Legal Firm to Pursue Buyers of Kurdish Oil
By John Lee. The Iraqi government has reportedly engaged the law firm Vinson and Elkins to target buyers of the crude oil which they say is being illegally exported from Iraqi Kurdistan. A anonymous Iraqi source told Reuters: “This is not a game. Anyone who buys this oil is doing something illegal ... We will target […]
List of Coalitions and Entities in the Elections
By Reidar Visser. The following article was published by Reidar Visser, an historian of Iraq educated at the University of Oxford. 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. Following the lottery yesterday in which participants in the 30 April […]
Canadian Ambassador meets with KRG
The Head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Department of Foreign Relations (DFR), Minister Falah Mustafa welcomed the nonresident Canadian Ambassador to Iraq and Jordan, Mr Bruno Saccomani today to discuss the future of bilateral relations between Canada and the KRG. This visit comes as a follow-up of the Ambassador's visit to the DFR in […]
KRG Natural Resources Monthly Report
The KRG Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) announces the publication of its first Monthly Report. The Report contains the latest information on production and export in the Kurdistan Region, domestic refining and consumption, well activity, rig counts and map, employment figures and updates on Production Sharing Contracts. The report will help interested citizens, companies and […]
UK Appoints New Trade Envoy to Iraq
Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne has been appointed as the new Trade Envoy for the United Kingdom to Iraq. Baroness Nicholson was personally appointed by the Prime Minister to act on behalf of the British Government to increase trade and economic co-operation between the United Kingdom and Iraq. Speaking in Baghdad, the British Ambassador to […]
Mister, Can You Spare a Dinar?
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. Mister, Can You Spare a Dinar? Life with the Beggar Mafia of Basra Some estimates suggest that almost a third of the residents in one of Iraq’s oil-richest cities […]
Video: Death Toll Tops 900
From AFP. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Bombings near a market and a restaurant in Baghdad killed six people on Thursday as the death toll for January topped 900, with no end in sight to Iraq's worst violence since 2008:
It's All About Risk versus Reward
While this week's Newsletter carries many reports of new investment in Iraq, there is still a perception among investors that the country is high risk, and there are some good reasons for this. As Anders Jönsson, a policy analyst at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), told the Iraq Finance forum in Dubai: […]
Weekly Security Update 21-27 Jan 2014
By Constellis Consulting www.constellis-consulting.com. Clashes in rural districts of Anbar province and shelling on the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi continued to fuel Iraq’s cycle of violence, whilst over 140,000 civilians have reportedly fled their homes since the outbreak of the crisis in December 2013, in the most important displacement of population since 2006-2008. Although […]
Veolia wins $115m Desalination Contract
The Iraqi Ministry for Municipalities and Public Works has chosen Veolia to build and operate for five years a desalination plant in Basra, Iraq. For Veolia, this contract represents cumulated sales of $115 million. Limited water resources and conflict over its use have made water a crucial resource for Iraq's development, especially in the country's […]
New State-Funded Investment Bank
By John Lee. Iraq plans to establish a state-funded investment bank to help finance major infrastructure projects and steer money towards private sector companies. Sami Al Araji, chairman of the National Investment Commission (NIC), told Reuters: “We need this [state-funded investment bank] to push forward the economy ... Our existing commercial banks do not have […]
US Embassy Officials Talk Franchising
The Embassy’s Commercial and Economic Sections and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s CLDP (Commercial Law Development Program), in association with the National Investment Council (NIC), hosted a seminar on "Developing Franchise Opportunities in Iraq" on January 22. The program represents a joint initiative to expand US -Iraq business engagement through franchising. The Iraqi Chamber of […]