Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) has issued the following update on the ongoing legal battle with Excalibur Ventures: Further to the decision of the English Commercial Court in London, as detailed in the Company's announcement of 15 March 2012, a payment of £6,000,000 has been made into Court by Excalibur Ventures LLC ("Excalibur") as security for […]
The Iraqi government has awarded contracts worth $199 million to two construction companies to build 2,000 homes in the southern provinces of Thi Qar [Dhi Qar] and Muthanna, reports Bloomberg. Markez Inc., an Iraqi-American company incorporated in Maryland, but with no contact address on its website, secured a $139 million deal to build 1,000 homes […]
Thi Qar [Dhi Qar] Investment Commission has granted a new investment licence to build 850-housing units in Shatra, in the north of Nassiriya city. The project, to be implemented by an Iraqi company, will cost $150 million [180 billion Iraqi dinars]. Another housing complex with a costing $16.5 million, and a $15 million shopping mall […]
Iraq and Finland will sign a trade and economic agreement in the middle of April, reports AKnews. Trade Minister, Kherula Hassan, said a delegation from the Kurdistan Region will visit Finland later this month to strengthen trade between the two sides. A Finnish delegation visited the Kurdistan Region last year and declared Finland's intention to […]
Payment for wheat exports to Iraq in the late 1980s will finally be distributed to growers in Australia, according to a report from Weekly Times Now. Grain growers will share in about $48m in repayment of debt owed by Iraq relating to three wheat pools run by the former Australian Wheat Board, and affecting 52,000 […]
The Financial Times reports that Iraq’s central bank has tightened its clampdown on its sales of dollars, amid fears that buyers are using them to launder money and skirt international sanctions on neighbouring Iran and Syria. The bank unveiled new rules on Monday to force customers to prove their identities by supplying tax records and […]
Russian-based news agency RT interviews an anti-capitalist campaigner about the excalating tensions between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan: (Source: RT)
2011 was a good year for HSBC’s 70%-owned subsidiary Dar Es Salam Bank (BDSI). Full-year operating and pre-tax profit rose 921% and 877%, respectively, with almost all of this gain occurring in the second half. Year-end deposits and lending were up 70% and 81% over December, 2010. Operating profit came in at IQD 9.4 bn, […]
Ashti Hawrami, the natural resources minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said on Monday that Exxon Mobil is honoring its oil exploration contracts in the region, contradicting the statement from Baghdad's Oil Minster, Abdul Kareem Luaibi [Elaibi], who said the deal had been frozen. “What comes out of Baghdad is about 90 percent, with […]
The Basra Investment Commission has approved six projects from Iraqi and Arab investors in the areas of housing, industry and tourism. The projects include construction of a $9.7m (11.3bn IQD) ready-mix concrete plant and a $9m (10.5bn IQD) plant for producing construction thermostone (isolating cement material). Other projects include a $81,500 (95m IQD) Nakhil tourist […]
Bulgaria plans to reopen its embassy in Baghdad and open a new consulate in Erbil this year, according to AKnews. The announcement was made during a meeting between Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nickolay Mladenov during a recent trip to Bulgaria. Bulgaria's embassy in Baghdad was closed in 2003. In a […]
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. […]
