Thread: Iraq/Dinar News to April 19, 2007 10PM CST

HERE IS THE HCL DEBATE AT A GLANCE: PROS AND CONS

What Does Iraq's New Oil Law Say About an Invasion? Critics charge Iraq's new hydrocarbon law is unfair to Iraqi people
Published 2007-04-08 13:00 (KST)

Amman, Jordan, is set to play host to a three-day economic trade show, a corporate meet and greet between powerful, well-moneyed investors and those who the guard the gates of vital decision-making government ministries in perilous but oil-rich Iraq.

On its Web site, loosely defined organizer Iraq Development Program (IDP) calls the Jordan gathering a "historic landmark event" Officially titled the Iraq Oil, Gas, Petrochemical and Electricity Summit, the three days of face to face meetings that begins on May 28 could impact Iraq's economic future for years to come.

Efforts to contact IDP directly and understand the origin of their funding and purpose were not successful. But the group's stated mission is to "aid Iraq as an economic force."

"Following declaration of new foreign investment laws for the extractive industries," the IDP's Web page says, "the [Iraqi] government is now finalizing its new hydrocarbon laws" -- to which promoters of the summit say the timing "could not be better."

Iraq's new oil-hydrocarbon law, and the push to see it quickly passed, has begun to raise serious questions among observers and critics.

The Iraqi cabinet approved the hydrocarbon law on Feb. 26 and sent it on to parliament where it now sits. If fully approved, Iraq's oil reserves would be opened to investment from foreign multinational oil companies. The current legislation would also provide oil companies the option for long-term contracts of up to 30 years. The laws would set up Profit Sharing Agreements, or PSAs, where revenue is based on the profit after oil companies' deduct their production costs. Reportedly, the remaining profits would then be divided among the Iraqi provinces.

Critics charge that the law offers excessive and unfair profits to the oil companies. Others worry that since Iraq is now a country experiencing horrific turmoil, the time is not right to debate such important economic legislation.

Supporters of the oil law disagree. They say the regulatory, legal and tax structure the oil law sets up, will invite the necessary outside investment the country needs to jumpstart its economy. They see the law as an enabler of market-based economic infrastructure that will produce streams of revenue, helping restore stability and prosperity for the Iraqi people.

In the background, outspoken opponents of the war say the push for such a law is evidence that the war had more to do with gaining access to oil than what the public was told.

"This story raises so many more questions than it answers," said Dr. Louay Bahry, adjunct scholar of public policy at the nonpartisan Middle East Institute in Washington D.C.

"As I read it, these foreign companies are fighting to get to Iraqi oil," said Bahry noting that such practices would be new.

Oil company representatives were clear about hopes to enter Iraq but stressed that security, democracy and an oil law that included investment incentives were necessary.

PSAs are a primary incentive of the oil laws. According to the International Energy Agency, 12 percent of the world's oil reserves are subject to PSAs.

"This would completely break from normal practice in the region where all the major oil producing industries are in the public sector," said Greg Muttit, co-director of the British research and watchdog organization, Platform London. Muttit said Iraq would be the only major Middle Eastern oil-producing nation where production is controlled by foreign companies.

Platform London's Unraveling the Carbon Web project states that it seeks to reduce the environmental and social impact of oil corporations and help citizens gain a say in decisions that affect them.

According to Muttit, oil companies have been lobbying hard to get what they want in Iraq by working with both the U.S. and U.K. governments, and through the International Tax and Investment Center (ITIC).

Muttit, who authored a chapter in a new book called A Game as Old as Empire says that Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total S.A. and Eni S.p.A. funded ITIC's effort at influencing the oil legislation in Iraq.

Founded in 1993, after the fall of the former Soviet Union, ITIC is a Washington, D.C., nonprofit research and education foundation with some of the world's largest corporations as sponsors. Co-chair's of the organization are former U.S. Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering and former U.K. Secretary of Trade and Industry Lord Walker.

"Our purpose is to improve tax and investment regimes," said Daniel Witt, president of the ITIC. The organization works with economies in transition and according to Witt, Iraq fits that profile perfectly.

Witt says the challenge in Iraq was how to attract investment where no stable economic infrastructure existed. ITIC commissioned a number of experts and looked at Iraq's contract and fiscal options in the petroleum sector.

"Make no mistake, donor money is important in transition periods," said Witt.

But, he says both the oil companies and the people of Iraq stand to benefit from ITIC's recommendations.

In 2004, ITIC published a report titled "Petroleum and Iraq's Future: Fiscal Options and Challenges," which said every $1 increase in oil sales may translate into an extra $2 for the country's gross domestic product. The report said the Iraqi government should write legislation that would create a framework where resources, rent and risk are shared with the investor, consistent with underlying economic potential and drawing on current industry norms and best practice.

The study said that profit-based systems tend to align parties toward common objectives.

Beyond rebuilding the country, oil company representatives say Iraqi oil plays another necessary role: meeting the world's energy demands.

"Given the scale of Iraq's resources and ambitions, we find it hard to see a future in which production of these resources will not play a significant role in meeting the global energy challenge," said a representative from Shell International in London last month.

But a number of critics worry the Iraqi people will be short changed. Some Iraqis see the oil companies as trying to gain partial ownership of the country's primary source of revenue.

"These laws give these foreign oil companies the right to actually have shared ownership of the oil," said Raed Jarrar, Iraq project director for American Friends Service Committee.

Jarrar says that since the laws do not set any limits on the percentage shared, over the next 30 years or so, the PSAs could cost Iraq billions of dollars.

Privatization proponents disagree, arguing that Iraqis will maintain ultimate control over their reserves of oil while benefiting from world market trends.

According to Daniel Witt at ITIC, "As oil prices go up or down, you have these dynamics in the contracts but Iraq is not surrendering sovereign rights [over the oil]."

In 1972, Iraq nationalized all assets of the country's private oil consortium, the Iraq Petroleum Company, or IPC, after years of disagreements over revenue. In the past, Iraq relied on oil for up to 90 percent of its foreign exchange earnings.

According to a Central Intelligence Agency memo that same year, Iraq's move to nationalize was the result of 11 years of tensions that resulted from the IPC's refusal to satisfy Iraq's demands for back payments it claimed the consortium owed.

The IPC included French, Dutch, British and United States oil firms, including British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, Mobil, Standard Oil and Compagnie Francaise des Petroles.

Nationalization meant that one hundred percent of oil revenues went directly to the central government, a move that many in the Middle East saw as a move toward greater economic self-determination, a step that stood to benefit the Iraqi people directly through social programs, healthcare and education.

Nationalization set's up a system whereby foreign oil companies buy oil from the state, under the state's terms. The move set the stage whereby Western oil companies, and the powerful economies they supplied, found themselves in even more vulnerable positions, subject to the whims of oil-rich countries.

The CIA memo expressed its displeasure calling the move "sudden and dramatic."

Some say that multinational oil interests have been anxious to get back to Iraq ever since.

Public debate over the law, in both Iraq and the United States, has remained hidden beneath front pages filled with daily death and destruction.

According to Greg Muttit at Platform London, the majority of Iraq's citizens have no idea that this important law is being discussed.

"Most Iraqis would be extremely angry about this if anyone had bothered to tell them this was being done," he said.

He says that those who do know -- MPs, trade unionists and oil experts -- are actively organizing against it.

"The oil companies and governments are planning to take advantage of the occupation and the general weak position of Iraqi state institutions to push through deals on highly profitable terms, at the expense of the Iraqi people," said Muttit.

A few Iraqi political leaders have raised opposition.

A March 13 Voices of Iraq report Sunni lawmaker Hussein al-Falluji was arguing that it was not the right time to be dealing with the issue.

"Socio-political and security circumstances do not allow such a step now, as the draft would allow investment companies to re-wield power over Iraqi oil," Falluji told parliament according to the report.

ITIC'S Daniel Witt disagrees, saying the time is right to invite new investment that will restart the stalled economy "given the lack of infrastructure needed to jumpstart the economy, and get investment in now, verses waiting 10 or 15 years so they [the Iraqis] can debate these laws 'til kingdom come."

But some have questioned whether the law takes into account the reality on the ground in Iraq. They worry about tensions that might arise between the various deeply divided provinces once the market system is in place.

Louay Bahry of the Middle East Institute says there is a great deal of opposition from both the Sunnis and Shiites regarding the law. He says the Kurds, who apparently offer the most support, would prefer total freedom, and to see revenue from their region go directly to them.

"When it comes to revenue sharing, the law is not clear how exactly that is going to happen," he said.

Bahry says that 80 percent of the country's oil spe******ts have fled the country: "We have so many oil spe******ts from Iraq, but they are no longer there."

Raed Jarrar of the American Friends Service Committee goes further, saying the law will exacerbate those divisions. He calls the law a marriage of convenience between the Bush administration and Iraqi separatists who are monopolizing power within the Iraqi government.

"The oil law threatens the concept of a unified Iraq" because the law "decentralizes" most of the important authority of signing oil contracts, said Jarrar.

The recent surge by American troops has raised eyebrows as some ask whether the increase is an attempt to buy time so outside oil interests can have a chance to gain a greater foothold over the direction of the fragile economy.

An April 5, an analysis report by United Press International's Pamela Hess said U.S. officials are planning "a range of options to maintain the troop increase, from late summer through early spring 2008" whereby the hope is to quell the violence long enough for the nascent government to address some of the "underlying causes of the conflict, including the oil wealth sharing law."

Supporters of Iraq's hydrocarbon law cross both sides of the American political spectrum. They see the law not only as business friendly, but also as a chance to bring Iraq into the world marketplace, which they believe will foster democracy.

"The only way to fuel economic growth is through an engine of private sector investment" and "the sad part is, advocating state run equals slower economic growth which also equals slower improvement in quality of life," said ITIC's Witt.

Recommendations 62 and 63 of the Iraq Study Group recommends that the United States assist the Iraqis in drafting an oil law that helps privatize the industry and encourages investment.

One of the Iraq Study Group's members, former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta plugged the law in an April 4 New York Times op-ed. In the article, Panetta listed the eventual approval of Iraq's oil law as one of a number of steps the Iraqis could take to encourage democracy and achieve national reconciliation.

In his April 3 Rose Garden press conference, President Bush told reporters he had spoken to Iraq's prime minister about the oil law earlier.

In a March 27 speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's Public Policy Forum, David Satterfield, a senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, called the national hydrocarbon law part of the Bush administration's "New Way Forward" in Iraq.

On March 3, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad wrote in the Washington Post that the national hydrocarbon law "is a significant achievement for Iraqi's national reconciliation."

The Bush administration appears to have been interested in an oil law friendly to foreign investment since the invasion began in 2003. But some have pointed to clues that a push to gain easy access to Iraq's oil has been underway for years.

In 1999, Vice President Dick Cheney, while still CEO of Halliburton, said in a speech to the London Institute of Petroleum (now the Energy Institute) that the "Middle East, with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies."

In 2003, four months after the March invasion had begun, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded McLean, Virginia, consulting firm BearingPoint, a $9 million contract to support activities and policies undertaken by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which was designed to create a competitive private sector.

Platform London's Unraveling the Carbon Web wrote in July 2006 that the U.S. government had hired advisers from BearingPoint to help in drafting the oil law.

BearingPoint spokesperson Steve Lunceford said the firm was doing what it has done in the past in places like Kosovo and Poland -- providing assistance in the review of a number of economic policy efforts.

"This included providing a single expert that consulted to the government on its oil industry," said Lunceford this past week.

"Note, this does not equal 'drafting' the proposed hydrocarbon law," he wrote in an e-mail message.

Some invasion opponents see BearingPoint's role in helping draft the law as part of a bridge of suggestive evidence that crosses over to the controversial period before the war, when talk of how to gain control over Iraq's oil was quietly bubbling in pockets around the world, primarily the United States and Britain.

In his 2002 American Prospect profile of Ahmed Chalabi, who was the United States' original choice for a high leadership position in a new Iraq, Robert Dreyfus offers a snapshot of alleged oil ambition playing a role in an eventual invasion.

Dreyfus' story quotes former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James E. Akins as saying conservative think tanks and multinationals have denationalization in mind, and the parceling of "Iraqi oil out to American oil companies."

Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi National Congress, had allegedly met with U.S. oil company officials and guaranteed lucrative contracts if the U.S. overthrew Saddam Hussein.

According to the American Prospect story, when asked about such meetings one U.S. oil executive said, "I can't discuss that, even on background."

Later, in a July 2003 interview with PBS television program "Frontline," Chalabi admitted being "close" to Bush administration members Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, confirming he'd had easy access to Vice President Cheney's office.

When confronted by "Frontline" with a direct quote from the London Observer where he assured U.S. oil companies lucrative contracts for removing Saddam, Chalabi said, "No, that's not true," arguing he'd said Iraq's oil needed investment to increase production.

Leading back to the present day, where a number of observers and invasion opponents allege that the hydrocarbon law and the contracts it encourages lend evidence to the "blood for oil" charge, as Green Party chairman Jim Coplen did in a March 5 press release.

The hydrocarbon law's supporters caution against making such allegations.

Of those who attempt to draw correlations between the new hydrocarbon law and the motive for the invasion, Daniel Witt at ITIC says, "They are trying to connect dots that aren't there," arguing such controversial theory provides a platform to advance their long-stated objectives.

"They have a fundamentally different view of the world than me" but "history has proven that people are better off with economic growth," said Witt.

Originally Posted by DayDream
The Public Authority for taxes reap more than 300 billion in 2006Baghdad-file-Presse Hidralhashimi

He said the statistics and research in the State Tax Service of the Ministry of Finance of Iraq that the tax proceeds for 2006 amounted to (302) billion and three hundred and eighty-eight million-Dinararaghi; completion, an increase of 155% higher than the planned annual reached the 55% growth rate reached 64% for Hossilt tax for 2005.

The report outlined that the proceeds of the tax revenues collected from the professional : 22.786 billion, the companies 67.683 billion, carve direct 160.021 billion, the real estate 1.071 billion, profits of real estate transfers 39.789 billion, 1.071 billion sales tax, airport tax, 443 million dinars.
.He said that registration of more than 4500 companies last year to be the overall total number of companies 20262.

It identified a number of obstacles, and called for the removal of the limit of ambition as the players in supporting the state treasury in particular the need to activate Article 28 of the Act which clearly defines the duties and commitment to the sector (public, private and mixed) to the performance of tax to ensure cooperation with the State body.

The report pointed out that the tax authority derived from the force of law and the security situation experienced by the country led to a double taxation obligation alluding to the existence of administrative and financial corruption.

LUSH also emphasized the lack of services to the constituents most modern workplace and the difficulty of implementing the resolutions on the seizure of funds belonging to the former officers - because of the lack of explicit names-the fact that the majority of those names had to employees of the security services surrounded confidentiality of such cases.

ÇáåíÆÉ ÇáÚÇãÉ ááÖÑÇÆÈ ÊÌäí ÇßËÑ ãä 300 ãáíÇÑ ÚÇã 2006

Cheers!
DayDream

This seems like a lot of taxes for Iraq? Well any oh I hope it is correct! We were at the right place at the time.............................

TAXES NEVER LOOKED SOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!!!

They say it was at 1206 today but I did not see 1206 I saw 1212.5 and now 1213.6 I seen it go nowhere but up for the past week starting at 1209. I'm hoping Sunday's auction doesn't reflect a reverse trend.

Did you see the Euro today? 1.3538 93% Euro = 1.260

Originally Posted by Inscrutable

They say it was at 1206 today but I did not see 1206 I saw 1212.5 and now 1213.6 I seen it go nowhere but up for the past week starting at 1209. I'm hoping Sunday's auction doesn't reflect a reverse trend.

It was at 1206 in the early hours Inscrutable...then went up.

Dose anyone know why they are selling barrols of oil for 3 or 5 dollars?

Originally Posted by goldraker

Dose anyone know why they are selling barrols of oil for 3 or 5 dollars?

Thats a really good question.
Leann

Sorry if already posted... been away for 2 days
Forgiving Iraq's Debts
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 4/14/2007
The French were at it again in April 2003. Any reduction in Iraq's mountainous $120 billion external debt should be negotiated within the Paris Club of creditor nations, they insisted. It ought not - indeed, cannot - be tackled bilaterally. And what about another $200 billion in war reparations and contractual obligations? This, said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau, is to be discussed.

A day earlier, Paul Wolfowitz, the American Deputy Defense Secretary, prompted the French, Russian and German governments to write off Iraq's debts to them, so as to facilitate the recovery of the debtor's $15 to 25 billion a year economy. He echoed U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow who suggested, in an interview to Fox News Channel, that Iraq's debts should be discarded even as was the dictator who ran them up.

At first, Putin made conciliatory noises upon exiting a gloomy meeting with the two other co-founders of the discredited "peace camp". Russia, he reminded the media, is number one in erasing debts owed it by poor countries.

But he was swiftly contradicted by the Chairman of the Duma's Committee on the State Debt and Foreign Assets Vladimir Nikitin, who called the American proposals "more than bizarre". Iraq's debt to Russia - some "well verified and grounded" $8 billion - is not negotiable. Contradicting his own contradiction, he then added that discussions on debts have to be held bilaterally.

Gennady Seleznyov, the Chairman of the lower house of the Russian parliament, concurred. For good measure, he also demanded $2 billion from the USA for contractual losses due to the war. The Russian government and especially Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Alexei Kudrin, cautioned Wolfowitz that applying his proposal consistently would lead to the scrapping of the debts of another departed evil regime - the U.S.S.R.

Russia needs Iraq's money - especially if oil prices were to tumble. According to Russia's Central Bank, the Federation's foreign debt was up $2.7 billion in 2002 and reached $153.5 billion, of which $55.3 billion is in Soviet-era debt, $48.4 billion were accrued in post-Soviet times and the rest is comprised of various bonds and obligations.

But the U.S. is unfazed. US Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow reiterated to the Russian news agency, Rosbalt, his government's position thus: "We intend to organize a conference of creditors in order to discuss ways of finding a balance between the rights of the creditors and the rights of the Iraqi people to develop their economy. In my opinion, it would be unwise to immediately demand large sums of money from the new Iraqi government."

In this debate, everyone is right.

Iraq's only hope of qualifying for the status of a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) is by reaching iron-clad debt rescheduling agreements with both the Paris and the London Clubs. Still, as the Americans envision, creditors can unilaterally forgive Iraqi debt - especially one arising from Saddam Hussein's misdeeds - without hampering the process with the World Bank and without hindering future access to global or internal capital markets.

This is especially true when it comes to the United Nations Compensation Commission which administers Iraqi reparations to victims of Iraq's aggression against Kuwait in 1990-1.

Signs of utter confusion abound. The International Monetary and Financial Committee of the International Monetary Fund, headed by Gordon Brown, Britain's Chancellor, is committed to the Paris Club multilateral route.

Yet, James Wolfensohn, the President of the World Bank, a twin institution, plumps for a bilateral resolution of this novel controversy.

Anticipating a beneficent outcome, $2 billion in traded Iraqi sovereign and commercial loans, harking back to the 1980s, have recently doubled in value to c. 20 cents to the dollar. According to The Economist, brokers are betting on a 70 to 90 percent reduction of Iraq's debt. This is way too exuberant. Moreover, not all creditors are created equal.

Iraq owes the IMF and the World Bank a mere $1.1 billion. But there is an abundance of unpaid high priority trade credits and bilateral loans. Private banks and commercial firms come a dismal third. Moreover, following Nigeria's example, Iraq may choose to ignore Paris Club creditors and deploy its scarce resources to curry favor with those willing and able to extend new financing - namely, private financial intermediaries.

Trading Iraqi debt - sovereign notes, letters of credit and papers issued by the central bank and two other financial institutions, Rafidain Bank and Rashid Bank, is onerous. The Economist describes it thus:

"Trading, or even holding, Iraqi paper is loaded with traps. Its validity can expire every few years, according to the statute of limitations in various jurisdictions. Renewing it requires some acknowledgment from the borrower, and that was difficult even before the war. Assigning the debt from buyer to seller requires the borrower's assent, and the Iraqi banks have been unco-operative since 1988. The trick is to apply during public holidays, or when communications are down (as they are now), because the borrower's failure to respond within ten working days can be taken as agreement."

No one has a clear idea of how much Iraq owes and to whom.

According to Exotix, a sovereign debt brokerage, Iraq owes commercial creditors $4.8 billion and other Gulf states $55 billion - regarded by Iraq as grants to cover the costs of its war with Iran in the 1980s. It owes Paris Club members - excluding Russia and France ($8 billion apiece) - $9.5 billion, the countries of Central Europe, mainly Germany - $4 billion and others - about $26 billion, including $5 billion to the U.S. government and American businesses.

The tortured country's foreign debt alone amounts to $5000 per every denizen. With reparations and commercial obligation, Iraq's destitute inhabitants are saddled with more than $16,000 in debt per capita - or 15-20 times the country's gross national product. Iraq hasn't serviced its loans for well over a decade now.

Others dispute these figures. Frederick Barton compiled, together with athsheba Crocker, an inventory of Iraq's outstanding financial obligations for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

According to Barton-Crocker, quoted by the Gulf satellite channel, al-Jazeera and by the Christian Science Monitor, Iraq owes $199 billion in compensation claims to more than a dozen nations, another $127 billion in foreign debts and $57 billion in pending foreign contracts - public and private. Iraq owes Russia $12 billion, Kuwait $17 billion, the Gulf States $30 billion and less than $2 billion each to Turkey, Jordan, Morocco, Hungary, India, Bulgaria, Poland, and Egypt.

Most of the pending contracts are with Russian firms ($52 billion) but the French, Chinese, Dutch, United Arab Emirates and Egyptians have also inked agreements with Hussein's regime. The United states and American firms are owed little if anything, concludes al-Jazeera. Debt forgiveness would allow a more sizable portion of Iraq's oil revenues to be ploughed into the American-led reconstruction effort, to the delight of U.S. and British firms.

Russia and France are not alone in their reluctance to bin Iraqi credits. Austrian Minister of Finance, Karl-Heinz Grasser, was unambiguous on Tuesday: "We see no reason why we should waive 300 million Euros of Iraqi debts". He noted that Iraq - with the second largest proven oil reserves in the world - is, in the long run, a rich country.

In the build-up to the coalition, the United States promised to buy the debt Iraqis owe to countries like Bulgaria ($1.7 billion) and Romania. In Macedonia, Dimitar Culev of the pro-government daily "Utrinski Vesnik", openly confirms that his country's participation in the coalition of the willing had to do, among other, longer-term considerations, with its hopes to recover Iraqi debts and to participate in the postwar bonanza.

Poland's Deputy Labor and Economy Minister, Jacek Piechota, on Tuesday, affirmed that Poland intends to recover the $560 million owed it by Iraq by taking over Iraqi assets in a forthcoming "privatization". Another option,
he suggested, was payment in oil.

Nor are such designs unique to sovereign polities. According to Dow Jones, Hyundai hopes to recover $1.1 billion through a combination of crude oil and reconstruction projects. During the Clinton administration, American creditors almost helped themselves to between $1.3 and $1.7 billion of frozen Iraqi funds with the assistance of the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission. Luckily for the looming new Iraqi government, the legislation languished in acrimony.

The debt question is not academic. As the London Times observes: "As things stand, no one can write a single cheque on Iraq's behalf until the question of its towering debts is sorted out. Not a single barrel of oil can be sold until it is clear who has first claim to the money; no reputable oil company would touch it without clear title."

According to Pravda, to add mayhem to upheaval, the Iraqi opposition indignantly denies that it had broached the subject with the USA. Iraq, they vow, will honor its obligations and negotiate with each creditor separately. But, some add ominously, members of the "friends of Saddam" fan club - alluding to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus among others - are unlikely to get paid.

The Iraqi opposition is as fractured as the Western alliance. Some exiles - like Salah al-Shaikhly from the London-based Iraqi National Accord - promote the idea of a big write-off cum grace period akin to the 66 percent reduction in the stock of Yugoslav obligations. Debt for equity swaps are also touted.

The trio of creditors - especially France and Russia - might have considered debt reduction against a guaranteed participation in the lucrative reconstruction effort. But a fortnight ago the House of Representatives approved a non-binding amendment to the supplementary budget law calling upon the administration to exclude French, Russian, German and Syrian companies from reconstruction contracts and to bar their access to information about projects in postbellum Iraq.

Sam Vaknin ( Narcissism, Self-love, The Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), the Narcissist, Psychopath, and Relationships with Abusive Narcissists and Psychopaths - Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Re-Visited ) is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.

Visit Sam's Web site at Narcissism, Self-love, The Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), the Narcissist, Psychopath, and Relationships with Abusive Narcissists and Psychopaths - Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Re-Visited You can download 22 of his free ebooks in our bookstore

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© 2004 Global Politician

Economic : University of Kufa planning to set up a seminar to discuss ways of economic investment
14.04.07
In the Furat
Najaf, Adnan Sudanese

Is the Faculty of Administration and Economics at the University of Kufa on a seminar to discuss ways of economic investment in the Furat cooperation and coordination with the Chamber of Commerce of Najaf.

A source in the information Kufah University told the (morning) that the establishment of this forum comes at a time when the Central Euphrates provinces state of stability and economic security of the addresses involved in the Department of Economics in the Faculty of Administration and Economy Symposium administration.

The source pointed out that the seminar aims at achieving communication between the scientific community and academic institutions in economic conditions through the translation of economic reality, especially with regard to investment in the Furat and the search for potential and investment opportunities in this vital region of Iraq. Perhaps the most important axes that will be discussed is the importance of development investment in the Furat and potential and investment opportunities in the region and assess the investment environment in the region and the policy of attracting inward investment and the economic and social and political investment to the area and the Preparatory Committee for the seminar has identified a number of controls for participation

The researchers involved in the seminar and demanded to send their research and contributions to the College until the day of the 15th of April, which will be the last day for acceptance and has the Preparatory Committee for the symposium call to all teachers and researchers in Iraqi universities, institutes and scientific and interested economic affairs for research and participation in this symposium.

Iraqi banks : economic structural reforms in the near future
14.04.07
Attempts to make it Pmassav counterparts in the world that competes with it
Baghdad Yasser incumbent Heidar spring

Banking expert, Mr. Abdul Azim Yasiri, general director of Rafidain Bank : that the banking sector reforms soon witness a big backbone banks and the introduction of the electronic destruction and the capability to enable it to compete

With the expected arrival of foreign banks to Iraq in future. This came in response to "Assabah" to a question about the performance of the banking sector in comparison with experienced international banks and said : His performance without the required level, pointing out that the former conditions experienced by Iraq affected the general economic situation and the banking sector as a cornerstone of the economics of the country,
those circumstances stratified between him and technological developments.

He explained : that the reforms aimed at the banking sector will take up the restructuring of government banks and the introduction of the electronic destruction and the preparation and organization of new banking instructions and reconsider the powers of officials to keep abreast of developments bankers, which will be collected at the restructuring of banks.

And : that there is a tendency for the establishment of training centers, especially banks, as well as training outside the country, and the preparation of studies to evaluate the annual performance of the banks that deal with the negative and using research centers and professors specialized efficiency standards and performance of the banking sector, he said : The upgrade services provided by banks to their customers depends on the criteria and basic elements can be summarized in a simplified as follows :

1-introducing modern techniques : that our banks are still in isolation from developments in the world in the field of modern technology because of wars and economic blockade that dominated the economic and financial conditions in the country for many years, and banks need to be a period for quite some time to keep up with these developments, which have already begun to apply recently, and the introduction of modern technologies is in the forefront standards.

2-Human resources development : assuming that this element banks of great importance, especially at the present time because it represents a long-term human leads in the end to raise the level of performance and thereby improve service banking as a staff member on the culture of banking trainee qualifies for the exercise of all banking business efficiently and effectively, and improve the performance of staff depends on the numbers and programs also important performance criteria.

3-geographical spread : that this criterion usually relies on the expansion of the opening of branches and offices Sairveh for the purpose of delivering services to all areas of the bank and provide an opportunity for citizens to take advantage of those services without hardship, and that the most important criteria are the speed and accuracy in the completion of work.

4 - The rise in net profit and rapid delivery performance indicators are positive.

And on the question about the ability of the banking sector to compete with foreign banks with the start of deportees reconstruction, Yasiri confirmed that the former conditions experienced by the country has affected the general economic situation, including the banking sector, a cornerstone of the economics of the country, those exceptional circumstances stratified between him and technological developments witnessed by the outside world, and where that efforts are continuing to modernize and develop banking systems adopted modern technology and the introduction of all kinds in addition to the bank in connection with the implementation of sophisticated banking system and holistic includes linking all its branches with new techniques, we are fully confident that the bank will be able with God's help to compete with banks foreign open subsidiaries in Iraq in the future, especially as the presence of foreign banks in the country, not the new issue since the Rafidain Bank began its work in 1941 at the time of the later, where a large network of branches of foreign banks, such as the British Bank of the Middle East and the Orient Bank and Bank of Intra, ... etc.

However, the bank was able to exercise its first commercial bank Iraqi If the Iraqi banks to introduce totalitarian regimes in the restructuring of their computers and, as we have already said they can compete, but the gap considerably.

Yasiri also said : The role of the banking sector in economic development lies in its ability to mobilize savings and investment in various sectors of the economy and to the expansion of the monetary and credit promissory Bjelah credit broad, holistic and that the trend towards long-term funding of projects to serve the economic development and investment in large projects, agricultural, industrial and commercial and get through that the financial returns and continued investment in this area is one of the most important factors in the development of the stock market in which to increase corporate productivity inject equity securities and negotiable and that the bank is the exercising of which all economic actors.

Support mechanism and economic sectors in the area of soft loans, he pointed out that the bank continues to grant loans to the various economic sectors in the country under the existing instructions, which are still valid, there is a tendency to support small enterprises on a large scale grant soft loans, as well as support contractors for the project through under construction.

The Central Bank and procedures in dealing with inflation Yasiri finds that the Central Bank of Iraq has succeeded in improving the value of the Iraqi dinar against the dollar but the price of goods and services were still on the rise will impact on the cost of production and thereby increase prices.

Turning to the process control interest rates, explaining that they become vested in the same bank since 2004 after it was identified confined to the CBE board of directors, and is currently banks as interest rates and economic conditions and in accordance with the requirements of the work is obvious that raising the interest rate will narrow the performance of lending because the borrowers are usually resort to loans lying descent.

Asher Yasiri, a sometimes intersections between fiscal and monetary policy when using fiscal policy to accelerate the development process by pumping money in a hasty and contributing to a rise in prices and hence inflation, pointing out that monetary policy aimed at maintaining price stability and the reduction of inflation.

Regarding the latest on the evaluation and support for the lifting of oil derivatives, said Yasiri : There is a saying that the health of the sale, at prices lower than the value of purchase and this is what is happening for oil products but that the situation in Iraq and circumstances warrant support of derivatives, and most importantly, the House provided.

On the new budget emphasized that the general budget for the current year 2007, which was ratified by the parliament will open up the investment plans of the ministries and government departments all, especially as the Iraqi economy suffers from the long years of decline in productive activities, because the circumstances that have caused the economy to the country due to suspension of consumer activity production in all areas, but at the same time, the matter requires urgent action, as is happening to the security plan for Baghdad to provide security and stability to the country since the implementation of major economic enterprises can not be done without the contribution of professionals, traders, contractors and other workers in the private sector and provide the required security and protection of their hands terrorists and those with weak who want the country's destruction and devastation aimed at disrupting the march of progress and development and reconstruction economy correlated with the security and vice versa.