KTFA Members : Some Saturday News 6-19-2021
KTFA:
Samson: Vietnam : Every citizen to have QR Code by 2025 in an effort to develop digital Government
19th June, 2021
Every citizen in Việt Nam will have a digital identity with a QR Code by 2025 in an effort to promote the development of digital Government.
This will enable citizens, enterprises and other organisations to participate in the operation of Government agencies to improve transparency and service quality as well as improving social values. This was a key point in the e-Government development strategy towards building a digital Government in the 2021-25 period approved early this week.
The strategy aimed to complete the development targets of e-Government by the end of this year to serve the formation of digital Government by 2025. As mentioned in the strategy, e-Government included online meetings, paperless document processing, contactless administrative procedures and cashless payments.
Digital Government was a broader definiton, which included e-Government with safe operation in the digital environment, ability to provide new services, ability to optimise resources and the ability to lead the national digital transformation and effectively handle big issues in socio-economic management and development.
Digital Government was developed to let citizens, enterprises and other organisations participate in an appropriate way in the operation of Government agencies and interact to enhance transparency, improve service quality and together handle problems.
In comparision, e-Government set targets of better serve citizens and enterprises. Minister of Information and Communications Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng said that the targets for forming e-Government would be basically completed in 2021 with the focus on enabling the provision of all public services at level 4. Level 4 is the highest level of online public services which allows users to fill and submit forms and pay fees online.
By 2025, digital Government would be formed, which would enable the provision of Government services round-the-clock following demand while new services would be provided based on the open database. To promote the formation of the digital Government, the strategy set targets of completing the legal environment, developing the national digital infrastructure, the national digital platform, the national data and national apps together with ensuring network security and safety.
Accordingly, policies would be put forward so that Việt Nam could be in the list of the top 50 countries in terms of digital Government development by the United Nations by 2025 and in the top 30 by 2030. Specifically, the strategy targeted that every citizen would have a digital identity with a QR Code and own a smartphone. Every household would have a digital address and could access broadband internet.
Each citizen would have a digital health record, while medical examination and treatment facilities could provide remote examination and treatment and allow cashless payments and electronic prescriptions.
Each student would have a digital record of their studies, schools allow cashless payments and provide digital learning materials. Each farmer will have the ability to access, exploit and use the digital platform for agriculture, reducing the dependence on intermediary stages from production to distribution. LINK
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Samson: Imprisonment of members of the Iraqi border guards for their complicity with a regional smuggling network
19th June, 2021
On Saturday, the second Internal Security Forces Court in Nineveh issued prison sentences for members of the border forces for their complicity with smuggling networks between Iraq and Syria.
A security source told Shafaq News Agency, that the court issued prison sentences ranging from one year to one and a half years against five members of the Sixth Border Division, on charges of cooperating with a number of smugglers of fuel, cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, calves, sheep and others, between Iraq and Syria.
While another security source confirmed to Shafaq News reporter, "Smuggling operations at the administrative borders of Nineveh Governorate are still continuing today, especially near Sinjar district, within the areas controlled by the Federal Police, which received the tasks of border protection during the past months." LINK
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Samson: Remittances of Iraqi expatriates: weak numbers reflect the lack of confidence in banks
19th June, 2021
Controversy prevails in Iraq over the amounts that leak out of the country, estimated at between 62 billion and 70 billion dollars annually, most of which are within the import activities of the private and public sectors, without addressing the size of the hard currency that enters the country outside the framework of the Iraqi oil export giant “SOMO”
The Iraqi financial authorities do not issue any annual data on the amount of money entering the country from transfers from expatriates, numbering about 5 million people, most of whom left the country after the US invasion in 2003. However, the Center for Economic Studies in Baghdad revealed estimated figures for those transfers.
According to the head of the Future Iraq Foundation for Economic Studies, Manar Al-Obaidi, "the total remittances of Iraqis living abroad to the country amounted to more than 6 billion dollars between 2012 and 2019, at a rate of 750 million dollars annually," noting that "this represents about 0.5 percent. of Iraq's gross domestic product. Al-Obaidi said that the highest value of remittances was achieved in 2017, when remittances amounted to one billion dollars, considering that "the weakness of the banking system in Iraq led to a decrease in the percentage of funds transferred from various countries, in addition to the use of unofficial methods of transferring funds, which keeps the remittance figures estimated."
An official in the Iraqi Ministry of Finance in Baghdad confirmed that the numbers related to expatriate remittances are speculative and likely to be very different from the reality.
In an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, he pointed out that there are many undisclosed outlets through which funds are transferred to Iraq, "usually through unlicensed companies used to transfer expatriates' money to their families to help them during the well-known economic situation in Iraq."
On the other hand, a member of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi parliament, Ahmed Al-Saffar, considered in an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the amount of hard currency that enters Iraq does not represent anything in front of what comes out of it.
He explained that the lack of confidence in banks and the lack of banking culture in Iraq made people "resort to saving their money at home, which makes the issue of transfers from abroad difficult to monitor and also does not fall within the active resources in the country."
In turn, the expert in Iraqi economic affairs, Basem Antoine, explained that "the remittances are included in the purchasing power of the individuals who benefit from them only, and they cannot be considered as a national return. Moreover, the investment environment in the financial sector in particular is immature in Iraq, unlike what is happening in some other countries that Remittances of individuals from abroad are included in the country's basic resources.
Antoine talked about what he described as a "wide rift" between banks and citizens, as there are experiences with some banks that forced the citizen to store his money at home instead of entering the banking system, and being part of the economic cycle.
He pointed out that "trust between the government on the one hand and citizens and businessmen on the other hand is also missing, and therefore reforms must be carried out in this context and temptations should be created, including raising the interest rate, for example." LINK
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Don961: A bet on surplus funds from the escalation of oil prices to address 3 files... and an economic opinion in exchange for “refusing” hopes
2021-06-18 Yes Iraq: Baghdad
The bet is escalating on the financial surplus supposed to be achieved by the rise in oil prices of more than 25 dollars above the price set in Iraq’s budget 2021, on the basis of which the state’s expenses are drawn, amounting to 45 dollars per barrel, at a time when the oil price currently exceeds 72 dollars per barrel.
Iraq is counting on rising oil prices and achieving a financial surplus, to complete and address 3 important files, represented by lagging projects, filling the deficit, not borrowing and perhaps paying debts.
However, other economic opinions smash these high hopes, emphasizing the possibility that the achieved financial surplus will reduce the deficit only, without achieving any progress in other files, while the reason for this is that the real deficit is higher than the planned and written in the budget, by doing The decline in non-oil revenues and the achievement of figures much lower than those planned and calculated in the budget.
The government advisor for financial and economic affairs, Dr. Mazhar Muhammad Salih, shows that “final cash revenues will flow into the budget, and its balances will cover the estimated deficit gap of about 29 trillion dinars (20 billion dollars) in the federal general budget for the year 2021, out of a budget whose expenditure ceiling is approximately 130 trillion dinars ( $89.65 billion).
Saleh explained that "the additional cash income will cover the planned deficit and reach the normal limits of 3% of GDP, instead of resorting to internal or external borrowing," as well as it will also lead to the early implementation of "priority investment projects in proportion to the availability of Funds and the transition from the allocation stage to the financing stage, instead of the delay and reluctance that occurred in previous years due to lack of funds.”
Saleh noted that the efficiency of expenditures will lead to the payment of many arrears related to the private sector, such as entitlements to farmers, contractors, retirees and others.
The delayed projects amount to more than 6,000 projects worth 126 trillion dinars (about $89 billion), at a time when 80% of these projects have reached the completion stage, but the release of funds is an obstacle to their completion, according to the Ministry of Planning.
Filling 70% of the deficit only
For his part, the head of the Iraq Future Foundation for Economic Studies, Manar Al-Obaidi, expected that the increase in oil prices would contribute to reducing the budget deficit by 70%.
Al-Obeidi said that "the problem that Iraq is currently facing is its inability to maximize its non-oil revenues, and this contributes to increasing the financial deficit, in addition to the failure to start implementing the financial agreement with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which provides for the payment of 250 thousand barrels per day to the Iraqi government."
He pointed out that "it is very difficult to invest the surplus of oil money, as the volume of internal and external debt is also high." LINK
Don961: Its sales exceed $5.8 billion per month.. How does high oil prices reduce Iraq's budget deficit?
- 17 Hours Ago
Iraq’s revenues began to increase monthly, as a result of the rise in oil prices in the global market, and the increase in the amount of exports according to the “OPEC Plus” alliance agreement; This reflected positively on the fiscal budget for 2021.
The government planned to collect $4.38 billion in revenues from oil sales per month, but its sales exceeded $5.8 billion last month.
According to the latest report on actual expenditures issued by the Ministry of Finance, the government achieved a fiscal surplus of more than one billion dollars from the beginning of the year until last April, as expenditures amounted to 16.22 billion dollars, while revenues were estimated at 17.24 billion dollars.
Popular pressures on Mustafa Al-Kazemi's government have now reduced; As a result of the increase in the amount of oil exports, Iraq is currently producing 3.930 million barrels per day, compared to the production of more than one million barrels per day since the entry into force of the “OPEC Plus” agreement on May 1, 2020.
In addition, an increase in non-oil revenues was recorded through the imposition of taxes and fees, an increase in customs tariffs, and a 20% devaluation of the dinar.
Benefits for the economy
The government advisor for financial and economic affairs, Dr. Mazhar Muhammad Salih, said that the rise in oil prices will benefit the economy during the coming period.
He said in an interview with Al Jazeera Net that "final cash revenues will flow into the budget, and its balances will cover the deficit gap estimated at about 29 trillion dinars (20 billion dollars) in the federal general budget for 2021, out of the budget of the ceiling of its expenditures of approximately 130 trillion dinars (89.65 billion dollars) ". .
Saleh explained that "the additional cash income will cover the planned deficit and reach the normal limits of 3% of GDP, instead of resorting to internal or external borrowing."
He added that this will also lead to the early implementation of "priority investment projects in proportion to the availability of funds and the transition from the allocation phase to the financing phase, instead of the delay and reluctance that occurred in previous years due to lack of funds."
Saleh noted that the efficiency of expenditures will lead to the payment of many arrears related to the private sector, such as entitlements to farmers, contractors, retirees and others.
The delayed projects amount to more than 6,000 projects worth 126 trillion dinars (about $89 billion), at a time when 80% of these projects have reached the completion stage, but the release of funds is an obstacle to their completion, according to the Ministry of Planning.
Al-Obeidi expected that the increase in oil prices would contribute to filling the deficit by 70% (Al-Jazeera)
reducing the deficit.
On the other hand, Manar Al-Obeidi, head of the Future Iraq Foundation for Economic Studies, expected that the increase in oil prices would contribute to reducing the budget deficit by 70%.
Al-Obaidi said in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net that "the problem facing Iraq currently is its inability to maximize its non-oil revenues, and this contributes to increasing the financial deficit, in addition to the failure to start implementing the financial agreement with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which provides for the payment of 250 thousand barrels per day to Iraqi government".
He pointed out that "it is very difficult to invest the surplus of oil money, as the volume of internal and external debt is also high."
And the experience of the government of former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has now begun to be repeated with the Al-Kazemi government, as it was able to save 15 billion dollars from the increase in oil prices, but it remained in the public treasury for years without activating the delayed projects or paying government debts.
The absence of the program
, for his part, said economic expert Dergham Muhammad Ali - in an interview with Al Jazeera Net - that "the current government lacks the real program and the will to create development on sound economic foundations, in addition to its acquiescence to political pressures that were and still impede any real growth of the private sector or any investment." Promising, there is local development, so the Al-Kazemi government lacks planning and effective power.”
He pointed out that revenues are currently sufficient to meet budget commitments without a fiscal deficit, because it will be blocked through an increase in oil prices, and any other increase will be considered a supplementary budget.
It is noteworthy that Iraq had previously approved the 2021 budget with an estimated size of 130 trillion Iraqi dinars (89.65 billion dollars), and a deficit estimated at 19.79 billion dollars.
Source: Al Jazeera LINK