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By Robert Tollast.

The following is an interview with an Iraqi finance professional with a degree in Accounting and Finance. He is also a Chartered Certified Accountant with extensive experience in Banking.

He returned to Iraq in early 2013 and now works as a Portfolio Manager, travelling across Iraq but residing in the Iraqi Kurdistan. He was kind enough to give some of his time to discuss his perspective from Erbil during the June ISIL offensive, focusing on current economic opportunities and challenges in Iraq. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

 RT: What does your organisation do?

We provide loans to existing businesses, from half a million up to three million US dollars, mainly for manufacturing but also for some service companies. I am a portfolio manager; I manage our portfolio of loans.

RT: Regarding your organisation, is there anything in the past couple of years in the Kurdish Region that you’re particularly proud of?

Absolutely. We’ve created hundreds and hundreds of jobs, and we've really helped a lot of companies become a lot more efficient. We've brought in a credit culture and we provide better lending terms than any other bank or institution in Iraq, over a longer period. We do this at a lower interest rate with a smaller amount of collateral requirements. So we have helped a lot of companies take off and grow from humble beginnings, for example from 10 staff into 70-80 employees.

We’ve helped these firms become more efficient. Another thing I’m very proud of is that we financed the first modern corn drying facility in the KRG in addition to water bottling plants, which help locals in terms of hygiene and lowering prices of clean water. We’ve done a lot of good but the most important thing is creating private sector employment. This is something I think is a matter of urgency for the Iraqi economy.

RT: That’s certainly something I have seen as a challenge not just in Arab Iraq but in the KRG too - you have quite a heavy slant to the public sector. The Asiacells and Lafarges are really the minority, and the state rules supreme. But you've been trying to change that.

Niqash has issued the following listing of the new Iraqi cabinet, translated from the Arabic official government announcement:

Deputy Prime Ministers:

Hoshyar Zebari (Kurdish);

Saleh al-Mutlaq (Sunni);

Bahaa al-Araji (Shiite)

Ministry of Agriculture: Falah Hassan al-Zaidan (Sunni)

Ministry of Communication: Kazem Hassan Rashed (Shiite)

Ministry of Construction and Housing: Tariq al-Khikani (Shiite)

Ministry of Culture: Firyad Rawandouzi (Kurdish)

Ministry of Education: Mohammed Iqbal (Sunni)

Ministry of Electricity: Qassim al-Fahdawi (Sunni)

Ministry of the Environment: Qutaiba al-Jibouri (Sunni)

Ministry of Finance: Rose Nuri Shaways (Kurdish)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Ibrahim al-Jaafari (Shiite)

Ministry of Health: Adila Hammoud (Shiite)

By John Lee.

The Dhi Qar governorate intends to invest 500 billion Iraqi dinars ($430 million) in power projects in the next three years, according to a report from Emirates 24/7.

Shanan Al Zamli, chairman of the electricity committee in the governing council, told al-Sumaria that the investment will add 2,000 MW to its generating capacity, bringing it up from 1,000 MW to 3,000 MW, which will help to tackle the severe power shortage in the governorate.

He added that the council had already approved a project to build a 1,000-MW power plant to the north of Nasiriyah, and another 1,000-MW plant in Suq Al Shuyukh in the south of the province.

(Source: Emirates 24/7)

(Electricity image via Shutterstock)

By John Lee.

The Financial Times reports that US forces, Iraqi government troops and their militia allies say they have cleared Islamist militants threatening the crucial Haditha dam (pictured) in Anbar province, in Washington’s first attack in direct support of Baghdad since the launch of US operations a month ago.

Baghdad has controlled the dam along the Euphrates River since late August but the insurgents have continued to threaten the hydroelectric facility that provides electricity and water to millions of Iraqis.

Chuck Hagel, US defence secretary, said:

“If that dam would fall into [Isis’s] hands or if that dam would be destroyed, the damage that would cause would be very significant and it would put a significant, additional and big risk into the mix in Iraq.”

Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said:

"At the request of the government of Iraq, U.S. military aircraft attacked terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant yesterday in support of Iraqi security forces and Sunni tribes protecting the Haditha and Mosul dams, according to a news release from U.S. Central Command.

"A mix of fighter and bomber aircraft conducted four airstrikes near Haditha. In total, the strikes destroyed five ISIL Humvees, one ISIL armed vehicle, an ISIL checkpoint and also damaged an ISIL bunker. All aircraft exited the strike areas safely."

(Sources: FT, NY Times, US Dept of Defense)

This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

Extremists And Errant Cleric Wrecking Karbala’s Tourism-Based Economy

The southern Iraqi city of Karbala makes a lot of its money from religious tourism; it is the site of some of Islam’s holiest shrines. But Iraq’s security problems have seen many would-be visitors stay at home. And locals are divided as to when they will return.

Tourists have never stopped coming to the holy Iraqi city of Karbala before. Even after 2003, after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime, the devout still came to visit some of the sites considered most holy by Shiite Muslims.

And many of the city’s millions of tourists came from neighbouring Iran, where most of the population is Shiite Muslim. Hotel owners and other businesses depended heavily on these tourists, many of them coming on package tours in large groups. But because of the events of the last few months in Iraq, numbers are dwindling and the one Iraqi business that has never been at risk, is not doing well.

“This place used to be full of visitors and everyone working was happy and enthusiastic,” says Ali Mahdi, who owns a modern hotel in central Karbala. “But now we just feel bored. We have nothing to do. Everything has stopped because tourists have stopped coming to Karbala.”

Boredom is not the only problem. Because of the turndown in business, Mahdi doesn’t have enough to pay all of his employees. After delaying salaries for some time, Mahdi has had to lay off some.

“I also have problems paying water and electricity bills, which are usually very expensive, as well as taxes,” Mahdi complains.

Hotel owners like Mahdi believe there are two main reasons for the decline in tourist numbers in Karbala. Firstly the security problems in the country after the Sunni Muslim extremist group, known as the Islamic State, managed to take control of various parts of the country, including the northern city of Mosul.

The other main reason is the clashes that have started between followers of a more radical Shiite Muslim cleric, Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, and Iraqi government security staff. Hundreds of al-Sarkhi’s followers have been arrested and his office has been destroyed.

Funding from Saudi Arabia to the UN will allow UN-Habitat to provide shelter options for internally displaced people, commonly referred to as IDPs, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Following the takeover of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant movement – ISIL – last June and the influx of more than 600,000 IDPs to other areas in the country, UN-Habitat was granted USD 8 million from the Saudi government to work with other agencies in the response activities to the IDP crisis in Iraq.

Through this grant, UN-Habitat has started implementing a “Sustainable Shelters for IDPs” programme that focuses on providing convenient housing and early recovery services for approximately 1,000 IDP families in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in addition to limited intervention in other Iraqi governorates.

Speaking of the new initiative, UN Under-Secretary-General and UN-Habitat Executive Director, Dr Joan Clos, said: “This programme allows us to assess the rapidly changing situation and develop appropriate shelter responses for those affected by the ongoing crisis in Iraq. UN-Habitat is grateful for the generous and timely contribution of the Saudi Arabian government which will enable us to support some of the most vulnerable displaced people in Iraq.”

Each family will be housed in a prefabricated housing unit or in a composite unit within a collective shelter as appropriate, and will have access to electricity, water, and sanitation services. Shelters will be built on identified sites that will include public service centres, including police stations, medical clinics, parks and green spaces.

It is of great concern that IDP families will have access to basic services and employment opportunities. The UN Development Programme, UNDP, is supporting infrastructure component of this initiative and the UN Office for Project Services, UNOPS, will provide solar panels for electrical supply and streets lightening.

In Bahraka and Erbil UN-Habitat has finalized the topographic survey, site plan, designs and bills of quantities of the housing units and the governor of Erbil has endorsed these. Current available resources will cover the erection of between250 and 300 prefab units and proposals have been submitted to donors for additional funding to complement this.

By John Lee.

The Wall Street Journal has written a report based on six interviews with Mosul residents describing life in the city under the rule of the so called "Islamic State".

In the report, citizens describe a Taliban like rule of brutality enacted upon those who are seen to transgress against the highly austere interpretation of Islam advocated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

This is evidently a grim situation for the majority of residents. The city was once a major retirement destination for officers in the former regime, often misleadingly described as "secular" but still comparatively progressive compared to ISIL.

For example, for much of the history of the Ba'ath regime, at least until the late 1980s, womens' rights were a feature of their ideology. Not so for ISIL. Furthermore, the banning of smoking and even remotely Western like practices is not proving popular in the city.

Services such as health and electricity have also atrophied. Hospitals are critically short of medicine and electricity is down to a couple of hours a day, from being available for most of the day.

The article ends by speculating that Mosul residents may be organizing to rise up, possibly with the outside help of governor Atheel al-Nujaifi. However, their prospects of success without significant outside help are slim.

(Source: WSJ)

By Patrick M Schmidt.

METKA, a Greek engineering and contracting firm, has won a $165 million (192 billion Iraqi dinars) contract to work on the Shatt Al Basra Power Plant.

The contract allows for the company to oversee the process of making the plant fit to burn heavy fuel oil for electrical generation.

The project will be executed over the next year for the Ministry of Electricity.

METKA is already installing a 1,250MW gas-powered turbine in Basra on a separate contract.

(Source: Metka)

By Anne-Laure Barbosa at Constellis Consulting

Amid elevated levels of violence accounting for nearly 300 fatalities, the reporting period was marked by ISIS advances across the North. Militant offensives in several districts held or contested by Peshmerga forces led to fierce clashes between ISIS and Kurdish elements in Sinjar district and areas around Mosul, causing tens of thousands to flee. As insurgents extend their reach to previously Kurdish-held territories, and therefore consolidate areas seized in June, the condition of minorities in Nineveh appears increasingly precarious. After expelling Christians and other ancient religious minorities from Mosul in July, there has been accounts of executions among the Yazidi community, a particular branch of Shia Islam, as Kurdish armed forces retreated further north. The deteriorating security situation has added considerable urgency to forming a new government which would have the legitimacy to broker deals with Sunni tribal communities ambivalent to the ISIS advance. On 01 August, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called on the country’s politicians to form a national unity government, while incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki continues unsuccessfully to secure a third term, prolonging Iraq’s political deadlock. On 04 August, Maliki ordered his air force to assist Kurdish forces, as the latter prepare a counter-offensive on territories fallen to ISIS over the past days. The ISF has been relying heavily on airstrikes to contain the advance of Sunni militants in the North, though air support has so far largely failed to help regain territories. This decision could rather be political, as the next Prime Minister will likely need Kurdish support in parliament to secure his election. While the political sphere is expected to remain stagnant over the next weeks, most of the violence in the North should remain concentrated in Nineveh’s Sinjar district, central Salahuddin, eastern Anbar and northern Diyala.

North

On 03 August, following a 24 hour offensive which inflicted the first major defeat on Kurdish forces, ISIS insurgents captured Iraq’s biggest dam, an oilfield and three towns in Nineveh. The control of the electricity-generating Mosul Dam could give militants the ability to flood major cities and reinforce their grip over the region. At the time of writing, reports were still conflicting over the control of the dam, though its strategic significance guarantees that the area will remain contested. Militants apparently took advantage of a weaker military Kurdish apparatus in Sinjar, a district which had previously been spared the violence observed in other areas hosting a Kurdish presence, though intensifying clashes in its vicinity could have predicted such offensive. ISIS’s increasingly offensive posture against Kurdish forces follows a radicalisation towards minorities present in the Mosul area for centuries, with accounts of assassinations within the Christian and Yazidi communities. While ISIS continues to apply its strict ideology by forcing populations to convert and destroying holy shrines, the main hot spots of violence across the North continued to be located in areas around Samarra in Salahuddin, and northern districts of Diyala. Despite continued IED attacks inside Kirkuk, Peshmerga forces reinforced their positions in the province and declared a unilateral ceasefire in its southern edges, which continues to witness sporadic clashes with ISIS elements.

Central

On 01 August, ISIS militants launched an attack on Haditha from three different sides, in a failed attempt to bypass the last line of defense between them and the Haditha Dam. Insurgent advances in Anbar continue to be hindered by the hostility of local tribes, which have sent fighters to reinforce the ranks of ISF units present in the area. The majority of violent incidents continue to be located in Fallujah and Ramadi, with airstrikes accounting for the majority of civilian casualties. Violence in Baghdad experienced a lull compared to previous reporting periods, owing to the ISIS surge in northern governorates. Car bombs remained below averages seen prior to the June advance, though the consolidation of ISIS positions in the northern governorates could eventually shift the focus of ISIS back to the capital. The deadliest incident occurred in the southeastern al-Ameen district, when a VBIED killed 11 civilians and injured 29 others. While ISIS cells are active across northern and central provinces, recent patterns have shown that Sunni militants currently lack the capability to operate with the same intensity on multiple fronts. As such the continued offensives in the North should ensure that levels of violence in Baghdad remain stagnant over the next reporting period.

South

This lull was also visible in Babil, where fewer incidents were reported compared to recent averages.  This trend confirms the strategy followed by ISIS, which uses operations in Babil as a means to draw ISF units away from the North and thereby consolidate their positions in Nineveh and Salahuddin. The threat of militant attacks in the South has decreased following the conclusion of Eid al-Fitr. Tribal fighting continues to occur predominantly in Basra, with the resurgence of Shia-nationalist sentiment and return of re-mobilised militias from the northern front likely to be destabilising in the longer term. Meanwhile, south-eastern provinces are expected to follow established patterns of violence.

After the reclusive leader of the Sunni Muslim extremist group that took over Mosul made an appearance at the city’s famous mosque, many of the extremists are boasting that Mosul is to be the capital of their new Islamic state. Evidence that they’re right comes in the form of “Islamic police” patrol cars taking locals to Islamic courts, “Islamic customs duties” levied at the border as well religious overseers in the markets telling local women their clothes are too tight.

Two days ago Mosul man, Abu Zahra, and his friend, another Mosul local, Abed Hamdoun, might have had to kill each other had they met on the street. But today in the northern Iraqi city that was recently taken over by Sunni Muslim extremists, they are able to shake hands. Zahra was so happy to be able to do this, he was crying.

Zahra is a senior member of the Sunni Muslim extremist group known as the Islamic State while Hamdoun belongs to another extremist group, Ansar al-Islam. Previously there had been fighting between the two groups as a result of internal politics that had to do with which extremist parent-group the fighters said they belonged to.

The reason for this extremist reunion: Ansar al-Islam has pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State, or IS, group one day after a sermon made by the IS group’s leader in Mosul. And Hamdoun was leading a group of fighters into the city to pledge allegiance publicly to the IS group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In late June, the IS group announced that they had created an “Islamic caliphate” in the parts of Iraq and Syria that they controlled. Although they have been helped by a variety of armed groups to achieve this goal, the IS group have said that they are firmly in charge of this territory and that other groups must pledge allegiance to their leader, al-Baghdadi. Although Ansar al-Islam, the second largest militant group in Mosul, had been opposed to the IS group, now they have decided to join ranks and do as the IS group asked.