In our continuing efforts to bring you the top business news from Iraq, Iraq Business News is delighted to announce two new services for its readers: To help you keep track of the markets, starting on Thursday we will provide a scrolling stock ticker from the Baghdad Stock Exchange; and, Every Friday we will bring […]
Dr Ahmed al Shamma, Deputy Minister of Oil, to launch massive investment in refineries at the Iraq Mining conference on 7-8 September 2011. Dr al Shamma will present: A review of present refineries and operating capacities and details of major projects to rehabilitate and upgrade these refineries. A review of planned grass roots refineries to […]
Azzaman reports that the Iran Foreign Investment Company (IFIC) is willing to invest heavily in a number of projects in the southern Iraqi province of Wassit, and is prepared to accept deferred payment for its acvities. The head of the province’s information office, Majid al-Atabi, said the company’s offer was tempting because Wassit did not […]
Maersk Oil, a fully-owned subsidiary of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, has acquired a 20% shareholding in HKN Energy Ltd., a subsidiary of U.S.-based Hillwood International Energy, whose sole asset is a licence in Kurdistan Region. The acquisition is a step into the prolific but as yet underdeveloped area of Kurdistan in oil output […]
Hussein al-Shahristani (pictured), Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, will be summoned to parliament after the Eid al-Fitr holiday to answer questions about two fraudulent ministry of electricity contracts worth more than $1.7 billion, according to AKnews. A member of the parliamentary commission set up to investigate the case, Uday Awwad, told the agency that MPs signatures have […]
The final report of the congressionally chartered US Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan says at least $31 billion has been lost to contract waste and fraud, and that major reforms are required. Commission reform objectives include improving federal planning for use of contracts, strengthening contract management and oversight, expanding competition, improving interagency […]
An Iraqi economist says the country will lose $22 million because of "extra" Eid al-Fitr holidays that the Iraqi government announced. Eid al-Fitr, which follows the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is usually three days, however, AKnews reports that the Iraqi government last week extended the holidays to six day, to accommodate differences between the […]
According to reports from Al-Sabaah, the Central Bank of Iraq is planning to make its new currency forgery-proof. Central Bank Governor Sinan al-Shabibi claims that the new currency's attributes will make it 'difficult' to falsify, and says that the project to delete the three zeros, if implemented, will enhance the value of the Iraqi dinar […]
The following article was published by Reidar Visser, an historian of Iraq educated at the University of Oxford and currently based at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. It is reproduced here with the author’s permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. […]
