KTFA:
Clare: The Saudi foreign minister will visit Iraq tomorrow
2/1/2023
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan will visit Iraq tomorrow, Thursday.
The ministry said in a statement, which {Euphrates News} received a copy of, that: “Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan will visit Iraq tomorrow.”
She added, “A press conference will be held between Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and his Saudi counterpart at the ministry’s headquarters.” LINK
Clare: Iraq recovers more than 80 million dollars of stolen money
2/1/2023
The media office of the Iraqi Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia’a Al-Sudani announced, on Wednesday, the recovery of more than $80 million of his stolen money smuggled out of the country.
A statement issued by Al-Sudani’s office today stated, “According to the government’s approach and within the government’s continuous endeavor to recover Iraq’s smuggled funds abroad, the competent authorities were able to recover an amount of more than $80 million from the stolen funds and re-enter them into the state treasury.” LINK
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Clare: A new statement from the Parliamentary Law regarding the 2023 budget
Baghdad – Conscious – Nour al-Zaidi
2/1/2023
Today, Wednesday, the Parliamentary Legal Committee confirmed that the House of Representatives places the approval of the 2023 budget at the top of its priorities, indicating that Parliament will be supportive of its provisions.
The representative of the committee, Ahmed Fawaz, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “The budget law will be one of the most important priorities of our work at the beginning of the legislative term for the second year of the fifth session,” noting that “the committee is waiting for the budget to be sent from the government, and our concern is to speed up its approval.” .
He added, “There are many challenges awaiting the budget associated with the confirmation of lecturers and contracts in all state institutions and relevant ministries,” noting that “the draft budget law will enter into force after its parliamentary approval in order to implement the government program of Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’a al-Sudani, which was promised to the sons of Our people during the vote on the program in the House of Representatives.
Regarding the stalled laws, Fawaz stated, “One of the most important stalled laws in the House of Representatives is the retirement law, the civil service law, the law for electors, in addition to the general amnesty law,” explaining that “there are more than 100 draft laws stalled in the House of Representatives since the two parliamentary sessions.” the previous three and four.
And Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani confirmed earlier that he “desires a budget that is compatible with the government program and is not like the previous budgets that were approved,” pointing out that “all previous mistakes were due to the budget’s incompatibility with government programs.”
He stated that “determining the exchange rate in the budget is taken according to the paths and the economic situation in the country,” noting that “all possibilities are contained in adjusting the exchange rate.” LINK
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Henig: Expert: There are two possibilities behind the Sudanese description of the dinar as “stronger” than the dollar
Baghdad today – Baghdad
Today, Tuesday, economic expert Ahmed Saddam identified two explanations for Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’a al-Sudani’s description of the dinar as “stronger” than the dollar.
Saddam said in an interview with (Baghdad Today) that “the talk of the Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani, that the dinar is stronger than the dollar, two things are possible. This may reflect positively on the decline in the price of the dollar against the dinar.
He added, “Al-Sudani’s hadith wants to reduce the demand for the dollar, especially from informal traders who do not go to the window for selling the currency, but rather go to exchange companies (the parallel market),” noting that “going and turning to the dinar means reducing the demand for the dollar, and here it will decrease because the increase in demand is who contributed to the increase.
He continued, “The irregular merchants, who amount to 70% of the number of merchants, went to the banking offices over which there is no control, and thus the demand for the dollar decreased in the currency auction after it was previously 180 million dollars, and today the demand has reached 50 million, and therefore the matter indicates that the government does not go to the window.” to sell dollars.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had said earlier that the Iraqi dinar was “stronger” than the dollar, while urging citizens not to acquire dollars. LINK
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Clare: The World Bank is ready to work with Iraq to implement reforms
2/1/2023
The World Bank has expressed its willingness to work with the Iraqi government to implement investment and reform projects that require large financial resources.
“There is more than one way to implement the Climate and Development Report,” Salim Rouhana, the bank’s sustainable development program official, said in an interview with the official newspaper, “Al-Sabah,” which was followed by Mawazine News, noting that “the report prioritizes reforms, starting with the reforms that are very necessary for capacity building.” implementation of projects, with the need to have the ability to complete them.
He added, “The second method is financing, part of which is public, and the other part is private, because the bank is interested in these sectors to create the political and financing structure, in order to motivate going for projects in energy, specifically alternative and renewable.”
And he continued, “The third way in the reform process is to shift from the immediate and short-term view to the medium and long-term view that requires some security and political stability and the creation of departments that can complete work on these projects and implement the view and direction even in the frameworks of changing governments and policies, and this matter is important, There must be some kind of continuity in government to implement medium and long-term projects.
He pointed out that “the World Bank will have a technical and intellectual support role, and it is preparing for the government’s request to support investment and reform projects and many tools in which we can work with it, which require large financial resources and create an environment for the private sector and investment and a lot of knowledge, technologies and modern ideas that Through it, the World Bank can attract expertise that has implemented these projects in other countries. LINK
Henig: Al-Sudani confirms the occurrence of fraudulent dollar transfers outside Iraq
01 February 2023
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani , confirmed on Tuesday evening that fraudulent dollar transfers abroad had taken place, indicating that this matter was revealed by the start of implementing regulations that sponsor financial transfers in a step that coincided with the decline in the value of the dinar against the dollar.
During the past two months, the Iraqi dinar lost more than 10% of its value against the green currency, which led to sporadic demonstrations protesting the decline in the purchasing power of citizens.
On Tuesday, the price of the dollar in the market reached 1,680 dinars, while its official price is still the same at 1,470 dinars.
Analysts and officials attribute this decline in the value of the national currency to the Iraqi banking system’s compliance with international regulations related to money transfer.
It has become imperative for Iraqi banks to conduct these transfers through the electronic “Swift” platform, which allows, in particular, the US Central Bank to monitor these transfers.
During the interview he conducted with him on the official Al-Ikhbariya TV channel, Al-Sudani touched on this mechanism, considering it a tool to achieve “real reform of the banking system, the economic system, to preserve public money and prevent it from smuggling and money laundering.”
The prime minister explained that currency smuggling abroad was done through transfers made on the basis of forged invoices for imports whose prices were inflated.
He said that smuggling was done through “false bills, and the money was coming out and being smuggled, and this is a reality, otherwise what would we have imported for $300 million a day?”
He added, “What does it mean that we were importing goods worth $300 million per day? Inevitably, this money was leaving Iraq, and this has been a chronic problem for years.”
The prime minister inferred the existence of smuggling by saying that before the implementation of the “Swift” system, the Central Bank of Iraq used to sell merchants quantities of green currency many times greater than what it sells to them today, and yet there are no missing goods in the markets today.
Iraq suffers from chronic corruption that undermines public administration and the entire economy.
He said, “In the past, we used to sell 300 million dollars, 200 million dollars, 250 million dollars, per day. Now, the central bank sells 30, 40 or 50 million dollars daily, and what has changed, what has been lost in the market, nothing.”
And Al-Sudani continued, “So, where did the money that comes out go? And all of it with forged invoices. There are commodities that they bring in at irrational prices, and it is clear that the aim is to get the currency out of Iraq. This matter must stop.”
The prime minister confirmed that his government had formed “specialized security teams” to detect smugglers and seize smuggled funds.
He added, “We hear that money is being smuggled into the Kurdistan region, and from the region it goes to neighboring countries,” without specifying whether he meant Turkey, Iran or Syria mired in war.
Al-Sudani said, “The financial situation in Iraq today is in the best condition, because merchants and businessmen are accustomed to correct and legitimate trade.”
The Prime Minister confirmed that Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and the new governor of the Central Bank will be among the delegation that will travel to Washington on February 7 to discuss the exchange rate mechanism and its fluctuations.
(AFP) LINK
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Henig: Gulf Electrical Interconnection Authority: Next month, we will start work in southern Iraq, and it will be a gateway to Europe
Baghdad today – follow-up
The CEO of the Gulf Electrical Interconnection Authority, Ahmed Al-Ibrahim, revealed today, Wednesday, that next week the electrical interconnection contracts will be signed in southern Iraq, and work will begin next March, while he indicated that Iraq will be a gateway to exporting electricity to Europe.
Al-Ibrahim said, in statements reported by the Saudi newspaper, Al-Riyadh, and followed by “Baghdad Today”, that “Iraq is hosting a lot of investment projects at the present time, as there are many companies implementing projects inside Iraq,” denying “the existence of security concerns regarding the completion of the electrical interconnection project with Southern Iraq Network.
He pointed out that “the Gulf Electrical Interconnection Authority was keen to contract with Iraqi companies to deal with the obstacles,” stressing in the same context that “the Interconnection Authority has secured the necessary liquidity to complete the electrical interconnection project with southern Iraq according to the specified timetable, in addition to contracting with Iraqi companies with expertise.” great in the implementation of projects in Iraq.
Al-Ibrahim said, “Next week will witness the signing of contracts for the implementation of the electrical interconnection project with southern Iraq.”
He expected that the implementation of the project would take 24 months, and 500 megawatts would be transferred to the Iraqi side in the first phase, and the quantities of energy would be raised according to the capacity of the electrical network in southern Iraq, especially since the electrical interconnection project with southern Iraq is capable of transmitting energy by 1,500 megawatts.
And he indicated that “all Gulf countries are working to develop renewable energy sources (solar energy – wind energy), pointing to the existence of huge projects for the production of renewable energy in the Kingdom, as it aims to reach 50% of renewable energy by 2030, in addition to the rest of the GCC countries, while The Sultanate of Oman is 30% in 2030, and the rest of the other countries range between 10% – 20% by 2030, as renewable energy currently constitutes between 10% – 15% in the Gulf electrical interconnection network.
With regard to the export of Gulf electric power, he explained that the first energy export process outside the Cooperation Council of the Republic of Iraq is about 500 megawatts, considering the export project to Iraq as a first step, followed by steps represented in linking central and northern Iraq to Turkey and then reaching the European continent to export electric power. .
He stressed that “all countries of the Cooperation Council build electrical stations to keep pace with the increasing demand during the summer,” pointing out that “the percentage of decline in demand for electricity energy during the winter by 50% – 60%, and this percentage represents the surplus during the winter season, as this period is considered Suitable for exporting electric power to Europe, which raises the interest of investments in electric power. LINK
