Thread: Iraq/Dinar News up until March 28th 8PM CT.

Will foreign capital venture into ISX, March 15, 2007


The Iraq Stock Exchange is to open its doors soon for foreign investors after a long wait according to unconfirmed reports. Quoting the head of the Iraqi Securities Commission, the governmental regulatory body that overseas the activities of the small exchange which was opened in the summer of 2004, the commission has just approved moves to allow non Iraqi investors to buy and sell stocks of listed companies trading in the exchange.


Investors will have to acquire brokerage services through one of the 40 or so licensed brokers in the exchange, he said. These brokerage companies will open accounts for clients upon the delivery of normal identification credentials such as passport copies in addition to residence details and other customary information. Money transfers to fund these accounts will have to be carried out exclusively via the international banking system.


The Iraq Stock Exchange with a capitalization value of just over $1 billion has some 80 joint stock companies listed whose shares are traded twice weekly. Joint stock companies issue only one type of ‘common” stock conferring on the holder the right of voting in general assemblies and a share in the net profits of the company. There are two types of listed companies. Wholly privately owned companies as well as companies where the state still maintains up to 25% holding. The latter are primarily found in light manufacturing originating in state owned enterprises that where partially privatized in the late 1980s. Listed stocks include banking, manufacturing, agricultural, real estate, tourism and services sectors. Before 2003 the manufacturing sector dominated turnover but in more recent times banking has become the leading sector.


The exchange has never been open to foreign traders before. Earlier plans to liberalize the market following the foreign investment legislation, order 39 of 2003, by the now defunct Coalition Provisional Authority was never implemented. More recently the Iraqi Parliament endorsed a new Foreign Investment Legislation which explicitly opened up the capital market of Iraq to foreign investment.


Rumors of the imminent move to open the exchange for foreign investment have revived hopes in the depressed market leading to a significant rally in recent trade. Due to the consistently deteriorating security conditions, a stagnant economy and a very hostile business environment the exchange lost over the last two years some two thirds of its peak capitalization value. The new “Surge” to restore some degree of order to Baghdad together with the implementation of the foreign investment law, and the on going plans to introduce automation may all combine to bring much awaited recovery into the Iraqi bourse. It remains to be seen if the move will actually translate into any sizable influx of funds into the capital hungry market.

Housing Bank, main branch, Amman, Jordan

Finance Minister Baqer Jabr Al-Zubaydi disclose details of the targeting of the Ministry of Finance

24/03/2007

The Minister of Finance revealed Jabr Al-Zubaidi on important details of the targeting of the Ministry of Finance last week, the minister said in a statement to the channel broadcast the Euphrates

Yesterday, the terrorists were targeting the important meeting in Alozrarh comprising ministers and ambassadors to discuss the details of the work in the ministry and to discuss the new budget. The minister said that terrorists have obtained information on the meeting, the minister held the meeting in another location. He asked the Minister of Finance to investigate the incident and said that the truck was carrying a ton and a half tons of explosives and toxic gases, which led to the destruction of the entire infrastructure of the Ministry of despicable The minister pointed out that the ministry did not lose any of the important documents.

The minister said that the truck remained near the ministry for four hours has not been drawn to another place if withdrawn to a distance of twenty meters to have avoided a lot of losses. why was the target of the Ministry of Finance said that the targeting of the achievements of the ministry, which got the best of the Ministry of Finance in the Arab world according to the International Monetary Fund and the targeting of the high growth rates achieved by the ministry.

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Cheers!
DayDream

Iraq pledges to go ahead in the area of economic reforms

24 / 03 / 2007


Iraq had pledged to move forward in the area of economic reforms, considering addressing the problem of inflation in the country is one of the priorities in this area


This came in a letter addressed to the Finance Minister Baqer Jabr Al-Zubaydi, the Central Bank Governor Sinan Shabibi, to the International Monetary Fund.


The letter contained the Central Bank pledged to continue to apply strict credit policy to curb inflation and allow an assessment of the exchange rate gradually explaining that the high rates of inflation to justify continuation of this policy.

The letter stated that the government is still supporting and encouraging the private sector and Kanasrasasi amendment in the process of importing oil derivatives.

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Cheers!
DayDream

Originally Posted by funwit

THIS IS WOOT NEWS:

I sent an email to [email protected] and this is his reply. I sent this yesterday and received a reply this morning.


Dear,
The procedure will show up withen 10 days on ISX website.
Regards,
Taha

Bettye xxxxxx <[email protected]> wrote:

I am in the US and want to buy stock in the Iraqi Stock Exchange. What is the procedure?
Thank you,
Bettyexxxxxx
[email protected]



Send instant messages to your online friends Yahoo! Messenger - IM and PC-PC calling.

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! !

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! !

Susie,

Your joy brings everyone around you joy, please never stop...I would like to introduce my 16 years old son to one of the people that kept me and so many other excited about this investment. Thank you!

Originally Posted by shotgunsusie

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! !

We'll probably all be weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeing ourselves in a few days.

I've already arranged for a heart massage.

An Iraqi-American "partnership" to move the Iraqi economy
Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [24/03/2007]

Jabr added in a press conference in Baghdad attended by the Iraqi Minister of Industry, Fawzi Hariri, and Deputy of the Under Secretary of the American Minister of Defense for economic transfers, Brinkli Powell, that "expanding and increasing the production capacity of these plants will develop the Iraqi economy and contribute in solving the crisis of unemployment in Iraq".

Jabr Summarized the details of the agreement which was signed between the Iraqi Ministries of Industry and Finance and the American side, saying that the Ministry of Finance will provide initial facilitated loans, through government banks, that reach a total value of six million dollars to help ten plants belonging to the Ministry of Industry for the rehabilitation of their production lines to expand the productive capacity of these plants.

Jabr said that the American role in this process would be "attracting investors who showed their willingness to buy the produced goods at good prices and profitable manner; this has encouraged Iraqi government banks to provide loans to these plants".

He added: "the problem that was facing the process of expanding the production capacity of these plants was finding markets for their products".

Jabr said that the loans provided by the banks will be "facilitated interest rate debt service to no more than four 14 %".

Iraqi Minister of Industry, Fawzi Hariri, said that the agreement would cover "factories and companies which are mostly working at the present time but their production capacity range between 15 to 25%; our ambition is to upgrade their capacities to 80 % of the production and more, and develop them in a modern way suiting the twenty-first century and the sophisticated technology".

He said that such a step "in spite of being modest, it is considered a first step and a successful beginning of an integrated project that will take a year".

Brinkli said that the agreement seeks to "provide ways for cooperation between the industrial sectors in Iraq and the international community, and finding ways of cooperation between Iraqi businessmen and their counterparts in the international community and the United States".

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=3475

Discussing investment and reconstruction projects in Iraq
Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [24/03/2007]

Two delegations from Iraq and Kuwait put forth several projects in the fields of reconstruction and investment with which the Kuwaiti private sector can contributed in Iraq, and agreed to prepare dossiers on them and discuss them in future through a meeting between the two delegations at an invitation from the Kuwaiti side.

An Iraqi delegation representing the city council of Karbala and the Iraqi businessmen federation in the city, comprising Dr. Hameed Al-Farag, Dr. Haidar Al-Muaathin, Haji Mohammad Mudhaffar Mohammad Hassan Abdul Razak of the city council and Chief of the Federation of Businessmen, Haitham Mohammed Salih al-Hir, met with Deputy Director-General of the Kuwaiti Trade and Industry Chamber, Rabah Abdul Rahman Al-Rawah, and has discussed the reconstruction and investment opportunities in the province and the possibility of the contribution of the Kuwaiti side.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=3477

Looks like Kuwait and Iraq are mending fences with recontsruction and investment opportunities...nothing says "lets be friends" better than a little cold hard cash...

Kurds set to boost Iraq oil output
Gulf Daily News - [24/03/2007]

Iraq's Kurdish regional government expects to sign deals with at least 10 foreign oil firms by the end of the year, it said yesterday, as it strives to increase output by 1 million barrels per day over five years.

Ashti Hawrami, minister of natural resources in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, said five production sharing agreements have already been signed with the details to be released in the next few weeks.The companies involved include Norway's DNO, Turkey's Genel Enerji together with Addax Petroleum and Canada's Heritage Oil and Western Oil Sands.

"We are in discussions with a number of other companies and they are ready to come in," Hawrami told a briefing for potential investors in London. "We are holding things back, not them."

Production under the existing five contracts was estimated at 200,000 bpd. Additional foreign investment in the next five years was expected to boost output of new oil by another 800,000 bpd in the next five years. Hawrami said the government was also set to sign several exploration agreements. "I have six or seven contracts to be signed on my desk," he said.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=3474

Voices of Iraq: Missan-Culture
Posted by: nakr2004 on Saturday, March 24, 2007 - 07:28 PM

Missan-Culture
Seminar on Iraq's cultural reality in Missan
By Nizar al-Radi
Missan, March 24 (VOI) – The Iraqi novel association on Saturday hosted a seminar on Iraq's cultural reality as part of the three-day touring Golden Phoenix International Festival.
"The seminar will comprise four sessions on Iraqi culture with participation of more than 50 representatives of cultural institutions and societies as well as poets, novelists, critics, journalists and intellectuals," Mohammed Rashid, the head of the Iraqi novel association, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Rashid said the event will also honor Iraqi critics Nazim al-Saoud and Adel al-Hashimi for their distinguished roles in the service of Iraqi culture and music.
The novel association is an Iraqi cultural institution founded in 1999 and closed down by the former regime in 2002 after it honored the cast of a TV series called "Manawi Pasha," which deals with a sensitive epoch in Iraq's modern history.

Missan-Culture :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq