-
Official: Zeros in Iraqi currency will not be removed
Iraq will not remove the zeros from its currency because it will not resolve inflation and will create opportunities for corruption, said a senior source in Iraq’s ministry of finance and economics.
Iraq’s currency known as Dinar was largely devalued after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1991 and the imposition of international sanctions on the country.
The Iraqi government added three zeros to the bank notes in 1990s.
While before 1991, one Iraqi Dinar was equal to around $3, now $1 is worth 1170 Dinars, according to Iraqi Central Bank’s exchange rates.
Some experts have suggested that removing the zeros will enhance the country’s currency and allow it to better tackle inflation.
“The Central Bank wanted to remove the zeros three years ago, we alleged that it was impossible. They wanted to do it again last year and we rejected the proposal again. The issue is currently brought up once again, but the Ministry of Finance and Economics insists that Zeros will remain,” said Fazil Nabi, the deputy minister of finance and economics.
Nabi said removing the zeros will not reduce the inflation rates as Iraq’s inflation has been stable and remained low for quite some time.
“Besides, it will create problems for many citizens because it takes time for them to learn to use the new currency,” he said.
Nabi also stated that certain people will be harmed by removing the zeros because their salaries will decrease while it is unlikely for the price of goods in the markets to decrease.
http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=13687
-
22/08/10
Oil Ministry organized a ceremony to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of OPEC
The oil ministry early next month in Baghdad, a major celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC ) ..
And the transfer of the National Center for information about a ministry official as saying that the formation of a higher committee to organize the festivities, which include many events, which will be to honor the contributors to the development of Iraq's oil sector, as well as to issue a commemorative stamp for the occasion.
Aodhalmsdr and that Iraq had active role in the establishment of the organization and its weight in decision-making in the stabilization of oil prices in the world.
He said there will be another ceremony at FAO headquarters in Vienna, and Iraq will participate in the ceremony. And will be attended by representatives of Member States of the Organization.
http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=29346
-
Opening of the Sheraton Hotel in Basra next month :wink:
Confirmed the general supervisor of the project to prepare the Basra Sheraton Hotel Sarah Hamid Miran, that the deadline for the opening of the hotel will be the sixteenth of next month, noting that staff work make every effort to show the international specifications agreed upon contract with the implementing agency.
The governor of Basra Cltag Abboud Mayah, while inspecting the project: the completion of this edifice's tourism will create the first step to usher in a tourist arriving unleashed in Basra, where would be a tributary important for promoting tourism in Basra and will dismissed the Chief Financial Sports City to accommodate the largest possible number of guests Games Gulf 21, praising the efforts Outstanding efforts by working on the project.
The company Sommer Investments began work renovating the hotel for nearly six months, and a total cost of 55 million dollars
http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=29381
-
24/08/10
CBI reduces the reserve requirement for banks to 15%
A senior official at the Iraqi Central Bank said on Tuesday that the bank decided to cut the reserve requirement for commercial banks to 15 percent from 20 percent in a move designed to encourage lending.
A senior adviser Qassem harmful Central Bank of Iraq in an email that the bank decided to cut the reserve requirement for banks to 15 percent from 20 percent, from September 2010
http://ara.reuters.com/article/busin...67N0DL20100824
-
23/08/10
The Ministry of Transport get 50 million dollars from the proceeds of the global airline traffic
Transport Ministry announced that the volume of revenue obtained by airlines with flights over Iraqi airspace (transit) of 50 million dollars annually since 2008.
And the transfer of Director of Information Office Aqeel Kosar told the independent press (Iba) for the Transport Minister Amir Abdul-Jabbar as saying that the number of aircraft to airlines world pass through Iraqi airspace (transit) increased between 400 to 500 planes a day after the number was up from 100 And 150 aircraft per day by the year 2008, noting that the revenue earned by Iraq each year as payment for the passage of these aircraft is 50 million dollars.
Abduljabbar added that every plane passing through Iraqi airspace to pay around 375 dollars, according to the size of the plane, pointing out that Iraq has a strategic location is important is the shortest road connecting regions of the Middle West and south and north, making more airlines interested in economic terms the passage of aircraft through Airspace.
In a related development, Minister of Transport pointed out that the ministry has developed a plan to create a civilian airports in all Iraqi provinces by foreign investment.
He Abdul-Jabbar, that the ministry has contracted with a company (ADBI) French developed designs for airport Karbala as a consultant and supervisor for a period of five years for design development and the establishment of airports for which we strive for implementation in all provinces of Iraq, asserting that the contract will encourage investors to demand and to contribute to the construction of airports after the company places French designs to them.
The Iraq has six civilian airports, including Baghdad International Airport, which is the largest Iraqi airports, established in 1982 by a French company and there are other airports, including the Mosul airport and the airport of Basra, Najaf, Irbil and Sulaymaniyah.
http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=29395
-
19/08/10
«Central» Iraqi calls for private banks to search for a variety of sources of foreign exchange
banks to search for sources of foreign exchange and expand its role in the exercise of financial intermediation, not only to go to auction «Central» daily to get what you need hard currency to finance their needs.
Shabibi said at a seminar attended by «life» was held at the headquarters of the Association of Iraqi private banks, in which more than thirty banks, Iraqi special and experts in the sector, «The banks are working towards the distribution of resources between investment in central or in the credit in the local market, including develop sector In a positive manner and enhance his chances in the areas of investment benefit the economic and social development».
On the proposed increase to the capital of private Iraqi banks, and raised controversy in the circles of the banking sector, considered Shabibi increase is very necessary it has become essential for the development of the role of banks and all work towards completing the implementation of the resolution and recapitalization of banks, stressing the importance to bear the risks is essential At work and said «banks able to balance between the cost of bearing risk and benefit debit and credit».
He commended the Executive Director of the Association of Abdul Aziz Hassoun proposals that came out of the meeting, namely the need for incentives require contexts of work not covered by all the banks procedures themselves to be taken when there is a problem with any bank, due to the presence of banks do not have problems, especially for lending.
With regard to the duration of credit Participants in the seminar found that borrowers need to be aware of going for the lending process regularity.
Asked Shabibi Association of preparing a comprehensive study on the reasons and motivations to take measures to prevent and ministries which deal with private banks, which intersects with the directives of «Central» equality of private banks, banks -governmental organizations in all banking transactions.
The head of the Board of Directors of the Iraqi bailouts banking Engineer Wadi Handal's «life» that circumstance experienced by the Iraqi banks is very difficult to contrast the positions of stakeholders regarding the support of the sector and means of development, making the need is more urgent to work hard to get banks to support.
He added that the private banking sector looks to be an increase of capital of banks to 250 million dinars during the 3 years, an opportunity to enhance their contribution to the lending and finance better.
http://www.iraqdirectory.com/Display....aspx?id=13615
-
24/08/10
Task Force conducts seismic detection and surveillance in the field of oil Dujailah northwest Maysan
Task Force began seismic oil exploration company of one of the companies and the Iraqi Oil Ministry to conduct detection and surveillance in the field of oil Dujailah within the geographical area of the province of Maysan.
The general director of Maysan Oil Company Marag a reporter for the independent press agency (Iba) to carry out detecting and Alasttalatoti for the purpose of implementation of the three-dimensional seismic survey of the field and then the number of geophysical and geological studies him.
He added that the purpose of the survey to illustrate the synthetic image of the field variables and Alshanip Alaptrovixiaoip Tkkawin of oil-bearing and determine the amount of oil reserves for the purpose of developing a plan for the development of dug wells and will drill later for the exploitation and production is in support of the national economy.
The field Dujailah oil (50) kilometers north west of the province of Maysan, and spread over an estimated area (500) km 2 and above, and drilling the wells Acetkchavian Dujaila / 1 in 1960 and Dujaila / 2 in 1981, a joint field between the provinces of Maysan, Wasit and will adopt the oil company Maysan The development process.
http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=29458
-
US points to oil as key to Iraq's postwar future
When the U.S. overthrew Saddam Hussein seven years ago, the Bush administration envisioned a liberated Iraq that was rich, stable, democratic and a shining example to the rest of the Arab world.
Now, with the end of U.S.-led combat operations in Iraq, the Obama administration is predicting more or less the same thing.
Both U.S. presidents pinned their hopes on Iraq's vast but underdeveloped oil resources, calculating that petroleum-fueled prosperity fed by a wave of foreign investment would give Iraqis the tools and motivation to build a modern, Western-oriented state.
But that goal remains a speck on the horizon.
Today, Iraq pumps less oil than it did under Saddam. Iraqis are stalemated in forming a new government nearly six months after national elections. And the country's political divisions, aggravated by the struggle for control of Iraq's oil potential, have led to fears that it could erupt in civil war, revert to a dictatorship or split along religious and ethnic fault lines.
President Barack Obama, whose opposition to the war was a hallmark of his presidential campaign in 2008, is scheduled to give an Iraq speech from the Oval Office on Tuesday, marking the transition of the U.S. military mission from combat to advising the Iraqi armed forces. All U.S. troops are to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.
When the Bush administration launched the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, it was counting on Iraq's oil wealth to bankroll the country's reconstruction. Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense at the time, told a House committee just days after the war began that Iraq's oil wealth would relieve U.S. taxpayers of the rebuilding burden.
"We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon," he said on March 27, 2003.
It didn't work out that way, in part because a fierce and resilient insurgency intruded.
The war's outcome remains in doubt, yet oil is gaining prominence in the Obama administration's public rationale for staying by the Iraqis' side even after the military campaign concludes.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says Iraq in 10 years could rank among the world's biggest oil producers, making it fabulously rich and — by implication — a potential success story.
"It will change the entire equation in the Middle East," Gates said, assuming Iraqi leaders are able to sustain their shaky democracy. In remarks Aug. 12 in San Francisco, Gates was quick to add: "That's the optimistic scenario. There are all kinds of more pessimistic scenarios."
One of those less-rosy outlooks is pretty obvious: the departure of U.S. forces in 2011 leads to increased violence and a return to civil war, paralyzing the government and creating chaos. The question in that case would be whether the U.S. would intervene with combat troops.
Another unpleasant possibility: Iraq's strongest and most developed institution — the military — gets fed up with a lack of political progress in Baghdad and overthrows the civilian government.
Oil will play an important role in Iraq's future, though not necessarily a positive one.
Nations with huge oil and resource wealth — such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela — often fail to develop democratic political systems. It's not clear why this would be so, but some believe that vast oil resources encourages centralized state control by dictators or oligarchs.
Iraq sits atop an estimated 115 billion barrels of crude, the world's third-largest proven reserves. Iraq's oil production, however, has stagnated since the U.S. invasion, hampered by technical problems, looting and insurgent violence.
Production averaged about 2.5 million barrels a day from the late 1990s to the early 2000s before the fall of Saddam, and since then has ranged between 2.1 million and 2.4 million barrels a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Iraq's oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani said last month that the country hopes to boost output to 12 million barrels a day in about six years. Some analysts are skeptical, but U.S. officials seem encouraged.
Meghan O'Sullivan, a former top Iraq adviser to Bush who helped lead the president's war strategy review in 2006, sees Iraq's oil potential as a mixed blessing.
"It's an enormous opportunity and it's something that gives Iraq the potential to regain its status as a regional superpower, but it also brings all kinds of dangers, and there are many hurdles that need to be surmounted before Iraq can realize that potential," she said in an interview.
O'Sullivan, now a professor of international affairs at Harvard, says Iraq remains in conflict over how to share power and resources among its major sectarian and ethnic groups, and oil is the biggest resource prize in that competition.
Most of the known oil and gas reserves in Iraq form a belt that runs along the eastern edge of the country, centered in the Shiite areas of the south and the Kurdish north.
Iraqi politicians have been locked in a bitter dispute over how much control the central government in Baghdad should have over regional oil operations, and how revenues would be shared.
Efforts to pass a national hydrocarbons law that would set a legal framework for oil investment are stalled, although the government has worked out some oil revenue-sharing issues.
When he announced the U.S. invasion on March 19, 2003, President George W. Bush said in nationally television address that his goal was to make Iraq "united, stable and free." Among critics, some charged that the U.S. was making a grab for Iraq's oil.
Almost six years later, in a speech announcing his plan for winding down the war, Obama said his objective was an Iraq that is "sovereign, stable and self-reliant." He mentioned oil just once, noting that declining oil revenues were straining the Iraqi government, which relies on oil sales for more than 90 percent of state revenues.
More recently, the administration has highlighted Iraq's oil potential, perhaps to help explain why it intends to continue financial, political and diplomatic support to stabilize the country.
The administration has committed itself to nurturing a democracy in Iraq.
"I don't see any other model for Iraq," said Christopher Hill, who just completed 16 months as U.S. ambassador in Baghdad.
Gates said Iraq's future is "open." He likened it to post-Soviet Russia in 1991.
"No one was sure what would come later, but for the first time in their history the Russian people had a choice and the future was open to them," Gates said. "I think the same thing is true in Iraq today."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...YXzTQD9HS2JL02
-
26/08/10
Completion stages of the project railway link between Iraq and Syria
Ministry of Transport announced for the completion of the advanced stages of Rabtj railway between Iraq and Syria.
A source at the ministry told the independent press (Iba) The Angels Company for the implementation of transport projects one of the organization and the Ministry of Transport completed several stages of the work of the railway link project between Iraq and Syria for the General Company for Iraqi Railways.
The source added that the continuing actions by the Syrian side for the purpose of completing the survey of the remaining course of the project, amounting to (650) meters inside the Syrian territory.
http://www.ipairaq.com/index.php?nam...onomy&id=29536
-
Patrick Cockburn: Grim stability is the US legacy in Iraq
The civil war had winners and losers and it was the Shia who emerged as the victors
A few days after the US announced that it had withdrawn its last combat brigade from Iraq, the local branch of al-Qa'ida staged a show of strength, killing or wounding 300 people in attacks across the country.
Its suicide bombers drove vehicles packed with explosives into police stations or military convoys from Mosul in the north to Basra in the south.
The continuing ferocious violence in Iraq, where most days more people die by bomb and bullet than in Afghanistan, is leading to questions about its stability once US forces finally withdraw by the end of next year.
American politicians, soldiers and think tankers blithely recommend American troops staying longer, though at their most numerous US troops signally failed to stop the bombers.
The unfortunate truth may be that Iraq has already achieved a grisly form of stability, though it comes with a persistently high level of violence and a semi-dysfunctional state. Bad though the present situation is in the country, there may not be sufficient reasons for it to change.
Politically, Iraq may look increasingly like Lebanon with each ethnic or sectarian community vying for a share of power and resources. But if Iraq is becoming like Lebanon, it is a Lebanon with money. Dysfunctional the state machine may be, but it still has $60bn in annual oil revenues to spend, mostly on the salaries of the security forces and the civilian bureaucracy. One former Iraqi minister says that the one time he had seen the new Iraqi political elite "in a state of real panic was when the price of oil fell below $50 a barrel a couple of years ago".
It is oil revenues which prevent Iraq from flying apart and make it such a different country from Afghanistan where the government is dependent on foreign handouts. Shia, Sunni and Kurds may not like each other, but they cannot do without a share of the oil money or the jobs it finances. A third of the 27 million Iraqi population depends on rations provided by the state to prevent malnutrition. Even the highly autonomous Kurds depend on $4-5bn from Baghdad to fund their government. Aside from oil, and the state machine it pays for, there is not much holding Iraq together. The political landscape is defined by sectarian and ethnic divisions. Communal loyalty almost entirely determined the outcome of the parliamentary election on 7 March this year as it had done in the previous poll in 2005. There is little sign of this changing.
This should not be too surprising. Kurds, Shia and Sunni all nurse memories of being massacred. Some 180,000 Kurds were slaughtered during Saddam Hussein's Anfal campaign in the late 1980s; tens of thousands of Shia were killed when their uprising was crushed by the Iraqi army in 1991; the Sunni were the main victims of the sectarian civil war of 2006-7 when, at its worst, 3,000 bodies were being found every month in Baghdad.
The legacy of these massacres is that each of the three main Iraqi communities behaves as if it were a separate country. The political system was devised to encourage power sharing with none of the three main communities able to disregard the others. In practice, unwillingness to make concessions has turned into a recipe for a permanent political stalemate.
The natural reaction of Iraqi politicians when faced with a crisis in relations with another Iraqi community is not to compromise but to seek foreign allies. It is this which is making it so difficult to re-create Iraq as a genuinely independent state. Iraqis often deceive themselves about this.
Sunni who believe themselves to be non-sectarian simply re-label Shia leaders as quasi-Iranians. Shia leaders welcome the Sunni as their brothers, but then try to exclude those whom they denounce as Baathists. The Kurds remain deeply fearful of Sunni and Shia Arabs uniting to end Kurdistan's quasi-independence.
For all these strains Iraq has achieved a sort of stability. Shia and Sunni may not like each other, but there are three Shia to every Sunni. The civil war had winners and losers and it was the Shia who emerged as the victors. It is they and the Kurds who control the state and they are not going to give this up. For all the differences between the Kurds and Arabs over territorial control in northern Iraq, the Kurds have a lot to lose to let this spill over into war.
The next Iraqi government, its formation so long delayed because of divisions within the Shia camp over the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is likely to look very like the present one. It will be dominated by the Shia and the Kurds with some token concessions to the Sunni. The Sunni may not be happy but it is doubtful if they have the strength to start another insurrection.
For good or ill, the present Iraqi political system is gelling. The external forces which destabilised it are becoming less powerful. The US army is withdrawing. This is presented as a source of instability, but in practice the presence of an American land army in Iraq since 2003 has been profoundly destabilising for the whole region. Iran and Syria both took seriously President Bush's "axis of evil" speech denouncing their governments, and made sure the US never pacified Iraq.
The Iranians have largely got what they wanted, which is the dominance of their Shia co-religionists in Iraq and the departure of American forces. Such an outcome is not unexpected. Once President Bush and Tony Blair decided to overthrow Saddam Hussein it was likely that his predominantly Sunni regime was going to be replaced by one dominated by the Shia, and Iranian influence in Iraq would become paramount compared to other foreign states. For seven years Washington struggled vainly to avoid this near inevitable outcome. The new Iraq may not be a very nice place, but it has probably come to stay.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion...q-2064049.html