Ideas for Iraq's Agriculture
By Ronald P Verdonk, Agricultural Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Continuing with the theme of my last blog, I want to address other areas that the Iraqi public sector can tackle so that Iraqi agriculture can be more productive. In this day and age, a critical component of public policy decision-making is data […]
Creating jobs in the private sector
By T. Keyzom Ngodup, co-founder and Executive Director at Ideas sYnergy, an Iraq based private sector development consulting company. IRAQ INSIGHTS, published by Ideas sYnergy, aims to consolidate and build intellectual capital on private sector development, empowering stakeholders to address issues of access and structural reforms on a diverse range of topics impacting inclusive economic […]
27 Firms Show Interest In 4th Oil Bidding Round
Dow Jones Newswires reports that twenty-seven international companies have submitted documents and paid fees to the Iraqi oil ministry to qualify them to take part in the country's fourth oil and gas licensing round. The auction for the 12 exploration blocks is scheduled to take place in January. "The ministry is studying documents of these […]
Turkey's Enka Wins $60m Majnoon Deal
Iraq and partners Shell and Petronas awarded a contract worth more than $60 million [72 billion Iraqi dinars] to Turkish firm Enka to install and operate two production facilities at the Majnoon oilfield, according to a report from Reuters. The construction and energy company will also install two crude storage tanks and four pumping units […]
$850m Housing Projects for Karbala
The Karbala Investment Commission laid the cornerstone for four housing developments valued at a total of $850 million [1 trillion Iraqi dinars], and consisting of about 11.000 housing units, Media Director Raed al-Asali told Aswat al-Iraq: The first project will be carried out by a Chinese company to erect 1,300 housing units in Hur area, […]
Ministry of Electricity Officials 'Stealing Millions in Fuel'
Officials in the Ministry of Electricity are involved in the theft of millions of dollars of fuel intended for power stations, an MP from the ruling National Coalition told AKnews on Saturday. Susan al-Saad said that the tankers used to transport fuel to power plants across the country regularly go missing, and that this would […]
Iraqi Banking Delegation Meets Lebanese Bankers
As part of its visit to Lebanon, the delegation of the Iraqi banking sector, which includes 22 officials from the Central Bank of Iraq and Iraqi banks as well as some members of the project and financial development project in Iraq, visited the Association of Banks in Lebanon on Thursday 7 July at 11:30. BDL […]
Nomination Trouble for the De-Baathification Appellate Bench
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. […]
Safety in Kurdistan
As an Iraq security analyst I often find that I am writing at length about violence, pain and causes for concern. However, for this blog entry I would like to make what I hope is a welcome exception. I regularly write about how violence has escalated in the north of Iraq, usually in relation to […]
New Airport Planned for Najaf
The director of construction and planning in Najaf Province announced on Wednesday that a site was allocated in Najaf to build a new international airport which shall be put forward for investment. Abdul Kareem al-Khawaja told Aswat al-Iraq that the new airport will have two runways specified to international standards.. Commenting on the existing Najaf […]
KRG Starts Govt IT Professional Development Programme
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Department of Information Technology, in cooperation with the US Army’s J6 Directorate based in Iraq, launched an extensive 12 week training programme in Erbil this week. The goal of the IT Professional Development Programme is to develop local capacity and create a professional foundation for IT managers and staff within […]
Iraq-Turkey Trade 'to Hit $15bn' in 3 Yrs
AKnews reports that trade between Turkey and Iraq should hit US$15 billion [18 trillion Iraqi dinars] within the next three years, the said today. Speaking at the inauguration of the first flight between Istanbul and Najaf, Turkish ambassador to Iraq, Murad Aozglic, said that the strategic cooperation agreement signed by the Turkish Prime Minister Recep […]