Thread: Iraq/Dinar News. 09/05 to 01/14/07

Yea, it does do that, we're having the Smokey shoot out this weekend. Should be fun. My wife rides a Harley Fatboy, and I ride a Road King Custom. What do you ride?

My husband rides a classic and I am the "B@@ch on the back! I know my limitation. I am a phycho!

HA! That's cool. Sometimes, I still wish my wife rode B@@ch, so I wouldn't have to worry as much. She's a good rider, it's the cars I worry about. Where is the rally you're going to? I think it's in PA? Am I right?

Thats right it is in PA. Thats another thing my husband said. He said that he would alway be worring about me. I like the scenery and do not have to worry about driving.

I keep thinking if we talkin long enough Mike or Adster will come on. They are not in the forum now!

The Iraq government is planning to offer an amnesty to Sunni insurgents as part of a comprehensive peace package that authorities hope will ward off civil war.

In a carefully detailed package which could be presented as early as next week, the government will try to tempt insurgent groups to lay down their arms in return for inclusion in the political process and the release of prisoners.


Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi PM

The Government will also offer a timetable for American troop withdrawal, stop US operations targeting insurgents, and clamp down on violations of human rights abuses, according to a 28-page deal reported by the Times.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...23/ixnews.html

He's right, sounds like he's a wise man. Now if the Dinar would peg we could ride alot more instead of working. LOL

Maybe their getting us some good news or info!!!

Thanks for the post. I have no more info and cigarman and I are trying to get some more excitement here. Boy I hope the peace package works. All we would need is a civil war.

http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?p...0060622-507568




Interview with Sinan Mohammed Rida Al-Shabibi, Iraq’s first Central Bank Governor
published in issue 3706 page 7 at 2006-06-22
First of all I would like to ask you what brings you to Romania?

Actually in Romania we have very good relations, especially in the central bank. Few central banks happen to be so close to me. I already visited Romania two years ago. What brings us now is some more: a payment system which is actually a system in which more money administered are overseen by a central bank, a system that makes the payment clear and settled instantly in real time. It’s very important for the economy that the payments are speed up. You pay your obligation if you are debtor or you get your dues if you are a creditor in a very fast manner. This is something actually known all over the world but Romania is seen as one of the last to implement this and we are going to implement it very soon. We had a lot of meetings with the technical staff. The mission is very technical in nature.

What is your schedule in Romania?

On June 18th I meet with people from the central bank responsible for the payment system and its elements because there are elements to discuss before the presentation to the delegation. On Tuesday I saw the Governor, his Excellency who I’ve seen in the past too, it’s not the first time.

A lot of investments are directed towards Iraq but at the same time its foreign debt is very high, how do you see the perspectives?

Foreign debt is being actually treated, it was high, Iraq is indebted because of the actions of the past regime but we have an agreement with the Paris Club signed in November 2004 and this agreement stipulated that 80 per cent of the debt should be reviewed and we had achieved this, the Paris Club agreement says that other countries should have demands comparable to that, so a lot of other countries which are not members of the Paris Club should also give us 80 per cent. Some countries which are not actually part of the Paris Club, including Romania, wrote of 80% of the debt.

So all in all we have about 20 per cent remaining. So I would say the biggest part of the debt remains to Arab countries which is being discussed and negotiated and I don’t think it would be a big problem.

Let us say the debt we had of about USD 120 bln is going to be reduced by 2012 and paid in full in about 20 years.

Do you think that the debt to Romania will have an impact on the trade relations?

According to the Paris Club we have a grace period of about 6 or 7 years before payment, I think we are going to start paying in 2011, of course there will be an interest rate to pay but I would say 20 per cent is a decent amount, an amount that we can sustain. I don’t want to say that we can forget about it, but I think Romania should think of our economic relations in terms of trade and investment not the debt, we will welcome any trading opportunities with Romania, and we will welcome any investment opportunities with Romania, either by Romanians in Iraq, or Iraqis in Romania. I’m sure Romania has very good experience in tourism, finances and even infrastructure of course. Iraq will welcome that.

Is Iraq really opened to foreign investors, even Romanian Investors?

I’m talking in potential tense, this could be, because Iraq now is open, we have foreign opportunities and we are aware of that. I’m talking of about collaboration, and I hope the new government will play an important roll. The security issue is very important but we also have some quiet spots in Iraq in the south and of course in the north, those regions are very opened to investors. Let us hope the situation will improve.

What about the Iraqi investors in Romania?

When I said we have to develop mutual investing relations I talked about the potential. In the future probably some Iraqis will like to invest in Romania. Now the Iraqis have the freedom of investing anywhere they like provided of course the investment does not harm the country’s interests.

I understand that another important issue in Iraq is reconstruction and development, how is that going along?

It’s proceeding probably in a better way than acceptance. The central bank of Iraq developed a lot of monetary policy tools that are very effective particularly in stabilising the inflation and exchange rate. For the first time in Iraq for about one year an a half the exchange rate is stable, we are moving toward a market of interest monetary system, we are liberalising trade we have asked a lot of foreign banks to come in the country, some of them are collaborating with Iraqi banks. I would say Romania would play an important role in the reconstruction if it chooses, it has great financial experience and we could use it. Romania can exploit in order to have a financial presence in Iraq.

How high is the national reserve of Iraq in foreign currency?

It is at a conformable level, by Iraqi standards, we started with a level of reserve at the central bank in 2003 of less than USD 1 bln, now we have about USD 11 bln.

What are the financial plans of Iraq?

It’s a big question, financially speaking we have to think of economic stability, price stability, interest rate stability, exchange rate stability and of course we should be able to create the stability for the private banking sector in order to participate to the funding. Iraq should continue receiving financial assistance but financial assistance is better to be channelled trough the private banking.

How important are the vast oil reserves in developing the country?

We also have to properly exploit the oil reserves. But we need the proper amount of money in order to bring that oil to surface. Everybody says Iraq is rich in oil, but that oil is still underground. We need specialist, we need about 10 billion dollars in order to extract the oil and put it on stream for exploitation.
by Serban Georgescu