So far this year Iraqi stocks have been surprisingly oblivious to three very bullish developments. The Iraq Securities Commission has finally issued its instruction on custodian bank licenses. (See this post for more on custodian banks.) The European Central Bank (ECB) is running its printing presses at maximum capacity. And earnings are up sharply at […]
Iraq's cabinet has approved a $363 million (435 billion Iraqi dinar) contract on Tuesday with Egypt's Orascom Construction to build a 1,014 MW gas-fired power plant in the northern town of Baiji [Beiji, Bayji]. The contract involves building the plant and installing six 169 MW generators which Iraq bought from Siemens in 2008. The project […]
Oil giant BP is reported to be in talks with Iraq to boost output from the Kirkuk oilfield in the north of the country. Bloomberg, citing sources at the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES), says BP officials will meet with Iraq’s North Oil Company (NOC) within weeks to discuss increasing capacity at Kirkuk from about 260,000 […]
Sami al Araji, chairman of Iraq's National Investment Commission (NIC), has told a business audience in New Delhi that his country needs $500-$700 billion in investment to rebuild its infrastructure. Araji compared the opportunities in Iraq to "Germany after the Second World War", adding, "our message to the world is that we are open for […]
Iraq's transport minister, Hadi al-Ameri [al-Amari] (pictured), has appealed to foreign firms to help restore his country's dilapidated infrastructure by rebuilding airports and constructing a European-style rail network, according to a report from AFP. Addressing nearly 50 companies in Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone, he said that as Iraq's oil income rises in the coming years there […]
The first official and business delegation from Lithuania has visited the Kurdistan Region to meet with local officials and explore potential areas of cooperation. The large group was headed by the Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Economy, Mr Daumantas Lapinskas, and included the Vice-Minister of Agriculture, Mr Mindaugas Kuklierius, and the Deputy Director of External Economic Relations […]
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. […]
