Fearless Four

Iraq spent $450 million [540 billion Iraqi dinars] in preparation for the Arab League Summit, which has now been postponed for a year. The money was spent planting palm trees along highways, re-paving roads and restoring a palace of former dictator Saddam Hussein, according to a report from Reuters. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said on Thursday the summit had been postponed to March 2012 after being put off twice this year amid regional turmoil and animosity towards Iraq by some Gulf Arab states after it criticised Bahrain’s crackdown on Shia’ite protesters. Revamping Iraq’s capital included the refurbishment of six of Baghdad’s main hotels and repaving the city’s airport road, one of the most dangerous to travel on at the height of the war. Many are questioning the amount of money spent on a regional summit expected to be attended by heads of state. “What will we get from the summit? What is the benefit? We, the people, don’t understand the language of politics, we seek benefit,” a Baghdad barber told Reuters. “They should have spent it on the electricity sector, which has suffered the most damage. I am 60 years old and in my life, I haven’t witnessed any benefit coming from Arab summits.” Ali al-Moussawi, Prime Minister al-Maliki’s media adviser, said he was confident the money had not gone to waste. “It is impossible to ignore our hotels and leave them in such a condition,” Moussawi said. Around $40 million of the allocated $450 million was used to renovate Saddam’s Republican Palace, used as a U.S. embassy and military headquarters after the 2003 invasion, while Al Jazeera put the figure at $400m. The 60-year-old palace, expected to house Arab leaders, has been kitted out with giant chandeliers and paintings of Babylon. Date palms adorn the garden, which also has a swimming pool. “We had to work around the clock. Everything needed to be repaired, redone,” Osman Mimarsinanoglu, chairman of the Turkish Gorkem company told Reuters before the postponement. The summit may also be a test of readiness for Iraq’s army and police. U.S. troops are scheduled to leave by year-end. http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2011/05/06/iraq-spent-450m-on-postponed-summit/

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has received a written notice from the federal Ministry of Finance in Baghdad, confirming release of the first oil export payment to the KRG contractors, Prime Minister Barham Salih (pictured) announced today. The Prime Minister said, “This confirmation of payment to the KRG for the Region’s contractors amounts to around 50 percent (US$243 million) of net revenues derived from the export of over 5 million barrels of oil from the Kurdistan Region between the start of February 2011 and March 27.” The payment is part of the recent interim agreement on revenue allocation reached by the KRG with the federal Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki and the federal Ministers of Oil and Finance. That arrangement allowed for the resumption of oil exports from newly discovered fields in the Kurdistan Region, marketed by the federal government’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), and with a percentage of the revenues going via the KRG to the contractors to pay exploration and extraction costs. “This is a significant and welcome step forward for the Kurdistan Region and Iraq,” the Prime Minister said. “I am pleased that the KRG and its contractors are making an important contribution to Iraq’s oil output and thus to the revival of Iraq’s economy. The Prime Minister said, “The triggering of the oil payments mechanism signifies the commitment to resolve the outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad in accordance with Iraq’s Constitution.” He said “This positive development will add impetus to discussions over a long-delayed raft of federal oil and gas related legislation. The dispensation of the costs to the relevant companies will adhere to our agreement and in accordance with verifiable auditing standards.” “It augurs well for the timely passage of a federal hydrocarbons law, a federal revenue sharing law, and the other federal oil legislation,” the Prime Minister said, adding, “Articles 18 and 19 of the KRG’s Oil and Gas Law, passed in 2007, explicitly commit the KRG to cooperation with the federal government in pursuance of the federal constitution requirement to ‘generate maximum revenues in a timely manner for the benefit of the people of Iraq’.” Prime Minister Salih said, “The new federal laws would be in harmony with the KRG’s existing Oil and Gas Law” and “would provide stability and the regulatory glue that holds Iraq together.” He said, “The KRG’s management of oil and gas fields has, since 2007, attracted over US$10 billion new investment in exploration and development activities from more than 40 companies from 17 countries around the world, and this should be harnessed to its full potential for the benefit of all Iraqi people.” Dr. Ashti Hawrami, the KRG Minister of Natural Resources, said the money from Baghdad would be allocated by the KRG to the producing companies “In line with the KRG’s contractual obligations and the contributions made by the companies to the oil export from the Region.” Dr. Hawrami said, “The payments will be reinvested by the companies to boost production levels in the Kurdistan Region” and, “in due course, significantly boost Iraqi and thereby KRG revenues.” “In the period 27 March – 29 April, a further 4.5 million barrels of oil were exported from the Kurdistan Region through Turkey, at an average rate of 135,000 bpd”, said Dr. Hawrami. He noted: “The start of the payments will only serve to add confidence in and further strengthen our policy which is on track for an increase in oil export to 200,000 bpd by the end of this year.” “The start of the payments will only serve to add confidence in and further strengthen our policy which is on track for an increase in oil export to 200,000 bpd by the end of this year.”

Too bad, this guy would have been laughing all the way to the Bank....

SPRINGFIELD - Police, responding to a shooting at an East Forest Park home Tuesday night, found the 35-year-old victim lying on his back in the kitchen smoking a cigarette. They also found 15 pounds of marijuana, two bags of psychedelic mushrooms - and, something investigators are still puzzling over, nearly $5,000 worth of Iraqi currency. “Why he has Iraqi money I don’t have a clue,” Sgt. John M. Delaney said. Along with the Iraqi cash, which tallies to about 5 million dinar, police seized over $23,000 in U.S. cash. Delaney said the discovery of the dinar marks the first time, that he is aware of anyway, that Iraqi currency has been seized in a Springfield drug bust. The gunshot victim, who told police that two men in black and wearing masks broke into his house and shot him, is in stable condition at Baystate Medical Center and expected to recover, Delaney said. The victim, Joshua Glushien, and his mother, 60-year-old Reva Glushien, both of 11 Judith St., have been charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of psychedelic mushrooms (a Class C substance) with intent to distribute and violation of a drug-free zone (Make Way for Ducklings School). A woman summoned police to the Judith Street home when she called, at about 10:35 p.m., and said that her son had been shot. When officers Teddy Truoiolo and Brian Beliveau arrived they saw that the front door had been pried open. The victim told police the gunmen were looking for drugs and money and that something scared them off after the shooting. Police said the strong odor of marijuana wafted through the house and that as they conducted a sweep, looking for the gunmen, pounds of marijuana could be seen in plain sight. Delaney said the vast majority of home invasions are drug-related. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/reported_home_invasion_in_spri.html

Lots of money going out of Iraq, thanks for the post.

Thanks for the post.

Posted on 30 April 2011 Iraq-Business News Thirty-seven percent of the investment plan projects for the year 2011 in the province of al-Muthanna were approved in a “record” time, according to the province’s governor, Ibrahim Salman al-Mayyali, on Thursday. “Muthanna finalized referral of 73% of the projects in the 2011 investment plan, worth 66.680 billion Iraqi dinars [$55.6m], thus outstripping all other provinces in the implementation of the plan,” he told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Hayder Abad Jabir, the director of Muthanna’s government contract department, expected all projects in the plan to be referred to investors within the first half of this year. “Muthanna achieved the announcement of 95% of the plan’s projects, referral of 73% of them to investors and signing contracts of 45% of the total number of projects, 167,” Jabir added. “Until this day, 122 projects were referred for implementation at a value of 56.611 billion Iraqi dinars while contracts were signed to implement 76 others at a value of 32 billion dinars,” he noted. http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2011/04/30/muthanna-already-oks-73-of-investment-projects/

Thanks for the post, nice find!

Thanks for making the calls and sharing the info.

(RTTNews) - The near-term outlook for the Middle East and North Africa is challenging, the International Monetary Fund said in its Regional Economic Outlook released on Wednesday. Further, the fund sees pressing need to address unemployment as well as to improve social safety nets. However, the uprisings could give a boost to the economies by setting a more inclusive growth agenda, better governance and more opportunities for its rising population. The Washington-based IMF projects Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan region to grow 3.9 percent this year, unchanged from 2010. Largely due to higher oil prices and oil production, the economies of oil-exporting nations, are forecast to grow 4.9 percent after rising 3.5 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, growth among oil importers is forecast to ease to 2.3 percent from 4.7 percent. Oil exporting Middle East nations continue to experience structural issues like the requirement for greater diversification of their economies, job creation and financial development to underpin economic growth. At the same time, the immediate challenges for oil-importing countries in the Middle East are to maintain social cohesion and macroeconomic stability in the face of multiple pressures, Masood Ahmed, Director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department said in Dubai. The oil-exporting nations in the region are Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Oil importers are Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, and Tunisia. http://www.forex.tradingcharts.com/international_financial_news/imf_urges_middle_east_focus_04272011_0815.html

The head of the Finance Committee parliamentary deputy for the National Alliance Haider al-Abadi to take the necessary measures to keep the money Iraq after the lifting of international protection by the next May. Abbadi said during an intervention in the meeting of the Council of Representatives on Saturday that "Iraq's money at risk, and that any delay or a bug in the claims settlement agreement between the Government of Iraq and the United States would expose it to risk if there were not alternative measures for their protection. "If Parliament does not act on this matter, the threat of Iraq's money in danger after the fifth of May next, when the lifting of international protection against it." http://bit.ly/fAvKWX

1. Retire 2. Help Family Out 3. Move To Hawaii 4. Donate to Good Causes and Help Friends 5. Buy an Incredible Gift for the Person who told me about the Dinar.

On April 24, the ISX website reported that Mosul Bank (BMFI) will hold a general assembly meeting on May 22 to discuss a possible merger with Union Bank (BUOI). A capital increase via a rights and bonus issue is also on the agenda. The evident objective of such a merger would be to satisfy the central bank, which is requiring all private-sector banks to raise capital to IQD 100 bn by June. Separately, BMFI and BUOI would have to double their existing IQD 50 bn capitalizations. Together, they would immediately hit the target. Aside from helping to satisfy the CBI’s requirement, however, it’s not clear that this deal serves any other purpose for BMFI. With only two branches—one in Baghdad and one in Erbil—BUOI just doesn’t have much of a franchise. BMFI already has branches in those two locations along with another nine in Mosul, two in Ninevah, and one each in Tikrit and Sulaymaniyah. BMFI also has over four times the deposit base of BUOI and more than twice its loan book. Nor is BMFI actually short of capital. Like many Iraqi banks (including BUOI), its biggest single asset is cash. As of its September, 2010 balance sheet, its cash/deposits ratio came to 86%; its loan/deposit ratio was 55%. Clearly BMFI shareholders should expect to hold more than half of the merged entity. A fair deal for them should be based on market capitalization rather than on the fact that the two banks have the same share capital. During the past sixty trading days, BMFI’s average market cap has been 31% higher than BUOI’s. That would suggest giving each BMFI shareholder 0.57 shares in the new company for each of their existing shares, while each BUOI shareholder got 0.43 shares (57 being 31% more than 43). (Naturally this would have to be adjusted once the details of BMFI’s planned capital increase are made public.) Such a deal would be equivalent to valuing BUOI at close to par, as its average share price over the past sixty trading days was IQD 1.01. This is not unreasonable given that its share capital is really all it would be bringing to BMFI’s merger of convenience. http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2011/04/27/mosul-bank-plans-merger-of-convenience/

Overview Levels of violence rose in Iraq last week to the highest level seen this year. The graph below indicates that there were over 70 major attacks recorded countrywide, the majority of which took place in Baghdad. There were several incidents also recorded in eastern Anbar province, a slight fall in the number of attacks in Mosul, a slight rise in the number of attacks in Kirkuk and a generally low number of incidents in the south of the country. Kurdistan saw ongoing protests in downtown Sulaymaniyah, but conditions were still relatively stable and quiet. North Kidnap in Iraq is an ongoing concern, especially in the north of the country. Four people were abducted in the provinces of Ninawa and Ta’mim over the past week, including two men who were later found dead. One of the other abductees was a child seized near Kirkuk who is likely to be held for a ransom. Children have been regularly targeted by opportunist criminals in Iraq over recent years. They are often easier to hold in captivity, while extended family members and even wider communities are often much more willing to provide the financial assistance to the child’s immediate family in order to pay the ransom. Given the comparative ease involved in kidnapping a child over an adult, the cruel tactic is likely to continue. However, the Iraqi security forces are gradually improving their capability in the field of tackling the problem. The Iraqi army reportedly released three Turkish nationals in an operation near Kirkuk on 26 April. They had been held since 15 February and were reportedly beaten, threatened and given food only on alternate days during their captivity. At the time of their abduction a foreign national had not been seized in Iraq for over a year. Evidently companies still need to take the risk into consideration. Personnel of Arab, Kurdish or Turkish origin are no less at risk than nationals from more distant countries and there are no grounds for complacency when assessing security needs in Iraq. Centre Eastern Anbar province and Baghdad were particularly violent last week whereas the once hazardous provinces of Babil, Diyala and Salah ad-Din were quiet with very few incidents reported. The capital saw a considerable rise in assassination attempts, particularly in the down town area on the eastern bank of the River Tigris. Otherwise, however, incidents were scattered throughout the city, from the predominantly Shi’ah district of Sadr City in the east to the predominantly Sunni district of Amiriyah in the west. Most of the attacks were relatively small, but targeted, leaving several senior security force officers and mid-level civic employees dead and injured. As has been the case for a number of weeks, there was a higher than normal number of sticky bombs (UVIEDs) used in attacks. South For another week there were very few incidents reported in the south of the country. However, the US military was targeted once again by militants in the area, with two US soldiers reportedly killed in one incident, although details have not yet been fully revealed. The most frequent tactic affecting the US military in the region remains roadside explosive attacks. Personnel travelling high profile are most at risk of this kind of tactic. Otherwise, mortars continue to pose a concern, although they are gradually becoming less frequent. http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2011/04/28/weekly-security-update-for-28th-april-2011/

The advisor to the Iraqi Central Bank (ICB) has said that inflation jumped from 5.5% in February to 5.7% due rising electricity prices in Iraq. Muzher Mouhammed told AKnews that the high rate of inflation in Iraq is due to the March hike in electricity prices. “The rising inflation simply affects the economy but does not compromise the value of the Iraqi Dinar,” he assured, “…the ICB has taken steps to curb increases in inflation”. The main task of the ICB is to maintain price stability, to implement monetary policy, to manage foreign currency reserves, to issue currency and to regulate the banking sector. (Source: AKnews) http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2011/04/26/iraqi-inflation-hits-5-7/

With just another month to go in Nouri al-Maliki’s 100-day ultimatum to his ministers to improve services, the Prime Minister is now increasing the pressure once more. In addition to sacking ministers who have not performed within the required time, Maliki is also suggesting dissolving the government or even the entire parliament, either at the 100-day mark or at some later stage. When we think back to the painfully long process of forming the current government, threats of this nature should not be made lightly or idly. But this rolling ultimatum, if it is serious, may help to focus the minds of Iraq’s ministers and parliamentarians in their mammoth task of rebuilding the country. Parliament’s next big decision in this respect is to approve the cabinet’s plans to spend $35bn on infrastructure. With the country crying out for basic essential services such as electricity, and with Maliki’s threat hanging over them, allocating funds to improve infrastructure should be high on their list of priorities. http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2011/04/27/time-running-out-for-iraqs-ministers/

Thanks for post.

I admire your honesty and wish others would do the same here. Most of them just pick another date and several reason why it will be that date, quickly forgetting what they said the prior day.

Thanks for posting your experience with your Bank, I dont think tellers have much info, but Bank Managers might.

Best of luck, stay possitve! Speedy recovery!

Trust me, if you wait long enough...the rumors will appear.

I am hoping at least a small portion of his information is correct, even if it happens in July...it will be a great summer!

Sounds promising, thanks for the post!

Iraq has approved an ambitious $37-billion [45 trillion Iraqi dinar] programme to upgrade Iraq’s collapsing infrastructure, which has fallen victim to three decades of war and sanctions, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh (pictured) said on Tuesday. AFP reports that the cabinet’s plans, which must now be approved by parliament, are the latest in efforts by the government to placate protesters who have railed against poor public services and a lack of improvement in their daily lives, eight years on from the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. The allocated funds, decided at a Monday evening cabinet meeting, will be spread over several years. The draft law to authorise the investment has been languishing for more than a year, with Maliki having initially proposed it before March 2010 election. Opposition parties at the time objected to it, viewing it as a pre-election spending spree to lure voters. Areas to receive investment include: ◦transport infrastructure, with $10 billion in spending planned, and an additional $1.5 billion for highways; ◦$5 billion for education, ◦$5 billion for water and sewerage; ◦$5 billion for agriculture. ◦$3 billion for health infrastructure; and, ◦$2 billion for higher education. “I hope parliament will approve these infrastructure projects… to develop services, because without the agreement of parliament, we cannot fulfill our ambitions to build houses, services, electricity and health,” Maliki said at a news conference in Baghdad. http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2011/04/27/iraq-to-spend-37-billion-on-infrastructure/