Archive | 17th May 2012

Weekly Security Update for 17th May 2012

Levels of violence fell slightly in Iraq last week. At least 27 people were killed and 73 injured in nationwide incidents. A total of 19 non-suicide bomb attacks left 16 people dead and 55 injured. This constitutes a lower than normal figure for the country, although the decline is likely to be temporary. Two further […]

Investment Commission Website Hijacked

It might not seem so important in a country faced with such major post-conflict challenges, but getting the basics of communication right should be a necessary function of any government department or state agency. A key element of communication has to be the website, but it is remarkable how many Iraqi government websites are out […]

South Korea’s Hanwah to Sign $7bn Iraq Housing Project

Sami al-Araji, chairman of Iraq’s National Investment Commission (NIC), has told Bloomberg that Iraq will soon sign a $7 billion agreement with South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering & Construction Corporation [Hanwah] to build 100,000 housing units in the country. The commission is also due to sign a contract with the UAE-based Bloom Properties to build 40,000 […]

Iran Khodro to Make 30,000 Cars in Iraq This Year

Bloomberg reports that Iran Khodro, the country’s largest carmaker, plans to manufacture 30,000 cars at its production site in Iraq this year. The company is delivering components to the plant for assembly, mostly for the Samand sedan model (pictured). Operations at the plant, which has received investment from a local partner, started in 2011, the […]

Gazprom to Start Pumping from Badrah early-2013

Russia’s Gazprom Neft is expecting to start exporting from its East Badrah oil field in Wasit [Wassit] province early next year, according to AKnews. Alexander V Kolomatsky, Project director for the Middle East at Gazprom, said the company had initially planned to reach the 15,000 bpd level by the last quarter of 2013 because the […]

Mosul Uni Links Up with Northern Irish Bioscience Institute

The University of Mosul has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Northern Ireland's Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) to increase collaboration and student exchange in areas such as food sciences. AFBI provides expert diagnostic and analytical testing services to the Northern Ireland agri-food industry, and to clients abroad, and the Belfast Telegraph reports that […]

Tehran, Baghdad to Resume Talks on Joint Oil Projects

Iran and Iraq will start new round of talks in Tehran on 26th May on issues such as developing the Sohrab joint oilfield and establishing a joint oil company, Iran's Mehr News Agency reports. The managing director of the National Iranian Central Oilfields Company, Mehdi Fakour, said that eight drilling rigs are currently in operation […]

Hashemi Trial Begins amid Signs the Iraqi Constitution Is Dying

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. […]