IRAQ | Economy

[BigDreamer]

very true, 9% is pathetic.

we should be aiming at double digits , something close to 15%

i'm really curious to know the velocity of money in iraq, and the almost non existent broad money market

[sheytanElKebir]

there's no internal economic activity,
no private sector construction activity
no bank lending / broad money
no consumer credit in market
no protection from import or credit for local industry
no incentives for green field industrial projects

nothing basically.

this 9% is just a fraction of the additional oil exported translating into increased salary spend / consumption.

PATHETIC would be the understatement of the millennium.

all of this whilst the 9 provinces in the south have been PEACEFUL and QUIET for the last 10 years... OK, baghdad and anbar/ninawa etc... were in war time situation, what is the excuse for the state of SAMAWA??? it is safer than Geneva!

and the idiotic opposition would do much better to highlight THIS, the biggest actual failure of maliki's government as their raison d'etre...

[Doc_I.R.Q]

Iraq needs industrial revolution more than anything else

[sheytanElKebir]

will you have that with mawlay in power?

[Doc_I.R.Q]

Mulla Bassim would probably do a better job running the country, he owns restaurants n sht

[SJRAH_AL_5ABITHAH]

Originally Posted by Doc_I.R.Q

Mulla Bassim would probably do a better job running the country, he owns restaurants n sht

[Sinjar]

Iraq Lagging in Foreign Investment

The question that constantly arises in Iraq, and that is often posed perplexedly, is: “Why have the Iraqis failed to attract large-scale investments over the past ten years of political and economic change?”

Figures certainly indicate that the arrival of international oil companies is an example of successful investment. Yet the answer to the above question is evident when examining the laws of the Iraqi National Investment Commission, which doesn't include oil investment in its scope of work. Oil extraction and marketing is quite different from the investment movement, which is primarily linked to market development, higher employment and training, introduction of various industries into the country, and agricultural, touristic and urban development.

It is well-known that Iraq is a single product economy, where oil export accounts for 95% of the country's budget.

We can talk for hours about how the investment law serves as a real obstacle to bringing in foreign companies. It is clear that the investment law in force in the Kurdistan region of Iraq is more flexible than its counterpart in Iraq’s Arab regions.

We can also talk about security as another significant obstacle. Despite the relative success of Iraq in decreasing insurance rates incurred by foreign companies in exchange for bringing their staff into Iraq, instability is still a key obstacle to investment. Meanwhile, political deterioration, disputes and ongoing threats that the current political system will collapse do not provide a favorable environment for investment.

While these obstacles have impeded the arrival of well-known companies from industrialized countries, they have also provided a positive atmosphere for the arrival of companies from other countries — such as Iran, Turkey, China and some Arab states. These latter countries often have lower standards in the investment fields.

It is worth noting that the declared figures of foreign investment in Iraq are variable, and even the figures suggested by the investing countries do not seem to be accurate.

While Iraq’s official estimations indicate that Iran invests $10 billion per year in Iraq, the rate of trade exchange between Iraq and Iran amounts to $18 billion, most of which comes from imported Iranian goods. The same applies to Turkey, whose total investments in Iraq amount to $15 billion.
The southeast Asian GICA Organization announced that foreign investment in Iraq in 2012 rose 20-fold, reaching $60 billion compared to $3 billion four years ago.

The company registration department at the Ministry of Commerce announced the registration of 2,808 national and foreign companies in 2012.

Ferial Akram Abdullah, director-general of the company registration department, said in a statement that the department registered 374 representative offices of Arab companies, in addition to 83 branches of foreign companies in the same year.

Although these indicators appear positive, they are not sufficient to talk about a large-scale wave of investment.

In this regard, Suhad al-Obeidi, a member of the work committee and parliamentary services, said that "the large number of representative offices of Arab and foreign companies is a mere formality, the purpose of which is not to bring global expertise or sufficient funds to set up large investment projects, but to find a legal status for local companies to win prospective government project contracts."

In a detailed study titled Legislative and administrative obstacles that prevent the entry of foreign capital to the Iraqi markets, Dr. Akram Fadel Said Qasir, a professor of civil and commercial law, talks about a defect that not only involves the investment law, but extends to the state structure that still drives away foreign investment and involves investors in sensitive and complex details regarding the protection of investments. This is in addition to a cultural environment that is not concerned with attracting foreign investment.

The existing cultural order, which is predominantly religious and tribal, does not help to provide the necessary conditions for ensuring respect for the personal freedoms of investors. Also, investment does not merely mean business administration, but rather a temporary residence for both employees and investors.

Political Islam parties in Iraq have always wanted to impose their values ​​by force, both on Iraqi residents and foreign investors. Thus, anyone who dares to venture into the Arab part of Iraq would be well aware that they would be isolated from society, knowing that the forces in this part of the country have different conceptions of religion and values.

Throughout modern history, Iraqi society could be described as tolerant in terms of religious commitment. This impression has continued to characterize the Iraqi situation until the early 1990s, when the regime of former President Saddam Hussein decided to revive the religious order as a cover for other, civilian affairs.

It could be argued that the political class that ruled Iraq after Saddam has remained committed — both implicitly and publicly — to Saddam’s religious project, which he then considered to be "an awakening of faith." The political class applied it strictly to an extent that narrowed the personal freedoms of the people. This greatly affected foreign visitors to Iraq.

Reconsidering the status of foreign investment in Iraq no longer only means modifying laws and reforming administrative flaws in the structure of the state, which are still subjected to laws that belong to the socialist rule. First and foremost, the values ​​of civil society must be promoted in society for it to be able to once again accommodate, coexist with, and impact foreigners.


Original Title:
Investment as a Culture
Author: Mustafa al-Kadhimi
Translated by: Joelle El-Khoury and Naria Tanoukhi

[Sinjar]

Iraq Set to Expand Free-Trade Zones

Iraq, with its privileged geographical location, plans to improve the performance of its three free-trade zones. It also intends to establish new free-trade zones as part of efforts to diversify its imports and lessen its reliance on oil revenues.

Three "free zones" currently operate in Iraq: Basra in the south, Nineveh in the north and al-Qaem in the west. Trade has slowed in al-Qaem, which is adjacent to the Syrian border, since the armed Syrian conflict breached Iraq’s border.

Free zones are small districts within Iraq's political boundaries, but they are considered outside the country’s customs border. As a result, everything that comes in and out of the free zones is not subject to import and export controls and duty.

Earlier this year, Iraq agreed to a contract designed to create the first free zone in Baghdad. Some hope that these plans will help stem the tide of growing unemployment in Iraq.

The Free Zone Law in Iraq affords extensive privileges to investors. These include industrial production and consumption activities, including the assembly, manufacturing, packing, warehousing, re-export, trade and transportation, banking activities, which include insurance and reinsurance, and professional support services.

The Free Zone Authority, part of the Iraqi Ministry of Finance, is reported to have signed an investment contract for public transport and civil aviation affairs in the free zone in Khor al-Zubair in the Basra province.

The authority is also reported to have contracted with a company specialized in developing commercial activities in the free zones in the south, to stimulate trade practices in the Southern free zone. Under the contract, an area of 12,000 square meters will be in service.

The authority said that investment in Iraq’s free zones recently saw a significant increase, reflecting investors’ trust in the projects in which they invest their money, which in turn has increased local and foreign companies’ demand for land.

Iraq has signed memoranda of understanding on trade with several countries. Some of these contracts include the establishment of free trade zones on the border. The semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region in the north announced last September that Turkey wishes to establish a joint free zone at the international border area in the northern Dohuk province.

The authority revealed plans to establish a free trade zone in the Babil province (roughly 60 miles south of Baghdad) to launch and support investment projects in the province. It said that this is designed to stimulate trade, industrial and service activities, and facilitate the transportation of goods between cities and provinces.

Under Iraq’s Free Zone Law, goods imported and exported from the free zones are exempt from all taxes and fees, except when imported through customs. Moreover, all capital, profits and income generated from projects invested in the free zones are exempt from any taxes and fees throughout the projects' lifecycle, including the construction and startup phases of the project.
The law creates the Free Zone Authority, an independent body at the administrative and financial levels. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Finance, and managed by a board of directors that consists of representatives of the ministries and agencies relevant to the free zones’ activity.

Iraq is strategically located in the middle of many other significant regional countries. It is close to global markets and overlooks the Arabian Gulf. This makes the country a geographical point of liaison with international trade lines between the Near East and the Western world. Iraq also has a dense network of land, sea and air lines, including a railway.

The Free Zone Authority announced that talks with the UAE-based Mac International were launched to promote cooperative investment efforts in the country.

The authority’s general director Sabah Saleh al-Qaisi said that “a delegation from the UAE-based Mac International visited Iraq’s free zones, where the reality of investment in the free zone in Khor al-Zubair, and joint coordination between the two sides in various fields were discussed.”

The Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (DAHMAN), a trade and free zone organization, ranked Iraq among those countries which are lagging behind in the field of free zones. In its report, DAHMAN indicated that “Iraq, Sudan, Oman and Bahrain have an equal number of free zones.”


Al-Monitor Iraq Pulse.
Original Title:Iraq plans to exploit its privileged geographical location in order to activate its free zones
Author: Omar al-Shaher
First Published: April 2, 2013
Translated by: Joelle El-Khoury

[Ali - Iraq]

Development and rehabilitation projects in Baghdad and its suburbs have been allocated 700 billion Iraqi dinars ($602 million) under Iraq's 2013 budget, Amanat Baghdad officials said Monday (April 8th).

"The Ministry of Planning approved a special budget of 700 billion Iraqi dinars for executing various strategic service projects to develop the capital's public utilities," Mohsen Saeed Munshid, director of the mayoralty's planning and follow-up department, told Al-Shorfa.

"Plans include building bridges, commercial buildings, recreational facilities, sanitation networks and water plants," he said. Other plans include rehabilitating streets and widening them to reduce current traffic jams as well as projects to protect the environment.

"This is in addition to funding the first phase of the Baghdad metro project," Munshid said.

"The projects have already been awarded to local, regional and European companies," he said, adding that officials have drawn up a plan to reduce road blockages as these projects are being executed.

[sheytanElKebir]

baghdad metro??? presumably they mean the $40M allocated for the design of this ... http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/s...-contract.html

not actual EPC contract.

[SumerianKing]

why does it cost $40M for just design studies? thats crazy!

[Sinjar]

Banking on Iraq


Wadie Habboush- CEO of the Habboush Group

By Ed Attwood- Friday, 19 April 2013

Wadie Habboush has one of the more impressive corner offices that this reporter has seen, and he’s seen a few.

The firm of which he is CEO, the Habboush Group, has just moved into a cavernous corporate office in DIFC, from where it is planning nothing less than the redevelopment of Iraq’s battered infrastructure.

The Iraqi national certainly has some pretty big aims. Via a ‘one-stop-shop’ strategy, the company aims to link foreign investors who are keen to access Iraq’s potential returns with the country’s need for infrastructure. What that means is that the firm will not only secure the financing for any particular project, it will also design, build and operate the project even after completion.

For Habboush, the return to Iraq represents an opportunity to follow in his family firm’s footsteps. The group initially started life around 80 years ago near Basra, Iraq’s port city in the south, but the family later formed part of the diaspora that left Iraq during the reign of Saddam Hussein, whose anti-capitalist policies crushed free enterprise firms.

“My family has a long history, particularly in southern Iraq, as traders and businessmen,” he says. “So I inherited a lot of entrepreneurial blood in my veins, and I feel I have a responsibility to continue to fight and challenge myself.”

After growing up in Kuwait, Habboush studied in the UK and the US, gaining a juris doctor law degree from Georgetown University, and a BSc in accountancy from the American University’s Kogod School of Business. By linking the worlds of law and accountancy, Habboush was aiming to “arm myself with the right skill sets to become a good global manager”. After a stint at law giant Kirkland & Ellis, where he largely worked on structuring, financing and negotiating complex national and international corporate transactions, he set up his own firm, Global Consulting, an advisory outfit which specialised in development opportunities in Latin America and the Middle East.

At 27, however, Habboush decided to return to his roots and joined up with the family firm again. “I asked myself: ‘do I want to be a lawyer for the rest of my life?” he recalls.

But the move back to his home country hasn’t been entirely easy. It’s something of an understatement to say that Iraq has not found recovery from the US-led invasion of 2003 easy. Ten years on, the country is still mired in political instability, while a lack of interest from foreign firms has left Iraqi infrastructure in a massive state of disrepair. But it’s still a fast-growing economy; GDP rose by 8 percent this year, and the IMF says that figure will rise to 9 percent this year. The Central Bank of Iraq has increased its reserves to around $70bn, while oil production – the obvious mainstay of the country’s economy – is at roughly 3.3 million barrels per day, and it has a long way to go.

The key, however, for Iraq’s future development does not lie completely within the energy sector, important though that is. Right now, the country also needs to expand its tiny private sector, reduce high unemployment and lessen the size of the public sector. This is where, Habboush is hoping, his company comes in.

“I aspire to bring foreign investment to Iraq, and to help investors reap the fruits of the last frontier on the oil and gas market,” he says. “Financial institutions need someone on the ground on a day-to-day basis to carry out project executions and instructions. They need sophisticated personnel, who are compliant with local regulations, and who have great experience.

“We need to help develop that market to the next level, and by doing that we can also bring economies of scale to projects and help create jobs.”

The Habboush Group certainly appears to be doing that. Although the CEO won’t give out too many details – particularly with regard to the amount of investment he is managing – he does state that the firm has “four to five” joint ventures with international firms already. It completed fourteen oil and gas projects in the last twelve months, and has more than 22 projects under development.

The firm comes up with the idea for most projects itself, finding a location and carrying out a pre-feasibility study to find out whether the project has a prospective market, and what kind of jobs it will create for the local community. It then starts looking for strategic partners or joint venture partners, before arranging project or debt financing. The project is then built, with the Habboush Group arranging to import whatever materials are required. Partners can take advantage of a private equity style exit on completion, or stay on board with a project that, hopefully, has decent cash flow.

So where is the money coming from? Habboush says he spends a lot of time trying to decipher where the trends are, and he prefers not to name his joint venture partners. However, he does state that much of the investment is coming from places like the US, France, Kuwait, the UAE, the rest of Europe and Turkey.

It is also expanding its mandate away from its original core areas: oil, gas and chemicals, power and infrastructure. Trade flows into Iraq are increasing exponentially; exports and re-exports from Dubai’s private sector alone topped $11.4bn in 2012, a 350 percent increase on the year before. Meanwhile, neighbouring Turkey has just become Iraq’s biggest trading partner, with exports nearly tripling since 2007. Habboush is aiming to take advantage of those increased flows.

“We are expanding into consumer goods, industrial activity and tourism,” he points out. “There’s just so much we can do at any given time.”

However, net foreign direct investment (FDI) into Iraq has not followed such a stellar trend – and was in fact lower in 2011 than it was in 2008. Much of that has been down to the belief that the country has not reached full recovery mode. Needless to say, Habboush disagrees with that assessment, particularly in the areas of the country in which his firm is most active: Basra, Maysan and Nasiryah.

“People tend to forget that Iraq was really the first country to have the Arab Spring. We need to introduce the right perception of Iraq – I believe the current perception of the country is erroneous,” he says.

Further down the line, Habboush says the prospects are looking good. Local capital markets were boosted earlier this year by telco Asiacell’s $1.3bn listing on the Iraq stock exchange – the biggest in the MENA region since Saudi mining giant Ma’aden’s IPO four years ago.

“I see more IPOs down the line,” he says. “Iraq needs physical development, urban development and industrial manufacturing development. It’s definitely better today than it was a couple of years ago.”

So how does he see Iraq and the Habboush Group ten years down the line? First and foremost, he thinks that the country can become an energy hub that could, in time, rival neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

“In ten years time, Iraq can be a leader in the region,” Habboush says. “We’re pumping three million barrels per day now – the projections are that that could be nine million barrels in a decade’s time time. There will be more natural gas and more advanced power generation facilities. On top that, we will need more advanced transportation systems. And, in turn, central bank revenues will increase, which will bring stability for our currency.”

[Sinjar]

HSBC Reviewing Iraq Presence

IVC POST | Marc Castro | Apr 22, 2013

HSBC Holdings is currently undertaking its strategic review of operations in Iraq. At the same time, it is continuing to expand its investments in Egypt despite the current situation in the country.

The moves were confirmed by the bank's regional chief executive. Simon Cooper, chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa, told reporters during a Dubai media event, "In terms of Iraq, it's a market that we will continue to review."

Cooper did not elaborate nor explain when sought for clarifications.
Currently, HSBC's presence in Iraq is through 70% shareholdings in Dar Es Salaam Investment bank. The bank has been the subject to much speculation as to the continued presence of the lender. This was gleaned from the bookrunner sales of the Asiacell IPO worth US$1.35 billion, where the name of the HSBC was conspicuously absent.

The review may also be part of the current HSBC CEO Stuart Gulliver's restructuring plan where the goal is to reduce costs and improve overall profitability.

[Sinjar]

Economy grows, but how many benefit?

BAGHDAD/DUBAI, 24 April 2013 (IRIN) - Iraq’s development has historically been linked to its ability to sell and produce oil, and to world oil prices. Yet oil-related measures of economic growth may obscure some of the economic conditions facing ordinary Iraqis.

In 1980, after the oil crisis of the mid-1970s led to higher oil prices, Iraq’s GDP per capita was higher than any other country in the region (except Israel and the Gulf states), at US$3,453, according to the World Bank. But this number plummeted in the 1990s, during the Iran-Iraq war and years of sanctions, hitting a low of $455 in 1997. After rising slightly in 2000, it dipped again, to $742 in 2000. By 2011, it had returned to $3,501, though these figures are not adjusted for inflation.

Iraq is now the second-largest producer of crude oil and has the fifth-largest proven crude oil reserves in the world. With an expected annual growth of 9.4 percent through 2016, Iraq has the region’s fastest growing economy, according to the government.

Rising oil prices brought in revenues of $94 billion in 2012 and are projected to bring in more than $100 billion in 2013, according to the Middle East Economic Survey. The International Monetary Fund projects Iraq’s GDP will grow by nine percent in 2013.

Public sector growth

As a result of its increased ability to sell oil post-sanctions, the public sector has expanded, and salaries of public sector workers have increased significantly, giving rise to a strengthened middle class.

“Before 2003,” said government employee Sa’ad al-Shimary, “[former President Saddam Hussein’s] Baath Party was everywhere. It was hard to work in such an environment. I feared they might write a report against me, as they always did, if we tried to criticize their work for any reason. I feared I might go to work and not return home.”

Back then, he told IRIN, he had to work extra hours as a taxi driver to pay the bills. “Now my salary is enough for me and my family. I have no fear in the ministry. My life has changed for the better; I have more money, and I have a new car.”

Year-on-year, Iraq’s recent economic growth (“real GDP” adjusted for inflation) has been more modest than nominal GDP growth, though still healthy. The economy retracted by 28.3 percent in 2003, according to Business Monitor International, but it rebounded by 39.6 percent the year after. Between 2005 and 2011, the economy grew by an average of 6.5 percent per year, even during the worst years of violence.

Still, Bassam Yousif, a professor of economics at Indiana State University, describes Iraq’s economic growth in the last decade as “anemic” given its weak starting point - an economy depressed by sanctions and a government restricted in trade, unable to spend any money domestically - and the sudden influx of cash when it was able to resume oil exports.

“What you would have thought Iraq could do with this windfall money 10 years ago is very different than what actually happened,” he said.

Waiting to see benefits

Economists and aid workers say much of the newfound wealth has not trickled down, largely due to Iraq’s economic dependence on oil, government corruption, a lack of capacity to execute budgets and a failure to develop the private sector.

“Even though GDP is going up, the average Iraqi doesn’t see that because the ability to spend that money is constrained,” Yousif said.

In 2012, Transparency International classified Iraq’s public-sector corruption as among the highest in the world; the country was ranked 169 out of 176 countries on its Corruption Perceptions Index.

“Macro-economic growth has not translated into commensurate improvements in people’s well-being,” Sudipto Mukerjee, who leads the economic recovery and poverty alleviation team at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Iraq, told IRIN.

Iraq has always been dependent on imports, and its agricultural and industrial sectors - already small - stagnated under the American push for import liberalization, which brought in a flood of cheaper goods. The oil sector has also failed to produce many jobs. The sector represented about half of Iraqi GDP in the 2000s, but employed less than one percent of the economically active.

After a massive jump in unemployment from 1990 to 2004, according to government statistics, the unemployment rate fell from 28.1 percent in 2003 to 11.7 percent in 2007, rising again to 15.3 percent in 2008.

Today, the rate is eight percent, according to the Iraq Knowledge Network (IKN) survey, based on the narrowest definition of unemployment (people who did not work at all in the seven days preceding the interview and were available for work and actively seeking a job that week), and 11 percent using the more relaxed definition (those who are not “productively” or “usefully” occupied, and are not actively seeking work but would do so if conditions in the labour market improved). Government numbers, which use an even broader definition, are higher. Women, youth and people living in rural areas have higher-than-average unemployment rates.

A survey by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) late last year found that more than half of Iraqis - 55 percent - named unemployment as one of their top two concerns for the government to address.

For those who do have jobs - mostly with the public sector - larger salaries have not necessarily meant more purchasing power because inflation has risen. At its height over the last decade, consumer price inflation surpassed 50 percent (some sources put it as high as 76.5 percent) in 2006. As of January 2013, it was down to 2.2 percent, according to the Central Bank of Iraq.

Mustafa Ahmed, a father of two from Baghdad, complains that everything is more expensive now: “I used to buy a sandwich for 500 Iraqi dinars. Now it costs 5,000. I used to fill the car with gas with 6,000 dinars, and now [it costs me] 30,000.”

Measuring poverty

Still, the picture has vastly improved since the years spent under sanctions. Of all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Iraq has made the most progress on the first, already achieving the target of halving the proportion of the population living in extreme poverty by 2015. The percentage of people living on less than US$2.50 (adjusted for purchasing power parity) dropped from 28 percent in 1990 to 13.9 in 2007, then to 11.5 in 2011.

“With the end of the economic embargo in 2003 and the wage and salary hike of 2007, the standard of living of [Iraqi] households witnessed a significant improvement,” the Central Statistics Organization wrote, explaining the statistics. “Income of people working in the public sector (which constitutes 45 percent of the total household income) went up, leading to a significant decrease in the proportion of people living on less than dollar a day compared to the1990 level.”

However, the World Bank deems the national poverty line - 76,896 Iraqi dinars per month - a “far more useful” gauge of economic well-being. By that measure, 23 percent of the population lived in poverty in 2007, according to a survey by the government and the Bank.

“While unemployment has declined substantially, poverty rates have remained stubbornly high since 2004,” Yousif said.

Research to be released later this year by the government and the UN examines levels of multi-dimensional poverty - the absence of access to certain basic needs - which could reveal even higher levels of deprivation.

“In a middle-income country which has seen significant economic growth,” said Mukerjee, “should we still have so much unemployment? Should we still have so many people below the poverty line?”

He and others are quick to point out that national averages are skewed by relatively faster progress in the autonomous, more peaceful Kurdish region in the north, obscuring deprivations in other governorates such as Qadissiya, Muthanna and Diyala.

The silver lining, perhaps, is that poverty in Iraq is not very deep: the poverty gap index, which measures the average gap between how much the poor spend as a percentage of the poverty line, has fallen from 5.0 percent in 2006 to 2.6 percent in 2011, according to government statistics - much lower than most other countries. As such, while there are many people at the edge of the threshold, who could easily fall into poverty, there are also many in poverty who could easily could be brought out of it with a bit of support.

For more, check out Confronting Poverty in Iraq, a 2011 book by the World Bank analysing the findings of its 2007 household socio-economy survey. Bassam Yousif’s work, both for the Costs of War project and the Middle East Report magazine, is also useful. You can find all sorts of government statistics, including financial and oil-related, here and a UN fact-sheet on the labour force here. The government’s National Report on the Status of Human Development of 2008 lays out the government’s vision for addressing the imbalance between oil revenues and poor living standards.

[Virtuoso]

Announcement regarding operation of steel factory in Baghdad by Astra Industrial (Listed Saudi Company)

Reference to Astra Industrial Groups announcement dated 17/10/2012 regarding developments on Tanmiya steel factory in which it has a 51% share, the company received a letter on Sunday afternoon , 24th March, 2013 from Tanmiya Co. indicating the start of the commissioning of the power station and the generation of electricity. Based on that, the factory has started the commissioning of the furnace. The company will announce the results of the commissioning in due course.

more about the plant

http://www.astraindustrial.com.sa/la...ndustries.aspx

[Ali - Iraq]

Iraq aims to increase government job opportunities for women
WOMEN'S RIGHTS | 2013-05-06
In a bid to boost the economic situations of Iraqi women, the Iraqi government is increasing the number of job positions allocated to women under this year's state budget.

Under the 2013 state budget, approved by parliament in March, the government created 65,000 new job opportunities. Around 32,000 of these opportunities fall under the Ministry of Education, and 11,000 under the Ministry of Health.

"The Iraqi cabinet decided to increase the percentage of job slots given to women within the state budget for this year to 50% of the total number allocated to the ministries of health and education," said Huda Sajjad, a member of parliament's women and family committee.

At least 30% of remaining government jobs -- allocated to other ministries and government bodies -- will also go to women, she said.

In previous years, women were allocated 25% of all government job slots.

According to Sajjad, the government decision is geared to enable academically-qualified women to have access to more job opportunities in the public sector and to contribute to raising their living standards.

SUPPORTING WIDOWS, THE DISABLED AND THE ELDERLY
The parliamentary committee on women submitted two proposals to the government to boost the status of Iraqi women, Sajjad said.

The first calls for allocating 5% of the 50% of job opportunities given to women in the education ministry to women with college diplomas and bachelor's degrees who are widows or the sole breadwinners for their families, "because this social group is facing difficult economic and living conditions", she said.

The second proposal involves "shifting of 50 billion dinars ($43 million) from the money allocated for the foreign ministry to the women's welfare directorate", Sajjad said.

These additional funds would be used to provide services and assistance to widows, divorcees, the wives of missing persons, prisoners, sole breadwinners, the disabled or the elderly, she added.

The parliamentary committee on women also sent a recommendation to the Interior Ministry to enrol a large number of women to work in the community police force, in view of the services they can provide in this important field, she said.

In addition, the committee is currently preparing a modified version of a social security bill after it went through a reading in parliament. The new legislation would support women designated as vulnerable with monthly salaries equivalent to the 10th degree on the government's salary scale, Sajjad said.

INCREASE IN PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS ALSO CRUCIAL
"We aspire to see the women's share of government jobs in the coming years" stay at least at 50% based on the constitutional statutes that affirm the principles of equality, equal opportunity and non-discrimination, said Intisar al-Jubury, chairwoman of the parliamentary committee on women.

"Today, about 11% of working women are sole providers for their families, based on statistics collected by civil society organisations concerned with women's rights," she told Mawtani.

Meanwhile, Abeer Mahdi, chairwoman of the women's committee at the Ministry of Labour, called for an "increase in working women's share in private sector projects".

Further efforts should be focused on supporting this sector, to ease the burden on the state in creating new jobs, she added.

"The percentage of Iraqi women leaders and staff members in government offices since 2003 has been consistently on the increase, and this is obvious in our ministry, where women occupy higher administrative positions and many women work as staff members," she told Mawtani.

Iraqi women "have begun to occupy their rightful roles and positions in local workplaces, particularly in public sector institutions", Mahdi said.

[Sinjar]

Iraq’s hard cash reserves highest in history

By Shaymaa Adel, Azzaman, May 13, 2013

Iraq’s Central Bank coffers brim with hard cash and in quantities never seen in its history, a Central Bank said.

“The volume of hard cash reserves of the Iraqi Central Bank have reached $74 billion. This the highest figure of reserves ever in Iraq’s history,” the bank added.

It said the reserves were sufficient to fulfill Iraq’s financial obligations in terms of imports and sustaining stability of the domestic currency, the dinar.

The dinar has plummeted recently but the bank says it has succeeded in shoring up the currency through its daily auctions in which it sells an average of $150 million to other banks and the public at official prices.

The daily auctions, analysts say, are a sign of a boom in hard cash earnings emanating from surges in oil output and oil export royalties.

The bank says it is investing its reserves in international banks and other financial outlets as part of a strategy to diversify income and profits.

[Basrawii]

U.S. lifts sanctions on Iraq bank that had links to Iran
Photo
Fri, May 17 2013

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it had allowed an Iraqi bank to again conduct business with the U.S. financial system after the bank showed it was no longer helping Iran evade financial sanctions.

Iraq's Elaf Islamic Bank BELF.ISX was first blacklisted by the United States last year for knowingly doing business with the Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI), an Iranian state bank the United States accuses of being a "proliferator" of weapons of mass destruction.

Getting sanctioned by the United States forces foreign banks to make a choice: cut ties to blacklisted Iranian institutions or be cut off from the United States.

Washington has imposed a series of financial and trade sanctions against Iran to pressure it to curb its nuclear program, which the United States suspects is aimed at developing atom bombs. Iran says the program is for peaceful purposes.

The U.S. Treasury Department said the Elaf Islamic Bank had to complete several steps to regain its access to the U.S. financial system, including freezing the accounts of EDBI and reducing its business with the Iranian financial sector.

"Today we welcome Elaf Islamic Bank back into the U.S. financial system, and we urge other designated individuals and entities around the world to follow its positive example," Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said in a statement.

"As today's de-listing demonstrates, our sanctions are flexible and can be lifted if the conduct that led to the sanction terminates," he said.

A 2010 act allows the United States to sanction foreign banks that do business with Iranian banks, companies or people that are banned from the U.S. financial system. This is the first time the United States has lifted sanctions under that law.

(Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Eric Beech)