DrDinar Blog

Iraq Weekly Brief

May 23, 2009

The Iraqi Trade Minister has been accused of corruption by the Iraqi Parliament members

which held a no confidence vote while in session. The Minister, Abd al-Falah al-Sudani

denies the allegation which have been made by political opponents and or disgruntle

employees. The Trade Minister brother has been arrested in connection with the corruption

scandal.

The Seven Way committee from the Iraqi Council of Representatives operating in Kirkuk

and have not reached an agreement on the issue of Power Sharing. Expect more delays on

other Iraqi legislation.

The Interior Ministry Official says 219 ministry employees face corruption charges. Major

General Abd-al-Karim Khalaf, Director of the National Command Centre at the Interior

Ministry, has referred 219 officers and members of the ministry to the Iraqi courts on

financial corruption charges.

There is a brave Parliament member that has called for Oil Minister Hussein al-

Shahristani’s, resignation. Parliament member Jabr Khalifia Al Jabr, whom is the Oil and

Gas committee Recorder has called for the Oil Minister resignation before he is questioned

by the Iraqi Parliament within one week. The Parliament member has proof of the

corruption and will be presented upon al-Shahristani’s questioning in front of Parliament.

At the moment the Iraqi Parliament has called for his questioning in front of Iraqi

Parliament which 140 members have already signed a petition for the Oil Ministry al-

Shahristan questioning.

In the months to come your going to see a lot of the Iraqi Parliament exert there legislative

authority to hold people who have been placed in office held accountable as you are already

seeing this with the Ministries of Trade, Oil, Electricity. The other Ministry that the Iraqi

Parliament will be questioning is the Electricity Ministry, as to why Iraq does not have more

electricity then it does.

This all coincide with the PM Maliki calling for a yet another Cabinet shuffle and I do

believe this will happen as PM Maliki will make changes to fix the ongoing problems with

his cabinet who are inept and lacking in skills to lead Iraq. And also the National Elections

on January 30, 2010. In regards to the cabinet shuffle the Deputy Prime Minister Barham

Salih will post his resignation.

PM Maliki will be heading to the United States to meet with obama in mid June. I am sure

the shuffle of the cabinet will happen before he meets obama.

All this with the No confidence vote is nothing new and the Iraqi Parliament wanted this to

happen for over a year. The Iraqi Parliament didn’t have the political will and or backing

due to not having a strong Parliament Speaker to get things done.

One more note in reference for to removing a Ministry from office this can only occur with

absolute majority. My source says the Iraqi Parliament members who did not sign the No

Confidence vote Petition will most likely vote no on the removal of the Minister. It will

remain to be seen next week if the Oil Minister al-Shahristani will show up and be

questioned by the Iraqi Parliament members or resign before him coming to the Iraqi

Parliament.

The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) was passed by Parliament last December 2008 and

in the agreement and this was the main reason it was passed by the Iraqi Parliament is that

there would be a vote by the Iraqi people on the security agreement between the United

States and the Iraqi government and the vote would be held before July 31, 2009.

As the July date is getting close you will see shortly the Iraq Election Commission issue a

call for a law for the Referendum to take place as agreed in July. In order to have this vote

your going to need funding and organization to get this done.

U.S. Dollar no more in Iraq?

There are some people out there that think that the US Dollar is no longer going to be in

Iraq because of a letter from the U.S. Military Finance advising all it troops that U.S. Dollar

will be no longer available. Well, maybe for the US Military however, all other contractors

and other Iraqi businessmen will still be using the U.S. Dollar. You have to keep in mind

the Iraq Dinar is not a regionally accepted currency for business transactions. The Iraq

Dinar is still a fully convertible currency in all the major currencies inside Iraq for all debts

public and private. So the notion of the US Dollar is no longer available inside Iraq is just

plain false.

An attempt will be made to publish this newsletter on a weekly basis and also as time goes

on to publish more content as time permits.

To subscribe to the mailing list for this particular Newsletter click on the link below.

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American Contractor

http://www.americancontractor.com

Note: Information based on Open Source information and contacts over the years.

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reprinted with permission from americancontractor.com
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Credit dream in Iraq
 
Apart from the thriving Iraqi stock market, credit is arguably one of the main keys to success for the Iraqi residents.  Especially those whose wages are below the minimal limit to fulfill the human basic needs.

Starting a simple, yet lucrative project with a negligible outlay is what really pays off for the working class nowadays. Such projects help their owners increase their income within a very short time, and that’s courtesy of US financial support.
 
Common farmer Hamza Abid Ali incurred a debt of $ 2,400 from Al-Baydaa Centre, a US-backed micro credit scheme, to cultivate grape, and he amazingly quintupled his income in no time.

“I have increased my earnings and improved my family’s quality of life,” the 33-year-old grape-grower said,

“I was earning only 500,000 dinars from each donam [unit of land] on my vineyard. But with my loan, I bought a water pump and some netting to go over the top of the grapes, and now I am making 4m dinars per donam.”
 
Over the past couple of years, the centre has granted 700 low-interest loans to small Iraqi inventors in different domains. According to US officials, these small businesses that keep springing up all over the Iraqi towns comprise 90% of the overall businesses in the country. The officials also stressed that coaxing more people into getting loans from the center and becoming self-employed is the best way to help the working class overcome their substandard lifestyle.
 
“Iraq needs to develop the private sector to generate jobs,” United Nations’ resident -coordinator in Iraq David Shearer told the Financial Times.

“Our calculation is that 450,000 young people join the work force every year but the chances of them finding employment are not high, so if this is not dealt with it will create instability. Our calculation is that 450,000 young people join the work force every year but the chances of them finding employment are not high, so if this is not dealt with it will create instability.”
 
No doubt that faulty planning consequences and constant governmental corruption abysmally affected such businesses in the past.  But one of the undeniable benefits of the war was open new possibilities for towns residents, who represent the majority of the people. These was definitely one of the greatest benefits of the American existence in Iraq, and the fact is Iraq are better off with the US support, even that many people would disagree on that.
 
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This article may be reprinted online and offline
as long as this box remains and its link is
hyperlinked online.  Written by Darren Chabluk
for http://DrDinar.com/blog
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Iraq Banks Overcoming the Technology Barrier
 
In the past couple of years in Iraq the market personnel and managers have been receiving intensive training to get accustomed to the online trading.  New contemporary systems were being installed to enable the brokers to effectively exchange stocks via the Internet. As planned, the whole preparations took less than two years.
 
Iraqi Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer Taha Ahmed Abdul Salam reckons that finishing off such preparations only in 20 months was no doddle, as other Middle Eastern countries implemented similar plans in no less than four years.

“It’s a great feeling to see the Iraqi stock market enter the era of technology,” Taha said.

“It’s a promising sign to see the price of the shares of one bank up 20 percent in the first electronic trading.”
 
Much as the initial preparations for online trading were wrapped up pretty quickly, the old-school brokers in Iraq are still struggling to get their deals done on time. These guys will have to develop their skills if they are to stay in business, otherwise the Internet trading won’t come in handy for them. Unfortunately the majority of those veterans refuse to go past the whiteboard broking. As a matter of facts, this is the real challenge ahead of the Iraqi market.
 
Some Iraqi indigenous spent so many decades trading via the whiteboards and pens and find it difficult to get into the next stage.  A common problem that appeared in all the third-world countries that tried to implement online trading. The youth brokers should have no problem to adapt such a new approach, but what really poses a problem is orienting the veteran traders, who represent the majority of the Iraqi
stock market brokers.
 
“I know it’s essential to turn to technology, but it’s difficult for us to catch on in just one day. They should teach us how to use these digital screens, otherwise we will lose our money,” 55-year-old broker Akram Bahnam commented on the cutting-edge online trading.

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This article may be reprinted online and offline
as long as this box remains and its link is
hyperlinked online.  Written by Darren Chabluk
for http://DrDinar.com/blog
*************************************************

Iraq Online Tradings Explosive Growth in 2009

A recent Iraqi stock market report stated that a multitude of foreign investors have pumped huge amounts of money inside the country this year (2009), to take the Iraqi online trading to a whole new level.

The numbers speak for themselves; in January the overall foreign investment capital was $ 634,000US. When it surged to $ 849,000 in February some people were astonished, but next month’s growth was the real feat. Unbelievably, the sum of foreign investments in Iraq rocketed to $ 1.072 billion in March to raise some eyebrows and make those who have doubts about the country’s potentials think again.

The same report forecasts further development and other huge leaps in profits in the foreseeable future, especially when online trading becomes widespread. It also suggests that picking five corporations to be the main contributors of the electronic trading was one of the reasons behind the financial rising in March. Ashur Bank, al-Mansour Bank, The Commercial Bank, Ashtar Hotel and Al-Mansour Hotel have been all chosen to be the contributors.

The report also cited the low interest rate as another reason behind the historic boom, because it encouraged brokers to buy more stocks in big amounts. Central Bank of Iraq has made a decision of reduce the annual interest rate from 11% to 9% starting April, and also reduce the rates of credit to be 11% per annual for the initial credit, 12% for secondary credit and 12.5 % for loans.

*************************************************
This article may be reprinted online and offline
as long as this box remains and its link is
hyperlinked online.  Written by Darren Chabluk
for http://DrDinar.com/blog
*************************************************

“I believe Iraq could not only be one of the wealthiest countries in
the region, but one of the wealthiest countries in the world if we
can just work things out.”, says Hillary Clinton while visiting Iraq
in April 2009. 

After being economically-crippled during the dark era of late
President Saddam Hussein, Iraqis are now on the road of recovery from the chronic recession they suffered from for more than a couple of decades. 

*************************************************
This article may be reprinted online and offline
as long as this box remains and its link is
hyperlinked online.  Written by Darren Chabluk
for http://DrDinar.com/blog
*************************************************