By John Lee. Iraq's Minister of Housing and Reconstruction, Mohamed Sahib al-Daraji [Mohammed Al-Deraji] (pictured), has asked the government to allocate $3.5 billion every year to alleviate housing shortages in the country, reports Azzaman. He said Iraq needed 60,000 housing units every year as well as a massive housing reconstruction program for the building of […]
By John Lee. The Iraqi cabinet decided on Tuesday to give neighboring Jordan 100,000 barrels of oil as a gift to help it overcome its economic difficulties. According to a report from Businessweek, the move could be seen as an attempt by the Shiite-led Iraqi government to offer support to one of its Sunni neighbors. […]
By John Lee. OptaSense, which is owned by QinetiQ, has secured a key pipeline security contract in Iraq. The contract is to help provide protection to a new 180km pipeline corridor, owned and run by the State Company for Oil Project Iraq (SCOP). OptaSense will be providing the technology to allow vital operational and security […]
By John Lee. Richard Wadsworth, CEO of Sonoro Energy, talks to Proactive Investors at the Oil Council World Assembly. He says the company's licence area in the Salah ad Din Province in Northern Iraq is in a "very prolific, attractive" basin: (Source: Proactive Investors)
By John Lee. Lebanon's biggest bank, Bank Audi, plans to enter the Iraqi market late next year. Chief Executive Samir Hanna (pictured) told Reuters that its new Iraqi operation will be a subsidiary of its Turkish business, which it launched in October and which is trading "more than 50 percent ahead" of the bank's target. […]
British Ambassador opens workshop to combat sexual violence As part of a global initiative to prevent violence against women, the British Ambassador to Iraq, Simon Collis, yesterday opened a workshop organised in cooperation with the British Embassy and the Ministry of Interior. A British expert in women’s rights, Harriet Ware-Austin, chaired the workshop which was […]
By Bob Nottelmann. Although in the very heart of the Fertile Crescent, defined by its abundant natural resources, Iraq is hardly a breadbasket for western Asia, let alone its own population. Nearly 80% of the country’s food is imported from neighboring countries Turkey, Syria and Iran. Nowhere is it more apparent that an effective and […]
By John Lee. Iraq’s state grains board has purchased a total of 350,000 tons of wheat from Australia, Russia and Canada in a tender for a nominal 50,000 tons which closed last week: 200,000 tons of Australian wheat purchased from Glencore at $404.89 cif; 50,000 tons of Russian wheat, also from Glencore, at $399 a tonne […]
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Gryshchenko Kostyantyn on his first visit to the Kurdistan Region met with President Masoud Barzani, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, and government ministers in Erbil. Mr Kostyantyn came to the Kurdistan Region as part of his visit to Iraq and arrived in Erbil from Baghdad. President Barzani and Foreign Minister Kostyantyn discussed ways […]
By John Lee. The Serbian ambassador to Baghdad, Radisav Petrovich, has expressed his country's desire to invest in Iraq in general, and in Wassit province in particular. At a press conference in the city of Kut, the Ambassador Petrovich said a cooperation agreement will be signed shortly between the two countries. He added that an […]
By Mohammed Omar al-Qaysi. This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Farmers in Ninawa are being forced to abandon their farms in droves because of desertification. And now they say, to make matters worse, those who […]
