Clare: Urgent… Office of Imam Sistani: Next Monday is the first day of the month of Muharram

The office of the supreme religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Imam Sayyid Ali al-Sistani, in Najaf al-Ashraf announced that tomorrow, Sunday, is the last day of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, and Monday, corresponding to (7/8/2024 AD), is the first day of the month of Muharram for the year 1446.

Thus, Wednesday, July 17, is the tenth of Muharram (Ashura).  LINK

Clare:  Airlines set date to resume flights between Baghdad and Moscow

Today, Saturday, the Director General of Iraqi Airways, Manaf Abdul Moneim, revealed the date for resuming direct flights between Iraq and Russia after their recent suspension.

Abdul Moneim said in a statement by the Ministry of Transport, a copy of which was received by {Euphrates News}, that “the first direct flight will be carried out on July 16th.”

He explained that “restarting the direct flight line between Baghdad and Moscow came in line with the directives of the Minister of Transport, as it is one of the vital transport lines that serve the Iraqi community present on Russian territory.”

He added, “The number of flights has been set at two flights per week on Saturdays and Tuesdays as a first stage, with the opportunity to allocate additional flights after studying the volume of demand for the aforementioned sector.”  LINK

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Clare: Iraq announces the start of direct flights between Baghdad and Beijing

Iraqi Airways announced the start of direct flights from Baghdad to Beijing after a hiatus that lasted for several years.

A statement by the Ministry of Transport received by “Al-Eqtisad News” stated that “in line with the directives of the Minister of Transport, Razzaq Muhaibis Al-Saadawi, on the necessity of expanding the destinations of the national carrier to various regional and international sectors, the Iraqi Airways administration announces the start of direct flights from Baghdad to Beijing after a hiatus that lasted for several years,” noting that “the first flight took off this afternoon from Baghdad International Airport to Beijing Daxing International Airport.”

The company’s general manager, Eng. Manaf Abdul-Moneim, said according to the statement that “the resumption of operation of this vital line between Iraq and China, which is the second of its kind after the (Guangzhou) sector, is an important step, especially since it will open new horizons of joint cooperation between the two countries,” noting that “the number of scheduled flights for this sector has been set at two flights per week, going from Iraq on Saturdays and Tuesdays, and returning from Beijing on Sundays and Wednesdays, in addition to allocating the latest aircraft to serve the line, which are the Dreamliner model, distinguished by its ability to cover long distances and high travel comfort.”  LINK

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Clare:  How much is Iraq’s loan from the IMF?

The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Mohammed Salih, confirmed today, Saturday, that zeroing out the debts to the International Monetary Fund reflects Iraq’s high and solid creditworthiness, while indicating that Iraq is in the process of paying off long-term development loans to the World Bank.

Saleh told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “Iraq has entered into about 5 programs with the International Monetary Fund since 2004 until the end of 2018, including 3 credit readiness programs, and all of them were characterized by providing loans whose function is to support the state of stability and economic reform in Iraq in two directions. The first: loan programs, as Iraq received loans from the International Monetary Fund to help it overcome economic crises, as these loans included supporting the general budget and financing economic stability programs, especially during the war on ISIS terrorism.”

He added: “As for the other trend: in the field of economic reforms, the International Monetary Fund usually requires countries that receive loans to implement certain economic reforms. In the case of Iraq, these reforms included improving the management of public finances and the banking sector, enhancing transparency, combating corruption, and reforming the energy sector.”

He pointed out that “these loans did not exceed $5 billion per loan, and the actual withdrawal from them would not exceed $3 billion or more in each case, and according to a repayment program that takes place every 6 months with grace periods of two years before repayment with a moderate annual interest, which usually does not exceed 4.5%, and the terms of these loans do not exceed five years.”

He pointed out that “Iraq has paid off the loans that were withdrawn during the last twenty years according to regular payment mechanisms and are close to zeroing out, unless they are all zeroed out today, which reflects the high and solid creditworthiness of the Republic of Iraq in repayment before the international financial community in particular and towards multilateral international financial organizations in general.”

He continued: “But certainly there are long-term development loans from the World Bank that are still in place, which is another development financial organization, and amount to a few billion and are in the process of being repaid, and some of them are still in the process of being committed to being withdrawn to be spent on completing development projects contracted with the World Bank, and they are also long-term soft loans.”

He stressed that “cooperation relations continue between Iraq and the International Monetary Fund in various fields, including providing technical advice and supporting economic policies,” noting that “the relationship between Iraq, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank is important for achieving economic stability and sustainable development in the country.”

He pointed out that “Iraq has been a founding member of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank since 1945.”  LINK

Clare:  Parliamentary Finance to NINA: Oil companies’ dues added to budget tables, government coordination to resume exports
The Parliamentary Finance Committee confirmed the continuation of coordination and communication between the federal government and the Kurdistan Region to resume oil exports through the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

The Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Ikhlas Al-Dulaimi, stated in a statement to the National Iraqi News Agency / NINA /, that “the general budget tables approved by the Council of Representatives are the ones adopted by the government, thus canceling any financial texts and paragraphs mentioned outside it,” and pointed out that there are allocations for the costs of oil production and transportation worth 3 trillion and 800 billion dinars, which were added to the general budget tables.

She added, “If an agreement is reached between the federal government and the region to resume oil exports, the federal Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Oil and Natural Resources in the region will proceed to coordinate to find a mechanism to disburse those amounts and pay the dues of oil companies.”

She explained, “The oil companies operating in the Kurdistan Region, the region requests 6 months’ amounts and there are contracts signed between the two parties that are difficult to cancel, because they are giant foreign companies that will resort to the judiciary and sue the region and the federal government.”  LINK

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Clare:  The Iraqi Private Sector and Improving the Investment Environment in the National Development Plan 2024-2028

 During the past three months, the Ministry of Planning and the specialized work teams have made efforts to prepare and prepare the National Development Plan 2024-2028, the draft of which addressed in detail the main challenges facing the Iraqi private sector and the main objectives aimed at achieving its effective contribution to improving the investment environment.

While I agree with what is stated in the plan, we emphasize the need to add the basic pillars stated in the private sector development strategy.

For the years 2014-2030, and in particular its three time periods, its four pillars, its four pillars, what has been achieved since its launch in 2014, and what has not been achieved.

It is also necessary to state what has been achieved from Iraq’s Vision 2030, which clearly outlined the path to achieving a “strong and developing private sector.”

In addition to determining what has been achieved during the implementation of previous national development plans and the economic, financial and banking reform strategy included in the government program of the current government and what is the real role through which the private sector should contribute with government participation and support in managing the overall economy. This requires providing a legislative environment and a stable business environment and focusing on the axes that aim to build sound preliminaries for the transition to a complete economic reform.

This is what we all agree on, but this requires the government and the private sector in all its banking, industrial, agricultural, energy, health, construction, tourism and service sectors to participate and cooperate in implementing the transitional, medium and long-term economic reform strategy.

This means involving the private sector in a greater role in economic decision-making and leading the market institutionally and legislatively through the following:

 1- Contributing with the government to improving the business environment in Iraq and providing an encouraging investment climate to attract national and foreign capital in accordance with the government’s program and encouraging and stimulating the achievement of partnerships between the public and private sectors in financing and developing development projects that have achieved implementation rates.

Good and its allocations are included in the general budgets of 2024 and 2025

 2- Contributing with the government to creating a new legislative environment based on Article (25) of the Permanent Constitution, the strategies and laws related to economic reform, the private sector development strategy, its pillars and specific contents, in a way that ensures its activation and leadership of the market in the future.

 3- Maintaining and activating the partnership, dialogue and cooperation between the private sector and the government by taking rapid measures to activate the Private Sector Development Council and start its work under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, enacting a special law for it and forming a joint advisory council from the government and private sectors linked to the council that includes experts from the various economic sectors nominated by the council members and provides its advice and works according to a special system approved by the council.

 4- Contributing with the government in developing policies, mechanisms and strategies and participating in following up on their implementation to resolve the transition to time-programmed stages to a market economy.

 5- Working with the government to provide additional sources of funding for the state’s general budget by adopting the development and diversification of resources towards raising the percentage of resources other than oil in the gross domestic product, by activating the real economy and diversifying sources of national income.

 6- Work to encourage the establishment and development of small, medium and micro enterprises in order to achieve comprehensive and sustainable development, including the formation of specialized institutions for this purpose and issuing a special law to develop and advance these projects and determine their economic feasibility and benefit from the Riyada initiative launched by the Prime Minister and the National Lending Strategy launched by the Central Bank on 5/25/2024.

 7- Cooperation in financing and ensuring the implementation of central plans to provide infrastructure to encourage and develop the private sector in industry, trade, agriculture, tourism, health, energy, construction, strengthening and services.

8- Activating the role of specialized banks and private banks to provide soft loans to the national private sector, as well as finding solutions to the problems of taxes and accumulated interest incurred by owners of projects that have stopped production, and setting a short- and medium-term financial policy.

 9- Coordination and cooperation with the relevant ministries and financial and statistical institutions, especially the Ministries of Planning and Finance, in building a financial and statistical information base and ensuring its transparency.  LINK