Thursday, January 9, 2014

IBN Bloggers Excel!

Issue 200 | January 2014    




IBN Bloggers Excel!
Posted on 09 January 2014
By Padraig O'Hannelly.

Today we are proud to bring you the 200th edition of our Iraq Business News newsletter, and to mark the event we open this week's newsletter with three excellent articles from our panel of Expert Bloggers:

  • Robert Tollast interviews a Basra-based Engineering Director about the positive developments taking place in the province;
  • Ahmed Mousa Jiyad gives his assessment of the recent report from the Iraqi Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (IEITI); and,
  • Madeleine White tells us how a new initiative to help women entrepreneurs started on the pages of Iraq Business News.
From a modest start, our newsletter is now read by nearly 20,000 people each week, while our website averages over 280,000 pageviews every month.

Our readership includes some of the best-informed decision makers in sectors such as energy, infrastructure, security, international development, and investment.

We'd like to thank all our readers, advertisers, expert bloggers, and the contributors to the (often lively) debates in the comments sections of our articles, for making Iraq Business News a 'must read' for all who are interested in transformation of Iraq - we couldn't have done it without you!

Your friends and colleagues might also appreciate receiving our weekly newsletter in their inbox, so why not forward this to them - they can subscribe free of charge by simply clicking here and entering their email addresses.





Basra's Next Battle: Defeating Corruption and Bureaucracy
Posted on 07 January 2014
By Robert Tollast.

As Iraqi troops continue to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Fallujah and Ramadi, a different kind of battle is brewing 350 miles to the southeast, one that could prove just as decisive for Iraq's future. In Basra this year, the province has more cause for more hope than in previous years. Here's why.

The dawn of strategy
At the end of 2012, Colin Freeman reported a story in The Telegraph that made for depressing reading: Britain was closing its consulate in Basra, just as the province was experiencing a surge in foreign investment from all over the world.

Last month I spoke to a former British diplomat and asked him why this was, and he remarked that security costs- around £6m per year, were the equivalent to several embassies. But that wasn't the only thing keeping the British away.

Another factor that has often deterred foreign investors is of course bureaucracy and the difficulty of getting your business on the ground because of Iraq's fondness for red tape. Discouraging contractual terms offered to investors have put a stop to many potential ventures, as someone with years of experience in the country recently told me, "Iraq is good at killing the goose before it lays the golden eggs."

But things might be about to change. Last week, Freeman published another story in The Telegraph reporting that Basra governor Nasrawi had hired the British firm Aegis Defence Services to institutionalise the latest counter-terrorism practices for the province.



SICF


Iraq EITI Report - Initial Assessment
Posted on 06 January 2014
By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad.

For the third year in a row the National Secretariat of the Iraqi Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (IEITI) has succeeded in releasing its annual report on time.

This year Report exhibits significant improvement in the quality and contents of its coverage reflecting a learning curve by all involved in the preparation process. In addition to providing the reconciliation of oil export revenues, the current Report provides more data and information on many other important new items.

Nevertheless, a good deal of repetition and similar flaws and shortcomings are recurring despite the fact the report has a new international "Reconciler". Some important revenue items with significant amounts are still missing, and thus undermine the quality and overall assessment of the Report.

Generally, while the IEITI Report is much better than the previous two annual reports there is a lot to be done and should have been done properly, professionally and comprehensively.

This brief initial assessment begins with providing technical and background notes on the methodology and process of preparing the report with particular reference to the previous contribution of this author on the last two IEITI Reports for 2009 and 2011.



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IBN at the Heart of Women's Economic Empowerment
Posted on 07 January 2014
By Madeleine White.

It is fitting that the first official announcement about Nina is made in the pages of the Iraq Business News. Designed to encourage capacity building and growth, this new magazine and web portal for Iraqi women everywhere is a direct result of a dialogue that started on the IBN's Education and skills pages last July.

July's IBN blog Nation Building: Empowering Women in Business and Employment looked at how the messages around inspiring enterprise in Iraqi women, could have a direct impact on already impressive GDP growth figures. Khalid Mahdi, Chair of the Private Sector Development Centre (PSDC), a World Bank funded NGO read it.



KRG Confirms Oil Export through Ceyhan
Posted on 08 January 2014
The KRG Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) gives public notice of the commencement of the sale of its first shipment of crude oil exported via Kurdistan Region's new pipeline through Turkey to the Port of Ceyhan (pictured).

MNR anticipates the sale of the first parcel of two million barrels of exported crude oil to occur at the end of January 2014. Thereafter, monthly parcels will increase to 4 million barrels by the end of February and 6 million by the end of March, then steadily stepping up to 10-12 million barrels for the month of December 2014.



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