More Iraqi News Wednesday PM 9-2-20

More Iraqi News Wednesday PM 9-2-20

TLM724 Administrator BondLady’s Corner

Military officials: Reducing US forces to 3.5 thousand advisers within two months

POSTED ON 2020-09-02 BY SOTALIRAQ  Translation / Hamid Ahmad 

After US military officials made statements to them on Friday about plans that the United States is working on to reduce the number of its military forces in Iraq by next November from 5,200 advisers to 3,500, US President Donald Trump announced the next day, Saturday, August 30, in a brief tweet to him on his official website on Twitter In it, he said, "The United States plans to reduce its military presence in Iraq." Without giving any other details.

American officials said that Iraqi forces are now more capable of carrying out counterterrorism operations against ISIS. According to American military officials, this reduction will be in line with President Trump's repeated calls during his re-election campaign to bring the troops home, in which he pledged to put an end to what he called "endless wars" after making progress in this area.

President Trump had indicated in one of his remarks for his re-election campaign, saying: "Unlike previous administrations, I kept keeping Americans away from any new wars, our forces will return home." And he went on to affirm his desire to complete the withdrawal of forces in the near future. "We are reducing troop levels while improving the Iraqi ability to defeat the remnants of ISIS and prevent its reemergence," Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica McNulty said in a statement to the VOA news site.

"Any reduction in US forces in Iraq will be determined through careful coordination with the Iraqi government, as well as with our coalition partners and NATO forces, as well as according to the standard of our common security interests and the progress made in the campaign against ISIS," she added.

Iraqi officials have not yet made any statement regarding President Trump's statements of troop reductions.

Discussions between the two countries regarding the future of US forces in Iraq began earlier this year. The issue was also raised during Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi's visit to the White House last week.

President Trump said during his meeting with Al-Kazemi, "We are looking forward to the day when there is no need for us to be there. We were there and now preparing to leave. We will leave soon and the relationship between us is very good. We will leave and hope that we will leave a country that is able to defend itself. ”

Experts said that after the defeat of ISIS in major Iraqi cities such as Mosul, the Iraqi army has proven its effectiveness in fighting the militants.

Hussein Ali Allawi, an expert on national security affairs at Nahrain University in Baghdad, said: “The Iraqi armed forces are capable of managing military operations on the ground, but the role of the US-led international coalition is still considered important for close air support, in-depth reconnaissance and intelligence gathering about Through the air, all these characteristics are reflected in the advisory mission of the international coalition in Iraq.

In an interview with VOA, Allawi said that while the campaign continues in Iraq to eliminate the remaining ISIS militants, the Iraqi government still needs “the experience of the international coalition in reorganizing the Iraqi armed forces, reforming the security sector, strengthening the country's capacity in the intelligence side and documenting relations between the army and civilians.” .

The expert added, Allawi, saying that the ultimate goal for Washington and Baghdad is to withdraw the remaining 3,500 US forces in Iraq within three years, starting from August.

Last month, the commander of the US Central Command in the Middle East, General Frank McKenzie, said that he expected that the United States would keep a smaller number of troops in Iraq, but for a long time, and said that he believed that the Iraqis would welcome the American and coalition forces, especially during the ongoing battle to prevent ISIS militants from Take control of any location for them in the country again.

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said recently this month that the US administration intends to reduce the number of US forces in Iraq to the lowest possible extent and as soon as possible, but he did not specify the number of troops that would remain.

Last week, the US-led coalition withdrew from the Taji military base in Iraq and handed it over to Iraqi security forces. The coalition said in a statement that the handover of Taji base, north of Baghdad, is the eighth handover operation carried out by the coalition forces after it occupied part of the Iraqi bases and returned its responsibility to the Iraqi security forces.   LINK

Dollar Exchange Rate In Iraq Today

Time: 09/02/2020 10:07:20 Read: 8,502 times   {Baghdad: Al Furat News} Today, the foreign currency markets in Iraq recorded a stable exchange rate of the US dollar against the Iraqi dinar, which is the same for the second week.

The prices of selling and buying dollars in exchange companies and offices were as follows:

The selling price of one dollar was 1232.5 dinars, or 123 thousand and 250 dinars per hundred dollars.

The purchase price of the dollar is 1222.5 dinars, or 122 thousand and 250 dinars per hundred dollars.

Foreign exchange rates, gold and crude oil until the preparation of this news:

The euro The global price: 100 euros = 119.05 British dollars

The global price: 100 pounds = 133,80 dollars of the Turkish lira

World price: 100 dollars = 736,55 Turkish lira

The price of an ounce of gold worldwide = $ 1964.57,

The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil = $ 46.00,   The price of a barrel of US crude oil = $ 43.15.  LINK

The Red Color Hangs Over Wednesday's Session

Iraqi Stock Exchange «Economy News»  Market  Economy News – Baghdad  The red color loomed over the stock market's trading in Wednesday's session, after its index fell by 0.97%.

14 losing companies contributed by adding the red color to the index, led by the Babel Bank Company’s shares with 10.00% and the Middle East Bank Company’s shares by 8.33%.

During Monday's session, 1.4 billion shares were traded, at a value of 932.8 million dinars.

Only two companies, Iraq Land Transport, rose by 1.33% and Baghdad Hotel by 0.63%.

Foreign investors bought 2 million shares, at a value of 1 million dinars.

Number of observations 90 Date added 09/2/2020  https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=21702

Barham Salih: Iraq Is Looking Forward To Good Economic Relations With France

Iraqi President Barham Salih with French President Emmanuel Macron

Money  and business  Economy News – Baghdad  The Iraqi President, Barham Salih, announced that Iraq is looking forward to good economic relations with France.

Salih said in the press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, attended by "Economy News", that Iraq wants to activate the agreements signed between the two countries, noting that France shows its support for the reconstruction of the liberated areas and the return of the displaced.

He added that the success of economic relations requires the necessity of activating many contracts and projects with French companies.

On the other hand, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Iraq is going through economic challenges and that foreign interference has weakened the Iraqi government and state.

Number of observations 153 Date added 09/2/2020   https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=21701

Member Of The Board Of Directors Of The Union Of Arab Banks, Ziad Khalaf, Stresses The Need For Central Banks To Take Care Of Banks

Banks  Economy News - Baghdad:  The Union of Arab Banks organized a hypothetical conference on Tuesday and Wednesday 1 and 2 September 2020, during which it discussed ways to support central banks for capital markets in light of the Corona pandemic, and the conference witnessed the participation of Arab and European stock markets, banks, Arab central banks and the International Monetary Fund, with Arab and European participation with The participation of senior officials in central banks, heads of Arab stock exchanges and Arab and international capital market bodies, elite decision makers, senior banking and financial leaders, and Arab central bank governors.

In this context, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Development Bank, Mr. Ziad Khalaf Abdel-Muhtaram, participating in the activities of the conference, delivered a valuable speech on the air directly on the second day of the conference, in which he dealt with a set of practical and economic analyzes and the most important repercussions imposed by the Corona pandemic and the economic effects it has on all markets. Finance, warning at the same time of the repercussions of a recession and a serious financial crisis in the global economy, which would generate a significant decline in economic growth.

He stressed the need for central banks to take care of banks by providing more liquidity in order to be able to advance the banking reality, provide better services to customers, encourage the establishment of joint collective funds, and reduce the administrative and supervisory requirements of banks.

Khalaf stressed the International Development Bank’s keenness to preserve capital and liquidity more than it was in the past, and the bank has proven that it has more strength and tolerance than before to market fluctuations and its various repercussions and expected losses and stumbling in the credit granted, noting that the support of central banks in providing cash has contributed greatly. In reducing the financing risks, which made banks in a better position than before since the beginning of the crisis, calling on legislators and central bank administrations to pay more attention to banks so that they do not fall into more crises and problems.

Number of observations 90 Date added 09/2/2020   https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=21703

European Union: $ 617 Million Worth Of Programs We Are Working On With Iraq

The Ambassador of the European Union to Iraq, Martin Hoth  Money  and business  Economy News – Baghdad  The Ambassador of the European Union to Iraq, Martin Houth, announced that the European Union has 69 programs currently operating in Iraq, worth 617 million dollars.

Hoth said, the European Union is actively engaged in cooperation with Iraq in 69 programs currently with a total amount of 617 million euros, adding that these programs move according to our common main interests to maintain stability and rebuild the social contract between citizens and institutions, in order to achieve these strategic goals.

He noted that the programs focus on European development cooperation with Iraq on ensuring sustainable improvements in democratic governance and institution building, recovering from "ISIS", valuing human capital, developing the economy and creating job opportunities, and among other important aspects of the European Union's participation is sending a large civil advisory mission EUAM To Iraq to help repair.

Number of observations 203 Date added 09/02/2020  https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=21700

The General Tax Authority Achieves Historical Revenues

Money  and business  Economy News – Baghdad  The General Tax Authority announced that it achieved financial revenues, the first in the history of tax work.

The Director General of the Authority, Shaker Al-Zubaidi, said in a statement seen by Al-Iqtisad News, that "revenues were achieved in August amounting to 465 billion Iraqi dinars."

He added that "tax revenues amounted to more than one trillion and 500 billion dinars during the first half of this year, despite the measures of the Corona pandemic and its impact on commercial activity."

Al-Zubaidi expected "revenues to rise to double digits during the second half of this year to support the state budget."

Number of observations 100 Date added 09/02/2020   https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=21695

TLM724:   "tax revenues amounted to more than one trillion and 500 billion dinars during the first half of this year"

All these years have gone by that they could have collected all this revenue. I hope they continue down this path and realize their wealth in all sectors

Oil Minister: We Seek To Achieve The Highest Economic Return Through These Steps

Editing date: 02/09/2020 16:32 • 51 times read  [Baghdad_Where] TheMinister of Oil, Ihssan Abdul Jabbar, confirmed, on Wednesday, that his ministry is seeking to achieve the highest economic return by exporting crude oil in addition to coordination with international companies to develop oil fields.

The media office of the Minister of Oil stated in a statement that "Abdul Jabbar conducted an inspection tour of the Al-Ahdab and Badra fields in Wasit Governorate, accompanied by the ministry's undersecretary for distribution affairs, Karim Hattab, the director general of the technical department and a number of officials in the ministry."

Abdul-Jabbar said, "The ministry is working to achieve the highest levels of coordination and understandings with international companies contracting to develop oil fields, by providing an appropriate work environment, and engaging local experience with the world in a way that achieves common goals. This visit to Al-Ahdab and Badra fields aims to learn in the field the nature of Executing work and projects in progress, and meeting with officials and workers.

He stressed, "The Ministry's keenness to optimize the investment of the national wealth, in a way that achieves the highest economic return, through the export of crude oil, as well as directly contributing to achieving the requirements of the local need for petroleum products, especially gas fuel in supplying electric power plants."

He pointed out, "The ministry will spare no effort in supporting and assigning national and foreign companies operating in Iraq to achieve the planned goals," stressing "the importance of making efforts by workers to overcome challenges and advance infrastructure projects, in addition to supporting service and health sectors in the province."

The Minister of Oil held a meeting with the Director General of the Central Oil Company and a number of officials and workers in the Al-Ahdab and Badra fields and listened to a review of the stages of project development according to the ministry’s plans presented by a number of stakeholders about the aforementioned fields, then the Minister of Oil toured a number of oil sites in the province According to the statement

http://www.alliraqnews.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=99361

Deputy: Two Billion Dollars Worth Of State Revenues From Telecommunications

Editing date: 02/09/2020 10:33 • 72 read times   Where's News_ Baghdad  MP Mansour Al-Baiji confirmed, on Wednesday, that the value of the revenues that the government should obtain from telecommunications companies reaches two billion dollars per month, while noting that the Iraqi judiciary is firm and impartial and will not allow the abuse of public money by mobile phone companies.

Al-Baiji said in a statement, "The Iraqi judiciary has always been fair and impartial and has always had positions on important issues, especially those affecting the prestige of the state and the people's money by preserving them from theft and looting, especially what the mobile phone companies do of public theft of the citizen and the failure to pay what they owe from dues that exceeded two trillion dinars, according to What the Parliamentary Finance Committee said.

He added, "The nature of the service provided through these companies throughout those years was characterized by weakness, badness, and illegal methods in trying to deplete the subscribers' assets, while the regulatory and legislative authorities were unable to pursue the reluctance and impose penal and legal conditions on the three contacts throughout the previous years and the victim is the Iraqi citizen. And non-payment of state dues. "

He pointed out, "The value of the money that is supposed to be collected from the communications field compared to the number of subscribers in Iraq reaches two billion dollars a month, which is what magnifies the budget resources, especially in light of the current economic crisis in Iraq, which was better for the competent authorities to work on Forcing telephone companies to pay their dues, not to reward them by renewing their licenses rounds, and to reward them for not paying what they owe. "

He continued, "The mobile phone companies owe them financial dues and accumulated debts that they must pay to the state treasury, and the Iraqi government must support the establishment of a national telecommunications company that can compete with other companies, taking into account that the telecommunications sector is important and generates huge sums of money for the state treasury, so it must support In order to provide the best for our country and our people, who have suffered both from the thefts of communication companies that have been in existence for several years without providing the best, but their only concern is the theft of the people's money

http://www.alliraqnews.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=99348

An Economist Stresses The Importance Of Gas In Maximizing Budget Revenues

08:40 - 02/09/2020   Information / private  Economist Ihssan Al-Kinani stressed the importance of Iraqi gas in maximizing budget resources instead of relying entirely on selling oil, pointing out that Iraq has a large gas wealth that is not properly utilized.

Al-Kinani said to / the information /, that " Iraq has gas in very large quantities, but it is burned and has not been exploited, as the discovered gas represents 10% of what is found within the exploration patches."

He added that "gas can be a substitute for oil in maximizing budget revenues, especially that Iraq depends on oil by more than 85%, while gas can achieve more than 25% of revenues, if it is used properly."

And that "there are external wills and internal failure to exploit gas optimally, as it is assumed that gas stations will increase in order to increase local revenues, as well as to ensure that Iraq does not need to borrow." 25 n https://www.almaalomah.com/2020/09/02/492883/

Statement of the Parliamentary Economic and Investment Committee regarding stopping cooperation with the National Investment Authority

01/09/2020   Honorable Prime Minister, ministers, supervisory departments and relevant institutions

We call on you to stop cooperation with the National Investment Commission in all forms, and hold you responsible and legal consequences for wasting public money, and we call on the Prime Minister to refer the Authority’s Chairman, Window Manager and Legal Department Director to the investigation and withdraw their hand until the investigation ends.

We would like to emphasize that the Economic and Investment Committee had previously met with the Prime Minister, and the violations were confirmed by the Commission in official letters at the meeting.

It was supposed to form a committee for the purpose of stopping corruption and waste operations in the non-application of the provisions of the Investment Law, in a number of axes, including ownership at an allowance 2 % Of the value of the land according to the system enforced by the government and it is different to the provisions of the effective investment law, which speaks in exchange for the real value of land within the boundaries of the municipalities and the capital, and this transgression of the law is contrary to the constitution and legal law,

and also the system grants 98% of the land’s value to their partners in corruption and is forbidden Citizen and the state treasury from these funds that reach in the worst case 10 trillion in the lands granted during this period and the circumstances of the Corona pandemic and more than that the state is restricting the provision of services on its account in billions more in addition to the issue of expanding the electricity stations in which the smell of corruption has reached neighboring countries and the involvement of the country By tens Billions.

We stress that this institution has no economic benefit, but on the contrary it has become one of the biggest gates of corruption because of its officials and threatens the survival of the state's assets due to their persistence in insisting on corruption, which has conveyed a message that they are not afraid of accountability and that they are above the law and we are presenting before your eyes some of the administrative abuses.

On the law and distortion in using the provisions of the law in the article on expropriation and the state’s obligation to purchase electricity supply service from investors at times the value that was not stipulated in the investment law instead of allocating these funds to build government stations and unleash honorable competition between the public and private sectors in the service of the citizen

We will present some of the violations of the law in the administrative procedures followed: -

Article 20 First, the Commission issues an investment license through the establishment of a single window that includes authorized representatives from the ministries and relevant authorities ..

Article 20 Second / B / For one window to submit the recommendation to grant the license to the Chairman of the Commission Or the Board of Directors, as the case may be, Investment Regulation No. 2 of 2009 Article 4 First The competence of the National Commission is defined for strategic projects with the Federal floor exclusively.

Article 5 of the system specifies the tasks of the Board of Directors of the National Commission, including first setting a strategic policy

Second: Determine the necessary procedures to monitor, follow up and evaluate the performance of investment projects through committees formed for this purpose, so how does the board of directors monitor projects and grant licenses that are not even presented to it, and the window is supposed to make recommendations according to the opinion of the delegates, so how can the recommendation be without the approval of the delegates representatives of the sectoral authorities.

Article 13 of the system 2 The provisions of Article C of Article 7 of the law shall be observed in granting investment licenses for projects that require obtaining approval from the Council of Ministers, and this indicates that projects whose value exceeds 250 million will obtain the approval of the Council of Ministers for the region or governorate commission. The investment license is granted in the National Authority without the approval of the delegates and without the approval of the Board of Directors.

Article 4 / g / of the law stipulates that the board of directors of the National Investment Commission shall meet at the invitation of its president, and the quorum for the meeting and decision-making shall be determined by an absolute majority. The workflow shall be organized by an internal system issued by the Commission and any decisions taken in the National Administration Board if the projects are not presented to it ??

For the purpose of stopping the waste of billions of dollars, state assets and administrative abuses, we demand that Mr. Al-Kazemi implement the law, withdraw the hand, and refer them to investigation and prevent them from traveling and investigating their properties.

Economic and Investment Committee  House of Representatives  Media  Department 1/9/2020    LINK

TLM724:   This is huge and depending on how the Prime Minister responds it can make a serious dent in corruption !

To read more current and reliable Iraqi news please visit BondLady’s Corner:

 https://www.bondladyscorner.com/

Previous
Previous

Charlie Ward on Redemption Centers

Next
Next

Charles Ward, Santa Surfing and more Wednesday Night 9-2-2020