The business community in Iraq, and internationally, is focused on the task of rehabilitating the oilfields and re-building the country. This is hardly a surprise; quite apart from the investments to be undertaken directly by the oil companies, Iraq's National Development Plan foresees over $200 billion in investment in services, economic stimulus and environmental protection […]
By Mark A. DeWeaver, of Quantrarian Asia Hedge Two good rules for emerging stock market investors have always been: (1) buy crises and (2) buy export booms. The first would have worked well in Sri Lanka in the weeks following the Tamil Tiger suicide attack on the country’s main airport in July, 2001. Had you […]
The two biggest Shia political groups have announced they are to form a coalition. Incumbent Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's State of Law, and the Iraqi National Alliance, would together be just four seats short of a majority. The difficult question of who would be Prime Minister is still to be decided. The announcement comes as […]
Exactly two months after the elections in Iraq, the votes are still being re-counted in the Baghdad constituency. Yes, it's a laborious and painstaking procedure, but surely the cost of more manpower and better systems would be outweighed by the benefits of speeding up the process, so that people would know where they stand and […]
According to a report by BBC this morning, Iraqi election officials said that a recount of the Baghdad ballots from the parliamentary vote on 7 March could take another three weeks. This comes as Nouri al-Maliki, who is disputing the results, has harshly criticized calls for international involvement in setting up a new government, according […]
Nearly two months after the elections in Iraq, the outcome has become even more uncertain, as votes for several candidates with alleged ties to the Ba'ath Party were disqualified on Monday. Further disqualification decisions have reportedly been postponed until next week. In the meantime, Ayad Allawi, whose Iraqiya party has a two-seat lead over Nouri […]
Allawy for the PM position, and Al-Maliky for the President of the Country
The big political news in recent days was the announcement that votes are to be re-counted in the Baghdad district, which accounts for 70 of the parliament's 325 seats. With Iyad Allawi's Iraqiya party having apparently defeated incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition by just two seats, any changes to the result […]
A private conference on the application of electronic systems in governmental institutions began in the city of Arbil on Monday with the participation of Kurdistan region’s Prime Minister Barham Saleh and minister of technology and science Raed Fahmi. “The three-day conference highlights the importance of applying an e-government system in the state’s institutions to ease […]
It's generally accepted internationally that the elections in Iraq were, in the main, free and fair, but former prime minister Ayad Allawi's narrow margin of victory means the results will be challenged. Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki's Shiite Muslim State of Law alliance filed a complaint on Tuesday with the Supreme Court, asking for a […]
The slender margin generated by Iyad Allawi, the slightly more secularist candidate , over the incumbent Prime Minister Maliki, has all the indications of turning to ashes.
Arab and international experts at a meeting in Manama on Sunday proposed the establishment of a regional atomic energy body to include Iran and Iraq alongside the Arab monarchies of the Gulf. The meeting on nuclear technologies, in a final statement, said the new body could be fashioned along the lines of the International Atomic […]
