas reserves haven't in reality been discovered by chance. There is will be no surprise therefore that the real potentials of the region's gas reserves are likely to be much greater than what we have today and we have only started exploration for gas per se.

“This obviously will have implications on the medium and long term supply and demand picture," he said.

Jaffar was speaking at the 12th Annual Middle East Gas Summit which opened here yesterday.

He presented a paper titled 'The key role of the private sector in the development of the regional gas business'.

He said that some reports forecast the required energy investments in the Middle East and North Africa region of $ 345bn in the next five years alone with 45 per cent targeting the national gas chain.

Natural gas is rapidly becoming the fuel of choice and feedstock in many vital important applications such as power generation, water desalination, petrochemicals and fertilisers as well as for secondary recovery of oil production, he said.

"In the Gulf countries alone, natural gas demand has doubled over the past decade driven by growing economy and population, and surging industrial development," said Jaffar.

"It is clear that the potential for future expansion in local gas demand in the Gulf is considerable with gas used by power generation and water desalination sector expected to keep growing at more or less 10 per cent per annum for at least the next five years.

“This sector will continue to absorb about half the region of the total gas demand with the industrial sector accounting for nearly 35 per cent."