Govt Demands $175m for Baghdad Summit
The Iraqi government has officially demanded that parliament allocate 206 billion Iraqi Dinars (IQD) [$175m] from the 2011 public budget for the Arab Summit in the Baghdad in March Shuwan Mohammed Taha, a Kurdish member to the Iraqi parliament, told AKnews that since the budget for hosting the summit is high, the presidency of the […]
Iraq Agri Ministry Takes Action Against Drought
Iraq's Agriculture Ministry announced on Saturday the launch of a national project to safeguard against drought and reduce its impacts on the agricultural sector to be effective by 2015. Ministry spokesman Samir al-Obeidi told AKnews that the nationwide program requires improving the irrigation systems of more than three million acres of agricultural land. Obeidi said […]
Iraq, Iran to Start Demarcating Border Soon
Iran-Iraq joint committee will start demarcating their borders in the near future, according to report published on Fars news agency on Friday. Fars reported an Iraqi deputy foreign minister as saying that a joint committee has been established in this regard to start a new demarcation of the common borders. He expressed hope that the […]
45 Companies Qualified for 3rd Round of Licences
Forty-five companies are qualified to compete for the third round of oil licenses, Iraq's oil minister said on Wednesday. "The coming round will be bigger than the previous ones due to the improvement of the security and political situation in Iraq,' Abdulkarim al-Luhaiebi [Luaibi, Elaibi] told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "There is a new project […]
Warka’s moment of truth
On January 19, Warka Bank (BWAI) will hold a general assembly meeting to “discuss the capital increase in accordance with Article 55/1 and elect a new board of directors.” At last, it seems, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for the bank’s minority shareholders. The “capital increase in accordance with […]
Merrill Ups Estimates of Iraqi Oil Output
Iraq's oil production could rise to 4.4 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2015, according to a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Friday. Reuters reports that the revision from 3.8 million bpd forecast a year earlier had been prompted by "higher reserve estimates" released by the government, the bank's commodities research team […]
Iraq's Biggest Power Plant - Calik Energy Signs Contract
A Turkish energy company signed a deal with the Iraqi government on Thursday to build a power plant at a cost of $445.5 million [521 billion Iraqi dinars]. The deal between Turkey’s Calik Enerji and the Iraqi Electricity Ministry is for the construction of the 1,250 megawatt al-Hayrat [Khayrat?] plant in Karbala. Calik Holding CEO, […]
Update on Qara Dagh Exploration Well in Kurdistan
Vast Exploration and Groundstar Resources have issued an update on the drilling progress of the Qara Dagh - 1 Exploration Well. Since the last update on December 13, 2010 the well has been drilled down to 2,522 meters, and over the past several days, an intermediate 9 5/8 inch casing string has been successfully set […]
UK Training Police Forensic Teams in Kurdistan
By UK Embassy in Baghdad: Sometimes red tape is a good thing – not a thing I would normally say or think as a civil servant. Let me explain. One of the best things UK does in Iraqi Kurdistan is train police forensics teams. We have spent a lot of money on it and we […]
Turkish Bank Granted Iraqi Licence
AKnews quotes a source at 'Esh Bank' [Is Bankasi] as saying that the Iraqi Central bank has granted a license to the Turkish group to open branches in the Iraqi capital and the capital of the Iraqi-Kurdistan region. The source, who declined to be named, told the agency that the Turkish bank is now awaiting […]
Central Bank: Educate Public on Paying Taxes
The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) stated on Thursday that the assumed value of taxs in the 2011 budget is amounted to 2.7 trillion Iraqi dinars, that is 3% of the state budget. Muzher Mouhammed Saleh, the adviser of the ICB, told AKnews that the tax file is semi-disabled in Iraq due to the poor […]
Northern Ireland Completes First Trade Mission to Kurdistan
A delegation of companies from Northern Ireland has just completed its first trade mission to Kurdistan and deemed it an excellent introduction to the region that may lead to business in the future. Seventeen companies from Northern Ireland, which is one of the autonomous regions of the UK, spent five days in Erbil and met […]