Next week’s Arab League Summit in Baghdad is a very significant moment in Iraq’s development.

Quite apart from any discussions and resolutions at the conference itself, the staging of the event in Iraq for the first time since 1990 demonstrates the acceptance of an independent Iraq into the community of Arab states.

Preparation for the summit has also provided an opportunity for Iraq and other nations to tidy up some loose ends, such as the re-appointment of an Ambassador from Saudi Arabia to Baghdad, and the resolution of some long-standing issues with Kuwait.

But the conference comes with costs, the most obvious of which is the human cost of the terrorism intended to disrupt the event. For several days, Baghdad will effectively be on lockdown, with security the top priority. Our Expert Blogger, John Drake, has advice for anyone staying in the capital over this period.

In the meantime, Iraq Business News will keep you up to date with developments.

In 2011, foreign firms and investors reported $55.67 billion in investments, service contracts and other commercial activities across Iraq — an estimated 40.3 percent increase in total deal value over the previous year.

So say Dunia Frontier Consultants (DFC) in their latest report on foreign commercial activity in Iraq. But did you know also that:

• The total number of reported investments, service contracts and other commercial activities by foreign firms in Iraq increased 80.4% to 294;
• Activity was much less volatile, with deal flow varying only 10% on average from month to month, as opposed to an average of 50% per month in 2010; and,
• At least 45 countries were active in Iraq.

While the bad news about Iraq still makes the headlines, and with good reason, we shouldn’t forget that not all the news from Iraq is bad.

In good times and in bad, Upper Quartile and AAIB are here to help you. For more information please contact Gavin Jones or Adrian Shaw.

Iraq is making progress. It is now pumping out 3 million barrels of oil per day for the first time since 1979, it is about to host the Arab League Summit, and its plan to build 2 million new homes is moving ahead.

So why have shares in Iraq-focused oil shares taken a bashing this week?

Part of the reason is a report from HSBC highlighting the political risk in the country:

“After years of conflict, the Iraqi oil industry has opened for business … the country has huge reserves … [but] politics is likely to impair value.“

In other words, prosperity is there for the taking if the politicians and public servants don’t mess it up.

On a rather different subject, Iraq Business News is delighted to welcome a new member to our Expert Blogger panel: Bob Nottelmann has helping the Iraqi agricultural sector and will write for us on Iraqi agribusiness. You can read his first installment here.

Upper Quartile and AAIB are the ideal partners to guide your business through the complexities of Iraqi life. For more information please contact Gavin Jones or Adrian Shaw.

The past seven days have been exceptionally good for the oil industry in Iraq.

The big news for many was the announcement that WesternZagros Resources has struck oil at its Mil Qasim-1 exploration well in Kurdistan; and if you don’t know where Mil Qasim is, and what fields are in the same area, you can find it on this very useful oilfield map.

Shares in Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) have hit new highs on Monday as the company confirmed to the markets that it intends to seek a full listing on the London Stock Exchange. They’ve since dropped back 25%, which may be good news for anyone still wanting to jump on that train.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Oil has reportedly yielded to pressure and sweetened the terms of the 4th round energy contracts, currently scheduled for May.

And as we continually point out here at Iraq Business News, all sectors  the economy are expected to benefit from the increased activity in the energy sector and the revenues it will bring to the country; Iraq’s Central Bank has made some very exciting projections for growth over the coming years.

Whatever sector of the economy your business operates in, Upper Quartile and AAIB are here to help you. For more information please contact Gavin Jones or Adrian Shaw.

In Iraq, as elsewhere, trade fairs, exhibitions and conferences are a very important way of communicating with potential customers and suppliers.

Meeting your future trading partners face-to-face is always a valuable experience, and these organised events offer a very efficient means of achieving this in terms of time and cost.

To help you plan your conference stretegy most effectively, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new events page, where you can see at a glance what’s on over the coming year.

Whether you’re considering booking a stand or attending as a visitor, we think this will be a valuable tool to help your business prosper in the new Iraq.

Organisers can click here to contact us about having their events listed on Iraq Business News at attractive rates. The sooner you list with us, the more interest you’ll generate for your show, so don’t delay!

http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/events/

There has been a welcome outbreak of pragmatism in Iraq in recent days.

While the fact that ExxonMobil will apparently be allowed to take part in the auction for the fourth round oil licences was not entirely unexpected, some will see it as a climb down on the part of Baghdad.

Others, such as Hess Corp, which was barred in September as a result of its contracts in Iraqi Kurdistan, will be left in little doubt that some oil companies are more equal than others.

On the party-political front, the return of Iraqiyya deputies to the parliament after several weeks of boycott has generally been seen as a positive, especially with budgets to be finalised.

But this should not lead to any complacency, as tensions between the factions still remain high.

What this all means for the long-awaited hydrocarbon law remains to be seen.

Today we are proud to bring you the 100th edition of our Iraq Business News newsletter, and during that time it has been our pleasure to provide you with essential news and top-class business intelligence.

From a modest start, our newsletter is now read by more than 11,000 people each week, while our website receives over 125,000 visitors every month.

Our readership includes some of the best-informed decision makers in sectors such as energy, infrastructure, security, international development, and investment.

We’d like to thank all our readers, advertisers, expert bloggers, and the contributors to the (often lively) debates in the comments sections of our articles, for making Iraq Business News a ‘must read’ for all who are interested in transformation of Iraq — we couldn’t have done it without you!

Your friends and colleagues might also appreciate receiving our weekly newsletter in their inbox, so why not forward this to them — they can subscribe free of charge by simply clicking here and entering their email addresses.

For detailed advice on doing business in Iraq, please contact Gavin Jones at Upper Quartile and Adrian Shaw at AAIB Insurance – Iraq Insurance.

When Becca Heller, current director and co-founder of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, first met Moustafa in Amman, Jordan in August 2008, he and his brother were the only surviving members of his family. His father and other brother had been kidnapped and tortured. A video of them pleading for their lives was sent to Moustafa and his mother, stating that they would be returned safely in exchange for a hefty ransom payment. Moustafa and his mother, who had no money, and a younger brother with cerebral palsy to take care of, did not have the money to pay the ransom. That was the last anyone heard from Moustafa’s father and older brother. At the time Becca met him, Moustafa was still carrying around the ransom video on a small USB port on his keychain. Moustafa had no food and it was illegal for him to work because he did not have residency in Jordan. He had to somehow obtain medical help for his brother, and he had not seen his mother in three years. His only option was to try to be resettled to a safe third country where he could start over, but he had heard nothing from the United Nations about his resettlement application in over a year.

The Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) is a U.S.-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing legal assistance to Iraqi refugees in life and death situations. To date, IRAP has helped resettle more than 1,000 Iraqis identified by the United Nations and numerous other organizations as living in “extremely urgent situations.” After returning to the U.S. from Amman in 2008, Becca co-founded IRAP as a student-driven extracurricular organization at Yale Law School, where she then just beginning her second year. Becca’s vision was to organize law students and lawyers in the U.S. and the Middle East to help Iraqis like Moustafa, who had no choice other than to be resettled, but seemed to have been lost somewhere in the bureaucracy international refugee processing systems.

Currently, around 2.5 million Iraqis remain displaced because of violence. Of these, an estimated 1.5 million are internally displaced inside Iraq, and one million are stuck in limbo in neighboring countries including Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Iraqis in these countries have no rights- they may be deported at any time, it is illegal for them to work, and there is almost no access to health care. Meanwhile, many of the refugees are in dire humanitarian situations for which they cannot receive any assistance.