The Ministry of Trade is at the moment coordinating with the Central Bank of Iraq, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Interior to receive and hand out the Iraqi Dinar bonus to everyone through the food ration agents prior to the end of Ramadan.
Looks like PM Maliki will be traveling to Bahrain soon, the next time he tours the Middle East in attempting to gain support for his security programs and to sign agreements with neighboring countries. Let’s hope the Iraqi PM Maliki comes back with some great agreements and plenty of US Dollars.
October 2006Monthly Archives
Another Day in the Middle East
Iraq Investment Law Passed …Maybe!!
The recent news report by the Voice of Iraq and two other in the news media claiming the Iraqi Parliament have passed the Foreign Investment law, I am not so sure. For a major event such as this and all it was reported by were a few private news organizations and no other media outlets.
Just seems a bit odd to me that no other major coverage was given to this major milestone. I wouldn’t count it as a done deal until someone with in the Iraqi government announces the achievement we all been waiting for. Maybe this is going to be done tomorrow at the news conference, will just have to wait and see.
Just my observation.
Ministry of Finance
The Housing Bank will be giving housing loans to citizens and public servants soon.
Iraq Gives Kuwait 11.2 Billion War Reparations
Kuwait has received a payment of 11.2 Billion dollars from Iraq on 7 October. The emirate, however, agreed in 2004 to an American request to substantially cut the estimated 16-billion-dollar debt owed to it by Iraq.
Iraqi Officials Meet With Exxon/Mobile
With the unconfirmed report that the Foreign Investment Law has been passed the timing could not be more perfect as the Iraqi Officials have met with executives of Exxon/Mobile according to this report. You can read an excerpt below.
Iraq envoy: U.S. oil investment waiting on legal changes
HOUSTON (MarketWatch) — U.S. oil companies are slowly building their relationships with the Iraqi government in anticipation of a new legal regime that will allow them to invest there, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S. said Monday.
“I see very strong interest from U.S. energy companies in Iraq,” Ambassador Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida’ie told Dow Jones Newswires after a speech in Houston.
The companies “have visited me at the embassy and expressed that interest,” while “waiting for things to be put in place,” he said.
The passage of a new investment law in the next two or three weeks and a new hydrocarbons law “within this year” will create the right conditions for major U.S. investments, he said.
U.S. oil companies are “already building up their relationship with the ministry of oil” and providing training to Iraqi technicians, said Sumaida’ie, who added that he would meet with Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) executives on Monday.
Iraq Corruption
You probably didn’t know that there was an agency in the Iraqi government responsible for seeking out corruption with in the Iraqi government called the Integrity Commission, which is headed by an Iraqi named Radi Al-Radi.
It has been recently reported that corruption during the last two years have been at an all time high in Iraq and that high ranking officials have escaped arrest and punishment because they have escaped out of the country or are protected by either laws or are protected by parliamentary immunity.
Currently there are eight ministries that have been referred to the Iraqi court on corruption charges, and several have escaped prosecution by fleeing to another country or remain in Iraq and are in hiding. The Integrity Commission has begun to investigate the oil smuggling that has been stealing 2-3 billion dollars a year from the Iraqi government and people.
Fighting corruption in Iraq is very dangerous since the start of the Integrity commission 15 corruption court judges and 21 Integrity Commission investigators have been murdered.
Iraq Update
Ministry of Oil Dr. Husayn Al-Shahrastani, stated last August that the Fuel crisis was over for the Iraqi people. The Iraqi government had signed oil agreements with the neighboring gulf countries to bring in more Kerosene and Fuel products. The signed agreements are not going as planned and the Iraqi people are back with a fuel crisis the Ministry of Oil maybe possibly spoke to soon or really had not solved the Fuel crisis that has been a problem for quite sometime in Iraq.
The recent oil contracts with Jordan states that Iraq would be selling the oil at $10 a barrel of Oil, very cheap compared to the actual world price hovering at $60 a barrel. Iraq is having problems with fuel distribution to the local gas stations, they can not get it fast enough. The major problem with the local gas station is them selling the fuel on the black market for a quick profit.
The Iraqi Dinar Dream
There are some people and maybe a lot of people that have bought Iraqi Dinar while inside Iraq and there a lot of people that have bought their Iraqi Dinar outside Iraq through the Iraqi Dinar dealers that are located in several countries through out the world.
Iraqi Religious Meeting Soon
The organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) have recently stated that four representatives of Iraqi Sunni and Shia Muslim will meet in Saudi Arabia later on this month before the end of Muslim Fast of Ramadan. An agreement with the two sides will hope to sign an agreement to put a halt to the sectarian violence that is plaguing Iraq and hope to stop the killing that is occurring inside Iraq everyday.
The PM Maliki security plan has not been a success since it started last month maybe this meeting will help to curb the sectarian violence. The meeting has the approval of the Shia Cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani. The meeting will be taking place inside the Holy city of Mecca.
