Iraq Reconstruction News 4 March 2007

Iraq Reconstruction News
4 March 2007


1. U.S. official says network of Iraqi and world businessmen underway - Baghdad, March 3, (VOI) – A U.S. official said his job in Iraq is to create a network between Iraqi businessmen and their global counterparts to help refresh the country's economy. "We will work on refurbishing defunct government plants. International businessmen can invest in Iraq by reviving these," said Paul Brinkley, U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Business Transformation in a press conference held in Baghdad on Saturday. http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=38597&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

2. U.S. Energy Information Administration Iraq page http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/iraq.html

3. Reconstruction Projects provide Iraqis with big improvements to essential services http://www.grd.usace.army.mil/news/releases/NR07-03-01-3.pdf

4. Fresh mechanism to distribute oil derivatives among Iraqi provinces – minister. Baghdad, March 4, (VOI) – Iraqi Oil Minister, Dr. Hussein al-Shahrastani, revealed his ministry's plan to hammer out a new mechanism for distributing oil derivatives amongst the provinces, depending on the amount available in warehouses and the population rate in each province. http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=38655&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

5. Iraqi Air Force shows off rebuilt Huey helicopters - BAGHDAD, March 3 (Reuters) - Iraq's Air Force should have 50 to 60 helicopters by the end of the year, including 28 new Russian aircraft, Iraq's defence minister said on Saturday as he inspected two refitted Vietnam-era Huey helicopters in Baghdad. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PAR347933.htm

6. Implementing service projects alongside the security plan - The Director of the National Coordination Team in the American embassy said that his government has allocated amounts of money to implement service projects in Baghdad as part of the first phase of the security plan implemented by the Iraqi government. http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=3224

7. Iraq bank loans - The general board of the Bank Loans Guarantees Company convened in its first meeting for 2007 in the city of Irbil, in Kurdistan, which became the safe haven for businessmen to exercise their various activities away from explosions after they have devoted most of their meetings in Amman or elsewhere. http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=3242

8. Ninewa PRDC is Stepping up to the Challenge - Iraq Roads are Receiving a Face-lift http://www.grd.usace.army.mil/news/releases/NR07-02-23.PDF

9. Economic Agreement is a Buy Sign in Iraq - With most of American politics focused on the troop surge and partisan maneuverings over its implementation, another story has gotten lost: The Iraqis themselves have made important progress in a basic economic issue that has fueled the sectarian divide. The only real industry in Iraq comes from its only real natural resource: oil. Unfortunately, the reserves of oil are not shared equally among the population groups. Most of the oil is located outside the "Sunni triangle" and the Sunnis have fought the Shi'ites (and the Kurds to a lesser extent) in order to keep them from federalizing Iraq and hoarding all of the oil revenue from their respective areas of the nation. Many Sunnis have been unwilling to accept a democratically-elected government that naturally favors Shi'ites, or the federalism that favors the Kurds. http://www.aina.org/news/2007030192545.htm

10. Iraqi government to hike fuel prices by 15% - Consumer fuel prices will be hiked by around 15 percent in March as Iraq implements an agreement with the International Monetary Fund to cut subsidies, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said. Iraq has the world's third largest known oil reserves but decades of war, sanctions, under-investment and now widespread violence and sabotage have left it critically short of fuel. It has to import much of its gasoline. http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=3232

11. Plan to set up new transformers to improve power http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=3215

12. Iraq Farm System Collapsed, Food Supply in Danger. Breadbasket of Middle East Fallen Dependent on Imports - The Iraqi agricultural system has completely collapsed, leaving the food supply insecure and reliant on foreign imports, and the Iraqi diet dependent on government rations. In 2003 L. Paul Bremer changed the import law, dropping all the tariffs to make imported goods cheaper for Iraqis. The unintended effect of this law was to kill off the Iraqi family farm, since domestically-produced food could no longer compete with cheap imports. http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/1511/Iraq_Farm_System_Collapsed_Food_Supply_in_Danger

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