Author Archive | Editor

Efforts to Impose Sharia Law Spark Controversy

By Ali Mamouri for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Iraqi Justice Minister Hassan al-Shammari announced Oct. 23 that he had prepared a Sharia-based personal-status law and submitted it to the cabinet for approval and referral to the Council of Representatives for […]

Tags:

ExxonMobil Sells Stakes in West Qurna I

By John Lee. ExxonMobil signed agreements on Thursday with PetroChina for a 25 percent participating interest in the West Qurna I project in Iraq, and with Indonesia's Pertamina for a 10 percent participating interest in West Qurna I. ExxonMobil retains 25 percent interest and remains lead contractor. The transfer has been approved by the South Oil […]

Iraq-Azerbaijan Meeting in Baku

By John Lee. The next meeting of the Iraq-Azerbaijan Intergovernmental Commission has been fixed for 3-4 December in Baku. APA reports that the Commission is headed by the ministers of communications and information technologies of the two countries, Turkhan Mufti and Ali Abbasov. At the end of the meeting the sides are expected to sign […]

Iraq Negotiates with Airbus

By John Lee. Iraqi Transport Ministry is negotiating with Airbus to buy a number of planes, according to a report from Aswat Al Iraq. Iraqi Transport Minister Hadi al-Ameri said the negotiations related to a number of A320 planes. He also confirmed signing the contract with the Canadian company Bombardier to buy ten planes, and […]

Additional Political Entities Approved for Elections

By Reidar Visser. 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. Additional Political […]

Standard Chartered Opens Branch in Iraq

BBC reports that Standard Chartered has opened a bank branch in, Baghdad. Opening the branch, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said the move was an "indicator of trust" in Iraq's economy, adding that the UK had supported Iraq "from the beginning". The British ambassador to Iraq, Simon Collis, said the UK was dedicated to setting up […]

WFP Uses Smart Cards to Provide Cash

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has begun to use smart cards to deliver cash assistance in Iraq to participants in its cash-for-assets projects in Baghdad, Diyala and Ninewah. Through this programme, WFP provides employment opportunities and livelihood support to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), returnees and other vulnerable groups. “The introduction of smart cards is […]

Conference paves way for Erbil Tourism

Travel experts and companies from around the world attended the Kurdistan International Tourism Conference in Erbil last week, paving the way for Erbil's position as Middle East Tourism Capital of 2014. The Head of the General Board of Tourism, Mawlawi Wahab made the opening remarks and welcomed the delegates who included officials from the federal […]

Agricultural Opportunities for US Businesses

A US-led business delegation comprising of a number of international companies visited Kurdistan this week to explore investment opportunities in the fast-growing region, with a focus on agriculture, food and water sectors. The delegation, led by Steven Lutes, the Director of the US-Iraq Business Initiative (USIBI) at the US Chamber of Commerce, met with the […]

Iraqi Officials Offer Excuses, not Apologies

By Mustafa al-Kadhimi for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. None of Iraq’s political factions —or officials and others with political, economic or security influence — will truly answer the question: “Have you erred?” Sometimes their response is generalized and clichéd, such […]

$600m Oil Tech University In Basra

A consortium of architecture and design firms from Michigan, USA, has been hired to design a $600 million, 2.8 million-square-foot new petroleum engineering university in Basra. CBS Detroit reports Iraq’s Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Ali Al-Adeeb, has been touring projects created by the firms that are part of Icon Global Architecture Engineering […]

GEA Wins Major Contract from ENKA

Subsequent to ENKA’s contract awards to GEA Heat Exchangers for the Erbil and Sulaymaniyah power stations in the north of Iraq, the leading Turkish construction company ENKA has for the third time made a choice for two air-cooled condensers from GEA Heat Exchangers. As with the two previous power stations, the gas turbine power stations […]