Iraq Business News brings you the latest Iraq Industry & Trade News, with information on developments and opportunities.
By Marko Lukic. Iraq's once easy-going visa regime has tightened up, leading to protests from foreign ambassadors. In early 2010, the visa process to enter Iraq was both liberal and easily accessible, taking only around 24 to 72 hours to go through the relevant procedures and paperwork. Officials were so flexible in fact, that expats […]
Two former directors and a sales manager of engineering firm Mabey & Johnson Ltd have been sentenced today for providing kickbacks to the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. Charles Forsyth, David Mabey and Richard Gledhill inflated the contract price for the supply of steel bridges and disguised illegal payments that were channelled through Jordanian banks. […]
Iraq's parliament gave the final approval on Sunday to an $82.6 billion budget for 2011, according to Reuters. AKnews puts the Iraqi dinar amount at 96 trillion. The budget is based on an average oil price of $76.50 per barrel, and 2.2 million barrels per day in crude exports. The deficit was projected at $13.4 […]
Dunia Frontier Consultants have issued a new report entitled Foreign Commercial Activity in Iraq - 2010 Year in Review. According to their research, the total number of reported investments, service contracts, and other commercial activities by foreign firms more than doubled in 2010. The report includes a listing of the 30 biggest foreign investment deals […]
Move One has been named the official freight forwarder for both the Erbil Machinex Expo and the Erbil Autoshow. The events, organized by Expotim and Pyramids International, will take place at the Basra International Fair Ground from March 17 – 20. Erbil Machinex will be the first professional machinery exhibition in Iraq, serving as a […]
Nineveh Investment Commission announced this week that it had signed investment contracts with two German companies to build tourist facilities on the banks of the Tigris River. Jabor Abed Rabu, Chairman of the Commission, told AKnews that the companies involved are Zalmania and Backmana, but the value of the contracts were not disclosed. "The two […]
The city of Baghdad wants the United States to apologize and pay $1 billion for the damage done to the city not by bombs but by blast walls and Humvees since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Reuters reports that Baghdad's government issued its demands in a statement on Wednesday, saying that the city's […]
Iraq will host its first Arab League Summit in two decades on March 29 despite ongoing unrest in the Middle East, a foreign ministry official said. The summit is seen as crucial for Iraq's reintegration into the Arab world and comes at a critical time in the region following popular protests that have unseated Tunisia […]
By Chris Bowers, British Consul General in Erbil. This article was originally published by Rudaw, and is re-published with permission by Iraq Business News. It has been an interesting few weeks in Kurdistan – though I think I could have safely written that each week that I have been here so far – as society […]
The Ministry of Planning and Development has reported that the inflation rate increased by 2% in January, bringing the rate to 5.8%. Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi told AKnews that the reasons behind the high inflation rate are higher rents and increases in the prices of imported food. The Ministry of Planning and Development in Iraq suggested […]
Wassit Provincial Council met with a number of Turkish firms on Sunday to discuss possible investment ventures in the province, according to the chairman of its information committee. The projects are in the fields of sanitation, water networks and "urban communities", Sondos al-Dhahabi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The designs of four new cities in […]
An independent Spanish journalist said on Monday that there is greater press freedom in the Afghan capital Kabul than in the Iraqi capital, after experiencing first-hand the ongoing restrictions imposed on journalists and their movements in Baghdad. AKnews reports that on his fifth visit to Iraq, Carlos Zorotoza complained that his camera was confiscated by […]
