KTFA Members "News and Views" Monday afternoon 1-1-8-2021

KTFA:

4Cash:  IMO no one is going to put investments in Iraq until the rate change!!! 

Don961:  Minister of Industry: International companies want to enter the Iraqi market after adjusting the dollar exchange rate

Sunday 17 January 2021 - 18:38  Minister of Industry and Minerals, Manhal Aziz

Baghdad (People) - The Minister of Industry and Minerals, Manhal Aziz, announced, on Sunday, that 5 new factories will open during the coming period, while noting that changing the exchange rate will allow competition to the local product.  

 Manhal Aziz said in a statement to the official channel followed by "People", (January 17, 2021): "The ministry started with a real plan to revive 17 factories that were previously idle, and succeeded in opening 12 of them, while 5 others will be opened and restored to work during the next six months." .  

 He added, "After 2003, the ministry was marginalized, in addition to the great destruction of the infrastructure and many production lines," noting that it "owns 225 factories today, out of which around 83 are completely idle."  

And that "the ministry's plan is to revive these factories, employ manpower and increase national production," noting that "changing the exchange rate of the dollar provided an opportunity for the Iraqi producer to be a real competitor," noting that "the ministry with its new plan greatly supports the private sector for its role in Reviving the national industry. "  

And, and that "there are foreign and regional companies express their desire to enter and cooperate in the Iraqi market because of this increase in market prices, which leads to a kind of economic feasibility in establishing these factories inside Iraq."  

He pointed out that "the government is seeking to put in place a real law for border crossings and set fees and taxes on products to find real ways to market inside Iraq within the controls and laws supporting the protection of the national product."  

 He explained, "There is an agreement and cooperation with the Ministry of Planning and the Center for Privatization and Quality Control to develop a directory of Iraqi products and protect them and put large fees on them. These materials must cover the market need and be of a high level of efficiency and quality and have a competitive price in the market."   link

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DeepWoodz:  Imo...Just some thoughts...

So the story they have put out to date is that they reduced the value of the dinar in order to facilitate the local product. By making imports more expensive for everyone in the country, this somehow helps Iraq because a tomato locally produced can now compete.

Well I’m pretty sure that even if the local grower is getting rich, that doesn’t help the other 45 million people as they are still paying the same prices. Sounds like the rich getting rid of their competition at the expense of the rest of the country.

Seems like to me the better way would be to add value to the dinar, making their 90%+ imported economy a lot cheaper for everyone. Raw materials for the same industries (tomato farmer) would be cheaper so even the rich would prosper more. With the new tax laws in effect, not just on salaries, but on imports as well, that would be the equaliser for the local product.

Does this sound reasonable? Because this is the story, to the best of my comprehension, and it just doesn’t make sense to me. 

Humble1:  Hey Deep, you hit the nail on the head, it is better for the owners of the factories for the dinar to be priced much lower than other currencies because they make more profit that way, it is the very reason that China keeps their currency at a very low value because the "state" of china makes all the profits, they don't care about the people and how the low exchange rate effects the individual.  But in a free market economy, you want the individuals to do well so that they expand the economy for everyone, not just those at the top of the food chain, all imo.

Pete2001:  completely agree! imo who are they trying to export to anyway? other than their oil which is  in $ anyway...they need to get investment into their country and the only way to do is to make their currency stronger backed by their gold reserves, oil and other natural resources....guess I understand Viet Nam currency manipulation cause they are trying to compete w China for production of consumable goods like clothing etc. but Iraq is a different situation, imo

DeepWoodz:  Imo...And just to add what I believe is the truth to come....

article 97
”Al-Kazemi said, "We face challenges, and we do not care about the attempts to question the work of the government and put the stick in the wheel. The most important thing is for us to provide service to citizens,"

He indicated that the support and protection of the local industry occupied a large place in the government curriculum, and we are currently working on preparing the necessary infrastructure to create an appropriate environment to revive the Iraqi industry again, and we rely on this path on the energies of the youth in our country. In order to restore honor to the Iraqi industry, and to work together to protect it."
” and that the government has embarked on a set of reforms to support the industry through the reform white paper and in Budget for 2021, and we imposed taxes on imported products to support and protect the local, national product."

. We rely on the private sector to play a major role in supplying the Iraqi industry and restore its identity, and we will provide all support and support so that Iraq is among the countries that compete with its industry."

DeepWoodz:  He is not for the status quo of previous years, and let’s face it, toilet paper currency is the status quo.  

Samson:  The ouster of a gang that stole more than a billion dinars from an investment bank

01/18/2021 15:02:09

On Monday, Baghdad crime-fighting detachments overthrew a gang that stole more than a billion dinars from an investment bank.

The directorate stated in a statement that Al-Furat News received a copy of it, that "a gang consisting of men and women was arrested and stole an amount of one billion three hundred and fifty million dinars from inside an investment bank in a private college."

And she added, "Immediately, a working group was formed, and through gathering information and taking fundamental measures at the scene of the accident, the accused (MZ) was identified, and through him the rest of the gang members were inferred and arrested all of them."

He pointed out that "the stolen amount was found in full, and their investigative papers were referred to the judiciary to receive their fair penalty."  LINK

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Don961:  Economic offices are outlets for stealing public money

Friday, January 15, 2021 - 06:07  Salah Al-Zubaidi

Economic offices or economic committees is a phenomenon that came after the American occupation of Iraq in the year 2000, and Iraq was not familiar with it previously, which devoted the sectarian quota system to the administration of the Iraqi state.

Economic offices are a mechanism that sectarian parties have used in managing ministries that are affiliated with this party or that according to sectarian quotas. These offices monitor the minister and study all contracts and projects before referring them, and determine the percentage that the party must obtain, in order to guarantee and permanence the financing of parties' projects and party activities, which made them an obstacle to the state administration of its tasks in the implementation of economic and development projects according to the absorption of the capabilities of Iraq.

Finance, as these committees contributed to one of the largest money laundering operations in the world, when they used their political influence to transfer tens of billions of party dollars to abroad to be placed in private accounts or to buy real estate and various properties in Europe or neighboring countries.

 This is what the Parliamentary Integrity Committee indicated in the Iraqi Council of Representatives, that the amount of money smuggled out of Iraq is estimated at (238) billion dollars, which is a number that exceeds the Iraqi budget for more than two years, and the money that was smuggled, most of the projects and contracts contracted by the Iraqi ministries and governorates. Smuggled them through fake receipts.

 Any political party contributing to the government measures the minister's level of obedience to him by the extent of his coordination with the economic committee within the ministry, so some political blocs prefer to nominate the same names for the position of the minister who falls within their quota regardless of his experience, specialization and academic achievement, and the economic offices in ministries and institutions have arms that can Through it, access to some ministers to obstruct the referral of contracts of some ministries to a party without another through illegal competition or by putting pressure on ministers and their agents.

The Al-Kazemi government was not able to control this, because the parties are the ones that came to the current government and gave it confidence, so this is difficult That the Kazemi government deviate from the context of quotas and political pressures.

While a former member of parliament, Rahim al-Darraji, described the political offices of the parties in the ministries as (offices for looting and stealing the money of the Iraqi people), adding that political parties stole the money of Iraqis through the economic offices and stressed that (the economic offices caused the destruction of all Iraqi projects because they relied on fake projects that have no origin. On the ground).

In the same context, former Minister of Justice Wael Abdel-Latif emphasized that (economic offices are illegal, but they give each political bloc a percentage ranging between 5-10% for each contract) and added that (party offices were formed in 2005, which is the cause of the inflated wealth of politicians and large parties, and pointed out the existence of Key figures in each ministry help the minister to conclude deals on paper in exchange for commissions)

Due to the high voices calling for the closure of the economic offices of the parties and blocs, it was canceled in the public form, and the truth to this moment is still managing many projects and economic tenders, as political parties resorted to camouflage by using non-political names and addresses to obtain funding.

It should be noted that some parties do not have known economic offices, but they manage corruption operations in secret ways without attracting attention, especially after the matter of those offices was clarified, the parties transferred the names of the funding committees to another name that indicates other activities, but they practice the same blackmail against contractors and businessmen, for this reason Major struggles are taking place between the parties to obtain important ministries in them (commissions) of contractors and businessmen.

The evidence of the blackmail practiced by economic offices on contractors and businessmen, as a Kuwaiti businessman came to Basra years ago and had a project to build five thousand housing units for people with limited income, but the blackmail of an influential party demanded a high commission, which forced him to cancel the project and return to his country.

Observers in economic affairs unanimously agree that without eliminating these committees that nest in the ministries and official institutions, there is no hope for the rise of Iraq again, as the resources of the Iraqi state will remain vulnerable to plunder and plunder by the economic committees of the sectarian quota parties. LINK