ROMANIA

Actualitati economice irakiene

În perioada 5-10 mai 2012, se va organiza o misiune economică pe profil de construcţii în Irak, în oraşele Erbil şi Suleiymaniah

Patronatul Societăţilor din Construcţii – PSC şi Asociaţia Producătorilor de Materiale pentru Construcţii din România – APMCR, invită firmele romanesti de profil sa participe la misiunea economica din Irak – orasele Erbil si Suleiymaniah, organizata in perioada 5 – 10 mai a.c., impreuna cu Ministerul Economiei, Comertului si Mediului de Afaceri si Centrul Roman pentru Promovarea Comertului si Investitii Straine.
Actiunea face parte din programul de susţinere şi promovare a exportului cu finanţare de la bugetul de stat pe anul 2012, al Ministerului Economiei, Comertului si Mediului de Afaceri si vizeaza promovarea serviciilor, materialelor, echipamentelor şi accesoriilor pentru construcţii civile şi industriale, in conditiile OUG nr. 120 / 2002, a HG 296/2007 şi a Ordinului nr. 1609/2007 (cu anexa 2 si anexa 4) privind organizarea misiunilor economice.

PNA-Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq (DFR.krg.org),Yesterday, the Head of KRG’s Department of Foreign Relations, Minister Falah Mustafa, welcomed the newly appointed Romanian Consul to the Kurdistan Region

The arrival Mr Eugen Sihleanu brings the total number of foreign representatives in Kurdistan to 24. He has arrived to prepare the ground for the opening of a new diplomatic office scheduled for later this year.

In welcoming Mr Sihleanu to his new role, Minister Mustafa said he hoped his arrival would be the beginning of more Romanian engagement in the Region. He said, ‘We are pleased to have you in Erbil, and we hope that your presence here will facilitate and encourage more communication and increased coordination with Romania.’

Minister Mustafa also highlighted the importance of having a diplomatic presence in Erbil, which he said will promote more awareness of political developments and investment opportunities as they arise. He said, ‘We want to go beyond the limits of exchanging visits; we are interested in consolidating meaningful partnerships between our people and the international community.’

The Romanian Consul said that his government hoped to open the consulate as soon as the necessary groundwork was completed. He also touched on the historic ties that Kurdistan has with the people of Romania, saying that more than 200 Kurds settled in Romania to pursue their studies back in the 1980s.

‘We are here to establish a constructive relationship with the KRG and the people of Kurdistan. We want to promote strong economic ties to ensure mutual benefit from the involvement of our business community in the Region,’ he added. Mr Sihleanu pledged to work closely with Minister Mustafa and his department to ensure that their mission is successful and productive.

Mr Sihleanu was accompanied by Mr Catalin Stoica, the Romanian Economic Counselor stationed in Kurdistan

Sursa: http://www.peyamner.com

12/Feb/26

February 11, 2012, 5:37 AM EST

(Updates with CEO comment from second paragraph.)

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) — Total SA, Europe’s third-largest oil company, is looking “very closely” at investment opportunities in Kurdistan where contract terms are superior to those on offer in Iraq, Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie said.

“It’s a place where there are important oil and gas reserves and contracts are better” than Iraq, de Margerie said today at a press conference in Paris. Total is looking to see whether there are “interesting” exploration blocks in Kurdistan, he said.

The authorities in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, home to about 40 percent of the country’s 115 billion barrels of reserves, angered Baghdad by signing a contract with Exxon Mobil Corp. The central government has so far refused to recognize production-sharing agreements between foreign companies and the Kurds.

“Kurdistan is in Iraq and it’s up to Iraqis to decide among themselves” whether agreements should be separate, de Margerie said.

Iraq plans to auction 12 exploration areas as part of its fourth bidding round. The concessions, seven for oil and five for gas, cover 90,700 square kilometers, according to an Oil Ministry statement in April. Total has signed contracts in previous bidding rounds.

The latest auction “doesn’t appear very attractive,” de Margerie said. “The reward for investment doesn’t appear for the moment to be enough.”

Companies operating in the Kurdish region are banned from participating in the planned auction.

–Editors: Stephen Cunningham, Alex Devine.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tara Patel in Paris at tpatel2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net

Sources: http://www.businessweek.com

Bloomberg reports that BP will start drilling exploratory wells at the Risha natural gas deposit in Jordan, near the border with Iraq, in the coming weeks.

• La 10 ianuarie 2012, publicatia japoneza Nikkei a anuntat ca guvernul japonez va lansa un proiect de partneriat public-privat, in valoare de 1,95 mld.USD, pentru construirea si operarea unei fabrici de ingrasaminte in Basra (sudul Irakului). Uzina va produce 2-3.000 tone/zi de amoniac si uree utilizand gaze naturale. Firmele Mitsui, Toyo Engineering si Unico International vor implementa primul proiect de tip PPP in Irak.

• Un studiu al Consiliului pentru Investitii al Regiunii Kurdistan arata ca, in 2011, volumul total al investitiilor straine directe a fost de 2,28 mld.USD: 1,26 mld.USD in Provincia Erbil, 563 mil.USD in Provincia Sulaimaniyah si 457 mil.USD in Provincia Duhok. Majoritatea investitiilor au fost in sectorul locuintelor. In ultimii 5 ani, Regiunea Autonoma Kurdistan a atras investitii straine directe de 16,2 mld.USD.

• Viceguvernatorul Bancii Centrale a Irakului Mudhir Mohammed Saleh a afirmat ca s-au inregistrat o cerere dubla pentru dolari in luna ianuarie fata de lunile precedente. Oamenii de afaceri irakieni retrag dolari din banci si ii vand in Iran. Iranul suporta consecintele santiunilor economice legate de programul nuclear si are mare nevoie de devize convertibile.

• Banca Centrala a Irakului a prognozat o crestere a venitului mediu anual al irakienilor la 6000 USD in 2012 (de la 5200 USD in 2011). Prognoza este dependenta de investitiile guvernului in petrol si alte proiecte economice. Rapoarte ale ONU indica faptul ca, in Irak, exista 7 mil.persoane care traiesc sub pragul saraciei.

• Gulf Bridge International (GBI), un operator de cabluri submarine, a anuntat instalarea primul cablu de telecomunicatii submarin in Irak, in portul Al-Faw (sudul tarii). Cablul va creste capacitatea de conectare la internet in banda larga, viteza si fiabilitatea conexiunii.

• Premierul KRG Barham Saleh a afirmat ca il asteapta inca pe inlocuitorul sau. Conform unui acord intre cele doua partide importante kurde, Partdul Democratic din Kurdistan (KDP) si Uniunea Patriotica a Kurdistanului (PUK), ocuparea postului de premier al KRG se face prin rotatie la 2 ani. La 17 ianuarie 2012, fostul premier Nechirvan Barzani a fost ales candidatul KDP; nu este clara natura intarzierii in preluarea functiei.

Sursa:BPCE Bagdad

Kurdistan health care reform has been talked about for a very long time but the main ruling parties, PUK and KDP, have never put their full weight behind it.Mala Bakhtyar, the director of the PUK political bureau, has for the first time spoken about the status of the health system in Kurdistan and the need for reform.

In an open letter to Nechirvan Barzani, who is expected to be nominated to take over the premiership of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Mala Bakhtyar has put forward several areas of priorities for the upcoming cabinet led by KRG President Barzani.

In his second top priority Mr Bakhtyar is very critical of the current health system and calls for a modern system.

Although he is does not explain how to reform it, the very fact that he acknowledges the bad status of the current health system might help to raise the profile of healthcare reform from the top down.

For the reform to be effective, there has to be political will from top officials in the government and parliament.

Here is the full translation of the section about health system in his letter:

“Despite all the reforms that have been done, despite all the new small and big hospitals that are added and the quality of medicine that is of good standards, the health system is a backward system. Citizens are still ripped off by the private hospitals. Still bad quality medicines are in thousands of unlicensed pharmacies and in the hand of smugglers of medicines that have left Kurdish society (Kurdawary) with fatal and long term diseases. This is not to mention that the mortality rate is in part related to the systems of health, medicines and bad pharmacies. Because of this bad health system doctors are allowed, most of the time, to set prices as they wish. The pharmacies and laboratories are the same. And this is all at the expense of health security and sick citizens.

“However, if there is a modern health system, doctors, healthcare staff, pharmacies and all the other services within the health system will be assured of their rights, salaries, income and their consciences, according to their qualifications, hard work and their scientific and professional abilities.

“Where is the rationale that on a daily basis tonnes of expired food and medicine are seized, which is by all standards a huge crime against our national health security, but not even a single smuggler is put in prison because of this crime?!  ”

The most important part of a modern health system is regulating all the services through establishing several regulatory bodies responsible for overseeing the overall health system. Without regulations, any attempt of reforms will not be successful.

Dr Shakawan Ismaeel is a consultant physician in acute medicine who writes about health issues in Kurdistan and around the world: Kurdistan is my home
By Dr Shakawan Ismaeel:

Iraqi health authorities have decided to build 18 hospitals throughout the country with an total budget of US$2 billion, according to a report from AKnews.

Iraq’s cabinet announced that it had approved a $998 million oilfield service contract on Tuesday with a South Korean company for the West Qurna 2 oilfield, according to Reuters.