Iraq oil exports in April 1.605 million barrels a day

April is the second month that witnessed a high level of exports after it has remained up to 1.5 million barrels a day for a period.

The spokesman, Assim Jihad, said the exports in April include 1.594 million barrels a day through the ports in Basrah in south; another 11 thousand barrels were exported daily to Syria through Ein Zalah field near the city of Mosul in the north.

Jihad told Reuters "crude oil exports from Kirkuk in the north continue to stumble because of the continuing sabotage to the oil pipelines in the region".

The level of exports in March which reached 1.62 million barrels a day were the highest since September 2006, according to Jihad.(Source)AlSabah

Egypt exempts Iraq from debts of $ 800 million

The Minister of Finance, Bayan Jabr, made his statement while the Ministers of more than ten countries and international organizations are meeting for one day at the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea to agree on an international covenant to Iraq; this International Covenant document is a five-year plan offers financial, political and technical support to Iraqi institutions in return for political, security and economic reforms.

Jabr said that three countries of Eastern Europe: Slovenia, Bulgaria and Poland have also approved to exempt Iraq from 80% of the debts owed to them, but he did not disclose the value of these canceled debts.

He added that the European Union would give Iraq 200 million dollars and that he expects donations from some Asian countries as well.

Iraq, which has the third largest oil reserves in the world, is struggling to rebuild its faltering economy after four years of violence following the invasion led by the United States in 2003.(Source)AlSabah

Iraq oil minister says that Iraq oil reserves may surpass those of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia possesses 25 percent of the world’s proven petroleum reserves and its proven reserves are estimated at 262 billion.

Shahristani did not say whether the surveys conducted so far have substantially increased the country’s current proven reserves which still fall below those of Iran which has emerged as the world’s second largest after Saudi Arabia.

But he said 78 oil fields were discovered most of them of the “gigantic or large” size.

He said the National Oil Company has already reserved 25 massive fields for development.

He said the European Union was interested in Iraqi gas reserves believed to be the world’s tenth largest.

The EU was even keen to construct a gas pipeline network through Syria, Jordan and even Egypt to the terminals on the Mediterranean, he added.(Source)Hazem Duaij

Iraq taxes revenues expected to increase 50%

General manager of the Taxes General Institution, Talib Muhsin Jabir Abu Gaillah, expected that tax revenues will rise by 50% from what they were last year, praising the role played by private sector companies in support of those revenues through their continuous respond to tax and avoid tax evasion, while representatives of some private sector companies called to raise customs deductions on goods and materials entering Iraq in order to activate the role of local industry.. Abu Gaillah added in a symposium organized by the Institution along with a number of representatives of private sector companies: The Institution constantly seeks to support the local product and Iraqi private companies through reducing or eliminating tax deductions on them, pointing out that this step was taken in an effort to raise the productive capacity and to support local Iraqi industry in order to make it a strong competitor of the imported goods. He also explained that the cuts’ rate is minimum compared with the neighboring countries that impose high tax rates on their corporations, but the Institution had consistently supported Iraqi economy and encouraged domestic or foreign investment.

A number of private sector representatives participating in the symposium called for accelerating the drafting of high customs deductions on imported goods which would help to promote the country’s industrial status.. They said in their conversations during the symposium: Many of the materials and goods coming across the Iraqi border are not covered by tax deductions which led to the suspension of the local industry almost completely, pointing out that many of the goods entering are not compatible to the specifications and metrology of the Quality and Control Body and often have less quality than the local product. They also called for exempting the local product from tax deductions in order to support and encourage the factories producing it... The representative of Bunnia group companies, Hashim Jassim, said that local industry is facing great pressure by not providing the proper environment represented by the insufficiency of fuel, and opening the borders to imported goods, in addition to many other obstacles standing in the way of industry. Hashem added: it is very difficult to apply pure tax rules without any tolerance and not protecting the local industry from imported goods, and not supporting industrial projects, noting that it is very difficult for Iraqi industry to compete with goods entering Iraq. Representative of Iraqi Federation of Industries, Abd Jassim Hameed, considered it unlikely for taxes to be one of the impediments that are preventing the growth of industry in Iraq, indicating that the problem of industry lies in the deterioration of the security situation and the migration of capitals and professionals.

Hameed said the problem of the private sector is not in taxes, but there are many other constraints led to the weakening of this sector, where most industrial zones suffer from the lack of security, in addition to flooding the market with imported foreign products of low-quality, which have negatively impacted the sector.

Representative of Talal Albehrani commercial group companies, Yassir Isam, has proposed supporting industrial companies through supporting the final product by exempting it from tax deductions.

Iraqi cabinet endorses 50 million iraqi dinar loans for small projects

The interest rate is 6%, two to be paid by the loan holder while 4% will be paid by the finance ministry, he said.

The cabinet also approved the establishment of the Najaf power plant, operating with natural gas at a cost of US$55m and a design capacity of 22 MW, Al-Dabbagh added.

"A contract to that effect will soon be signed with a specialised company to start carrying out the Najaf power plant project," said the spokesman, without providing the name of the company.

Al-Dabbagh added the cabinet decided to sign WLL (wireless local loop) contracts with companies offering cellular service in the country if they already had contracts with previous governments before April 2003.

The cabinet agreed to implement the contracts concluded by the mobile phones companies and allocate them the required frequencies for operation, he said. (Source)Iraq Development Program

Iraq Central Bank enhances banks’ liquidity

A statement of the Bank said that this policy addresses according to the intermediate variables, including the quality of growth in the amount of cash offers, the ability to manage liquidity and the tools of the monetary policy desired by it, pointing out that the new mechanism would include working with the currency and securities markets to create an effective system of payment that grants banks the trust to meet their payment obligations at reasonable cost, and the most costly in the provision of liquidity is the use of additional reserves such as money in treasuries and balances in excess of the legal reserve requirements.

The statement confirmed that the margins of the difference between interest rates on deposits and loans can be reduced by allowing the banks to reduce the possession of the proceeds resulting from surplus requirements that have no interests, explaining that the ability of banks depend on reducing excess requirements through reliable media in the management of liquidity.(Source)AlSabah

Iraq Central Bank determines the dollar price on last Sunday aginst iraqi dinar

Dealers with the Iraqi Central Bank said the auction on Sunday will not be an ordinary auction session but will be a direct sale session at the same exchange rates adopted at the auction last Thursday; the sale will be open to all the quantities required, in addition that the bank will buy any amount of foreign exchange sold by the banks to the Central Bank. (Source) AlSabah

An Iraqi-American "partnership" to move the Iraqi economy

Jabr Summarized the details of the agreement which was signed between the Iraqi Ministries of Industry and Finance and the American side, saying that the Ministry of Finance will provide initial facilitated loans, through government banks, that reach a total value of six million dollars to help ten plants belonging to the Ministry of Industry for the rehabilitation of their production lines to expand the productive capacity of these plants.

Jabr said that the American role in this process would be "attracting investors who showed their willingness to buy the produced goods at good prices and profitable manner; this has encouraged Iraqi government banks to provide loans to these plants".

He added: "the problem that was facing the process of expanding the production capacity of these plants was finding markets for their products".

Jabr said that the loans provided by the banks will be "facilitated interest rate debt service to no more than four 14 %".

Iraqi Minister of Industry, Fawzi Hariri, said that the agreement would cover "factories and companies which are mostly working at the present time but their production capacity range between 15 to 25%; our ambition is to upgrade their capacities to 80 % of the production and more, and develop them in a modern way suiting the twenty-first century and the sophisticated technology".

He said that such a step "in spite of being modest, it is considered a first step and a successful beginning of an integrated project that will take a year".

Brinkli said that the agreement seeks to "provide ways for cooperation between the industrial sectors in Iraq and the international community, and finding ways of cooperation between Iraqi businessmen and their counterparts in the international community and the United States". (Source)AlSabah

Turkish companies are invited to invest in Iraq

Assudani confirmed that Turkey has all the ingredients of commercial development and Turkish goods are well-trusted, and this calls for discussing all the details of the trade process between officials from the two countries.

He added that opening more than one border gate will increase the trade exchange between the two countries, instead of relying on one border crossing which will create problems in the pace of trade exchange and will not provide a suitable opportunity for the exchange of experiences and information.

He confirmed the importance of encouraging Turkish companies to invest in investment projects in the safe areas of the country.

He noted that the second exhibition of “A Gate to Iraq” in the Turkish city of Ghazi Antab is a great opportunity for businessmen and companies to exchange experience and information, as well as planning to establish huge bilateral projects supporting the economic exchange between the two countries.(Source)AlSabah

Discussing investment and reconstruction projects in Iraq

An Iraqi delegation representing the city council of Karbala and the Iraqi businessmen federation in the city, comprising Dr. Hameed Al-Farag, Dr. Haidar Al-Muaathin, Haji Mohammad Mudhaffar Mohammad Hassan Abdul Razak of the city council and Chief of the Federation of Businessmen, Haitham Mohammed Salih al-Hir, met with Deputy Director-General of the Kuwaiti Trade and Industry Chamber, Rabah Abdul Rahman Al-Rawah, and has discussed the reconstruction and investment opportunities in the province and the possibility of the contribution of the Kuwaiti side.(Source)AlSabah