Thread: Archive News - Iraqi Dinar Think Tank - 08/09/09 - 09/01/10

Central Bank of Iraq excludes the restraining of dealings in foreign currency

Iraq's central bank denied the allegation that the rumors about his intention to restrict foreign exchange transactions and foreign currency.

The agency said the national news agency said an official source at the bank said that the aim of the airing of these rumors to achieve selfish gains for some speculators and damage the stability of the national economy.

The source added that the freedom of foreign exchange is a pillar of the economic rights of citizens guaranteed by law and consistent with the objectives of monetary policy to impose stability and promote development and economic well-being, provided it does not intersect with the law on combating money laundering and criminal proceeds and terrorism financing.

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Samurai visit Washington next month to discuss five important files

Scheduled to visit the House of Representatives Speaker Ayad al-Samarrai Washington early next month to discuss the five critical files as announced by press secretary to President Omar al-Mashhadani, the House of Representatives.

He said al-Mashhadani said in a statement that the Samurai will meet during his visit to the United States, a number of senior officials there, led by President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in addition to the leader of the parliamentary majority and the leaders of Democratic and Republican parties.

Mashhadani said that the Chairman of the House of Representatives in Washington, will discuss five important files with U.S. officials, notably the Framework Agreement and the strategic cooperation and ways of application and the developments of the political situation in Iraq, in addition to the implementation dates of the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

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Iraqi Bank (Al-Warka) Moving to Base
13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)
Story by Sgt. Ryan Twist
Date: 09.05.2009

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq –Individuals throughout Joint Base Balad, Iraq, will have access to the first Iraqi bank on base, opening in roughly two to three months.

The Al Warka Bank on JBB will serve Iraqis, Department of Defense contractors and third-country nationals who have access to get on base, said Maj. David M. Foster, officer in charge of the Iraqi Based Industrial Zone, with the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary).

"The bank provides a great opportunity here for us to help develop the infrastructure and help build the economy in Iraq," said Foster.

Foster, a native of Newport Beach, Calif., said they are in the final phase of opening the bank, aimed at providing services previously not available to Iraqis.

He said the hope is that bank employees will take the experience learned from their jobs and spread it throughout the local community.

Foster said there are 110 branches throughout Iraq. He said the Iraqis who work at the bank, if the bank and workers are successful, would eventually transfer to a new bank and help open it to the local economy.

He said the banks are fee based banks and the services they provide are foreign currency exchange, wiring money, letter of credit, electronic funds transfer, savings and checking accounts, and fund transfers.

Foster said this bank will also provide services to Iraqis who work on JBB who may not have access to those services in their local communities and give them the opportunity to learn how to use the banking services Al Warka offers.

Khalid Almoola, the bank manager, speaking through an interpreter, said the bank is here to support the locals.

"The bank is the vein of the economy, the economy is the vein of the country," he said.

Almoola also expressed his gratitude for U.S. assistance.

"We appreciate the Americans because they help us a lot," said Almoola. "They help the Iraqi people because they support the Iraqi people with medical issues plus they help find jobs for the people."

http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=news...w.php&id=38403

Baghdad Provincial Council allocates a number of halls for the issuance of smart cards
The use of electronic payment machines in shopping malls and banking companies

Baghdad Provincial Council instructed all municipal councils should be allocated Qguatahm sports halls in the municipality to use in order to issue smart cards to retirees and covered by a network of social protection, An official with the company in the world that the next three months will see the use of electronic payment machine in the malls and shops, banking and other commercial centers ..

Adding that the company is finalizing a credit system which will allow pre-borrow pensions covered by the guarantee in timely fashion deducted at the time scheduled for it.

An official of information technology in the company's global smart card Engineer Soran Mohammed Faraj Speaking for (morning): The holding of the provincial council is aimed to absorb the momentum generated on the branches of the Rafidain and Rashid, was authorized to issue smart cards to the covered, adding that this measure would reduce the suffering of retirees and covered by the social protection system and provide them with more time in the process of issuing smart card, as well as it would give freedom of action of the banks which issue these cards will reduce the momentum of the process of winning its branches in Baghdad .. indicating that the company distributed so far over 600 thousand between the card covered by it.

In the meantime, Faraj said the next three months will see the use of electronic payment machine to be used by Iraq for the first time in its history, pointing out that the highest priority in the distribution of machines, electronic payment will be significant commercial markets, shops and banking companies and other commercial centers, noting that the use of electronic payment machine will contribute to reducing the use of cash trading extensively as well as preventing the circulation of counterfeit currency, he said the machine that could carry out many of the most prominent of the various financial activities transferring cash between Chierfat in various regions of Iraq in addition to transfer funds out of Iraq, as well as the possibility of trading foreign currencies by the rest of this machine, including the U.S. dollar, euro and other currencies in the other ..

Indicating that the second step will use these devices in various shops, restaurants, travel agencies and other commercial facilities, other .. Stressing that the machines that can read the rest of the electronic cards after the deal to be agreed with the exporters from similar companies.

Soran Engineer also pointed out that the company is in advanced stages of completion of the project (advance payment guarantee), which will provide a great service to the beneficiaries of the new online social protection and retirees, where by this system will be able to receive their monthly salaries by the time .. saying that the company's moves in time to the current phone companies m.obile in order to reach agreements with them to allow the use of electronic cards in the payment of telephone bills and the purchase of assets and other events.

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The ration card .. Two, or four

Ration card is a safety valve to maintain the food security of family and Iraqi society at the present time .. Since succeeded in providing the minimum needs of the citizens ..

And the hit from the failures was due to many reasons can not be mentioned here is talk from time to time following the developments and new economic realities that have occurred in Iraq on the feasibility of this card or not .. Comes of these propositions is not on the government level by level, but on the social institutions and civil society organizations and among different people .. While considering the poor to the card as a safe haven and Hsnhm more important to face constant increases in prices. According to economic reality: that the elasticity of demand for food can not be changed quickly, but due to circumstances regarding the changing population numbers and tastes and price changes, acute and consumer behavior .. To become so-called this flexibility it is virtually little or low on many of the variables .. The explanation is that because the demand for food to be constant in the short term at least, since the food intake of people it can not be changed in response to price change, for example .. This certainly gives them a unique specificity makes them different from what it is like from the other types of goods .. through the above we can say that know what they need any people become easy if we analyze the trends in demand for food can then determine the size of consumption to a large extent. .

the application of the ration card and a clear gap remained for periods of time between what is needed for consumption and what it is equipped to citizens in terms of both quantity and quality due to several factors including the scarcity of financial resources compared with need and flow of real resources that the purchase price under the actual global .. What made things worse is an outbreak of major corruption cases in the institutions of the Ministry of Commerce and the sales agents that had stalled in the clear flow of the ration card items and the latest treatments, despite the Ministry of Commerce of cases of corruption, but it seems that things are more difficult to be avoided through the decisions taken by the ministry to handle errors in this program .. The question of providing food for the Iraqi people, President of the sensitive and important government is keen to secure within the framework of the ration .. In order to ease the burden of the people ..

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Rafidain Bank cut the interest rate on loans to traders in dollars

Bank of Two Rivers has decided to reduce the interest rate on loans to traders dollar to 6%.

The chairman Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, Amjad Jubouri the bank had started a new plan to facilitate the work of Iraqi traders through a decision of the Board of Directors At its last meeting, containing the interest rate cut to 6 percent on dollar loans to traders Iraqis.

The Jubouri in a press statement that the Director General of BADEA know the room by procuring the approval of the Minister of Finance Baqir Jabr Al-Zubaidi on the subject and overcome the obstacles that impede the work of Iraqi businessmen in order to activate the trade traffic in the country.

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maybe what THEY need is a new parliament...as this one so far has just let their own people down...they move along at a snail's pace expecting everyone to lend them a hand with their chapter VII but yet they have failed to pass any of the oil and gas laws which will benefit their people....maybe its time for a NEW IRAQI GOVERNMENT...IMHO...Pat

British employment program in Basra

The Basra Investment Commission had a meeting on Wednesday with a British delegation to discuss a program to employ 500 young people for one year.

“The program provides opportunities to work in the private sector in Basra,” Dr. Hayder Ali Fadhil, the Commission’s head, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

He said that the program would be expanded to other provinces by the Iraqi labor ministry, in case it succeeded in Basra.
The oil-rich city of Basra lies 590 km south of Baghdad.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=119733

Gazprom to bid for Iraqi fields in consortium with Turkish company

Russia’s energy giant Gazprom will bid for Iraqi oil and gas fields in a consortium with Turkey’s state-run oil company, a Russian business daily said, citing the Turkish Energy Minister.

Iraq will sell 14 blocks with total reserves of 41 billion barrels of oil and some 740 billion cubic meters of natural gas as 10 lots in December.

Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) will compete for six lots, and will form a consortium with Gazprom to bid for the other four lots, Vedomosti quoted Taner Yildiz as saying.

Up to 45 companies will be invited to bid, including Russia’s state-run crude producer Rosneft, the country’s largest independent oil producer LUKoil and Gazprom’s oil arm, Gazprom Neft.

According to the paper, Iraq is planning to earn $1.2 billion from onetime payments ($100 mln-$150 mln as bonus for each lot) and will retain a 25 percent stake in each project.

Meetings with bidders will be held on October 18-19, with bidding terms to be announced in early November, Vedomosti said.

The paper has not yet received any comment from either Gazprom or Gazprom Neft.

In June, the Turkish company unsuccessfully bid for 10 Iraqi fields with reserves exceeding 47 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=119714

CBI dollar sales down by 53%

The Central Bank of Iraq’s (CBI) dollar sales went down by 53% in its daily auction on Wednesday to reach $123.020 million compared to $231.018 million during the previous session.

“The demand hit $9.480 million in cash, covered by the bank at an exchange rate of 1,183 Iraqi dinars, and $113.540 million in foreign transfers outside the country, covered at an exchange rate of 1,173 Iraqi dinars per dollar,” according to a CBI news bulletin received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

None of the 16 banks that participated in today’s session offered to sell dollars.

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