DrDinar Blog

Baghdad Mayor, Saber al-Issawi, released a statement that the city government received staggering offers and bids from 7 big foreign companies. The bid would include over 150,000 stores, parks, flats and cinemas which was estimated to be fully established within 10 years time in northeastern Baghdad alone. Who would not be attracted by this rare offer? And what is Iraq that foreign companies would bid to establish their future ventures?

In line with the bid from foreign companies, Iraq has been lining up a housing and commercial project worth $33 billion – $25 billion worth of housing units for unfortunate Iraqis in the reviving of Baghdad city and other provinces, and $8 billion for Iraqi ports to link the country to Syria, Jordan and Turkey. As the city government continues to lure foreign investors to resurrect the shattered economy, CBI sales for this period reached 94 million.

Things have been gotten up for both the government and financial institutions. Will this ever continue for the next five years? No one knows but, everyone is hopeful especially the Iraqi Cabinet. When Mayor Saber was interviewed just this week, he agreed to put $10 billion into the project.

If we consider the driving reason as to why the city government has been pushing towards the economy’s resurrection, Baghdad has been in a condition where it could hardly stand – decades of war and the UN sanctions imposed in 1990.

Take Sadr City as an example: This has been a large Shi’ite area at the northeastern part of the city. It has 7 million Iraqis suffering from electricity flickers (on and off) and lack of proper housing. Buildings in the area were battered by years of devastating war.

However, so much for shelters cobbled together for the area will be one of the major sites for the said construction project, stressed by Mayor Issawi. As a matter of fact, $870 is already allocated by the Iraqi Cabinet for the first construction year for Sadr city.

Iraq’s housing minister, Mohammed al-Darraji, even told the United Press International after his participation in the fourth executive office of the housing ministers in Indian Ocean and Asia last April 6, 2012, “We are trying with the World Bank to help us in building the housing units. The southern provinces need these units but we plan to cover all Iraqi provinces.”

So, the original plan was really to provide decent homes for all the provinces of the country. Just how determined is the housing minister of the country even if he had just escaped the traumatic assassination in the Capital of Baghdad last April 7 of this year!

To wrap up things, out of 27 interested companies and foreign investors, the city government ​only prequalified 7 companies to help them express their ventures for Sadr City. Some of the companies and investors include Broadway Malyan (UK-based architects), Halcrow Group, Woods Bagot (Australian based architects), some firms from the neighboring Arab world, consultants Pell Frischmann and structural engineers Buro Happold.

Moreover, the eastern part of Baghdad is the second site for construction which will include 65,000 flats. How much would this cost? The cost is estimated to be $20 billion good for 10 whole years. In short, the country is planning to reach 2 million homes between 2012 and 2015 – painstakingly challenging.

Although there has not yet been a concrete site for the third construction development, the third housing project is said to be in the western part of Baghdad city.

Just how massive this task can be? “We cannot do this by ourselves – we need international companies to get involved” Iraq’s Minister for Housing and Construction, Mohammed Sahib al-Darraji said.

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Last April 19, 2012, Dr. Sinan Al-Shabibi (CBI governor) hosted the US Chamber’s Iraq Business Initiative to discuss the country’s fiscal and economic progress that has been implemented since the year 2003. What’s the main burden of the discussion? It was to modernize Iraq’s banking system. Let’s check a little historical background on Iraq’s currency so, that we can fully understand what the CBI governor is really up to.

22 years ago (that’s 1990), UN had imposed Chapter 7 on Iraq. This was a part of UN Charter being the ‘Action With Respect To Threats To The Peace, Breaches Of The Peace, And Acts Of Aggression.’ With accordance to Article 41, Iraq had no choice but to adhere to the regulations set by UN that resulted to partial interruption of their economic relations and even other means of communication. In short, for more than a decade, Iraq was sanctioned and isolated from the world or so it seems.

However, that was 20 years ago – when Saddam had greatly inflicted the nation. Today, things have slightly changed and 2012 seems to be promising for the country especially to its currency, Dinar. Would you agree?

Iraqi dinar trade started in 1931 when it was backed by the British pounds to replace the Indian Rupee. During that time, Iraq had been under the guidance of Britain. However, when Saddam Hussein regime came into the scene in 1982, there was a subjective dinar exchange rate against the US dollar. He and his party had claimed that 1IQD was $3. However, this exchange rate did not adhere to the devaluation regulations of the US currency.

In 2003, after the Gulf war, dinar trade rate was 1IQD to $0.00027USD but, in 2008 it went $0.000512352. The unstable purchasing power of the currency against the dollar was because of the oppressing wars it had with other countries and sanction from the UN. 3 years after (that’s 2011), 1IQD reach a dollar equivalent of 1170 but, in January of 2012, dinar trade rate raised to 1160. For a span of 10 years, dinar trade has shown fluctuating movements but these movements have gained lots of speculators all around the globe.

Today, Iraq has established its Central Bank that has been issuing stable currency to circulate around the ISX. The country has been taking actions to build stronger International relations between foreign countries and this was greatly proven when Iraqi Diplomats tasted the American dream on USA Soil – a trade and economic forum held last January 31, 2012 in Washington DC.

Iraqi felt revived even more when the $100.5 billion budget for 2012 was officially confirmed by the agreement between Kurdish political blocs, Shi’ite and Sunni personnel. Just last March of 2012, a jump by 150,000 bpd on the country’s oil exports from the southern ports was experienced according to Reuters.

Going back to Dr. Sinan Al-Shabibi (CBI governor) when he hosted the US Chamber’s Iraq Business Initiative, he greatly emphasized that CBI is committed to a conducive environment for foreign direct investment through a more competitive and stable currency which has market based rates. CBI greatly knows that the reconstruction of Iraq will greatly need foreign investments and private sectors.

So, how would these positive events affect the current dinar trade? No one knows but, everyone understands the relationship between a stable economy of a certain country and its national currency.

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Former Iraq Detention Center To Become Trade Center

Who would have thought that the former US Military detention center in the city of Basra could raise a potential of becoming Iraq’s largest trading hub? Yes, a trade center that could link Asia and Europe. For years of being neglected and ignored, who would have thought that Camp Bucca could be set to become a link for commerce that could fuel employment and economic growth?

Basra is the second largest city of the country. During Saddam Hussein regime, this city was greatly oppressed and within the area was Camp Bucca which was once made to be US Military detention facility in the year 2003. This area was chosen because of its wide acres of land preferable enough to detain prisoners.

However, an Iraqi-owned development company (Kufan group) saw a great potential of its 740 acres of land that once held thousands of prisoners – they will turn Basra a massive logistics hub and it will be called as Basra Logistics City. For years from its freedom from Sadam’s reign, Iraq (consistently) is becoming ambitious, isn’t it? Well, they do have the land to become as such.

When Rami Faraj, one who is working on the said development, was asked by CNN reporter, Fred Pleitgen during an interview, Rami said, “It will be a connection hub to connect Europe to the Far East. The stuff or the goods come from Europe through Iraq and Umm Qasr and to the Gulf and the Far East and vice versa. It comes back from China and Japan. It will save time and money for the trading companies.”

In short, the group wants to link Asia and Europe to bring back life to Iraq’s second largest city. And they are aware of the challenges that need to be faced. The projected Basra Logistics City will include outstanding container terminal, food processing facilities, hotels, shops and warehouses. Without a doubt, the city is capable of accommodating all the ambitious goals of the Kufan group given the fact that Camp Bucca could detain 20,000 prisoners any moment from now.

Not to mention that American soldiers have left state-of-the-art infrastructure that will make it easier for the group to start its commercial operations. So, what about the security? Well, the geographical perimeter is a natural safe place for workers making it close to impossible to breach.

Near the Camp area is a water-treatment plant which is currently the source of fresh water for 45,000 people in Umm Qasr. Given the figures, Kufan group has invested $240 Million just on its first phase of construction – this makes South Iraq as the stage area to attract other logistic firms and big companies.

Kufan group still has to fix most of the port’s facilities (mostly from 1970s and 80s) which have not been properly repaired for more than 10 years. If they want to relive the glory days of what was once called the great Babylon, they have to fix the antiqued facilities that previous wars left. Iraq is currently doing its full modernization efforts for Umm Qasr. The Iraqi government and Kufan group expect, or so they seem to be, that Basra Logistics City will fuel economic growth in the area for the next years to come.

As the Deputy Prime Minister for Oil Affairs of Iraq, Hussein al Sharistani said, “The standard of living of Iraqis is much lower than what it should be, compared to the Gulf countries, Gulf oil countries; there is no reason why Iraq should (not) be living at that standard. And I think in the coming five to 10 years you will see a completely different Iraq.”

Are you looking for an additional investment policy that can make your future completely secured? If it is so, why don’t you make plans to purchase Iraqi dinars taking help of some professional Iraqi dinar dealer? As a matter of fact, Iraqi dinars presently have become cheaper since they hold an average value of 1,193 Dinars per $1USD. Investors looking for profitable schemes can now buy Iraqi currency from US citizens under Presidential Order 13303. Since the official orders have been passed, the citizens of the United States can go for monetary investments in Iraq by obtaining currencies from banks.

Every currency buyer should note that he/she should buy currencies from a particular nation only when its economic conditions are string enough. Presently, Iraq holds a favorable economic condition that has rather encouraged a lot of investors to buy Iraqi currency without hesitation. So, if you are planning to buy Iraqi currency, take a look at the following points which will help you end up in a profitable dealing:
First, you should know how to spot a fake dinar. Those who are new to the purchasing policies of Iraqi dinar might not be aware of the fact that the currency exchange market is full of fake dealers who are ready to dupe people by selling old dinars. So, you should know how to distinguish between old and new dinars.

The new Iraqi dinars are all printed by De La Rue consisting of a good number of anti-counterfeit features. Raised lettering, security thread, watermarks and optical variable ink are some of the typical features of the new dinar notes.

Once you have gathered knowledge to buy Iraqi currency, you can now head to choose a professional Iraqi dinar dealer. It’s better if you can get in touch with one of your local banks and ask for a dinar dealer. The majority of banks in Iraq usually provide dinar investors to people who prefer to deal with huge volumes of money.

One can also buy Iraqi currency online. There are several websites maintained by dinar professionals. You need to do some researches to pick the right dinar dealer. Remember, dinar investment involves a good lot of money. Therefore, you must be extremely careful and check whether the dinar representative is professional and has been conducting his business legally.
Once you are through with the researches, you can think of Dinar Investment and progress accordingly to buy Iraqi currency.

About the Author

Robert Cruz is not only an investor on iraqi dinar but also have good information on buy Iraqi currency. For more information on Dinar Investment he recommends you to visit http://www.gidassociates.com/.