The Minister of Tourism, Liwaa Sumaisem, has announced plans to develop Iraq’s tourism sector – currently dominated by religious tourism - to include archeological and eco-tourism. He told AKnews that a law will soon be passed empowering the ministry to develop the nature reserves and visitor centers at the country’s archeological sites. The holy cities […]
A former U.S. Army major has admitted that he took $250,000 in bribes from two companies that wanted contracts to supply the military with bottled water in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Westlaw Journals. Derrick L. Shoemake, aged 49, admitted accepting the bribes while serving as a contracting officer’s representative in Kuwait between October 2004 […]
Iraq is planning to produce 12 million barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) by the year 2017, through contracts signed with the world’s largest oil and energy companies, Iraq’s Deputy Prime-Minister, in charge of Energy Affairs said on Saturday. According to Aswat al-Iraq, Hussein al-Shahristani said in a speech he delivered at the 3rd […]
Premier Nouri Al-Maliki announced on Sunday that the number of ministries has become a real burden on the work of the state. "This fact appeared after the 100-day period", he said in a letter sent to parliament. Al-Maliki proposed a two-stage procedure, the first of which will see 29 ministries retained. "So, as a result, […]
The Iraqi Railway Company accused government officials on Sunday of attempting to open up the transport system to private companies for personal gain through the suspension of the national transport law that was passed by the Ba'ath regime. Spokesperson for the company, Jawad al-Kharsani, told AKnews that the law meant that government ministries were required […]
The top United Nations envoy for Iraq has called on the country's authorities to develop a vision as well as strategies to improve the economic and social prospects for its young people, noting that a number of youth development indicators in a new report are of concern. The Youth Status Analytical Report found high illiteracy […]
Slovenia’s Foreign Minister Samuel Žbogar yesterday on his first visit to Kurdistan and Iraq met President Masoud Barzani and Kurdistan Regional Government ministers. On a two-day visit as part of an official trip to Iraq, Minister Žbogar and President Barzani discussed the current political and economic developments in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq as a […]
General Inspector’s office at Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said 190 employees, including four directors, will be investigated on charges of financial corruption. The Integrity Commission will investigate the allegations and if they find sufficient evidence the employees will be sent to court, General Inspector Hammed al-Zaidi, told AKnews. All are suspected of 'money […]
Iraq’s Central Bank says the country is in need of a new currency in which the current zeros are removed to facilitate commercial transactions, according to Azzaman. The bank's Governor, Sinan al-Shabibi, said he was in talks with the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, on how to go ahead with the bid to issue currency with […]
The Turkish AlBaraka Bank will open a branch in Erbil in August, according to a report from Turkish Weekly. It would be Albaraka's first branch in a foreign country. "The Erbil branch will contribute to bilateral relations between Iraq and Turkey," Albaraka's director general Fahrettin Yahsi said. There have been reports of AlBaraka opening an […]
To help rebuild and reunite its country, Iraq has embarked on a plan to create a nationwide network of internationally competitive athletic venues. For assistance, the country has turned to the design-build team of Anwar Soura General Contracting Company and 360 Architecture, along with its global team of consultants. The Anwar Soura/360 Architecture team is […]
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. The opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. […]
