Economic event: President of board of advisers: a draft law of oil and gas, loaded the first broad powers but not the best
http://74.125.127.132/translate_c?hl=en&sl=ar&tl=en&u=http://www.almadapaper.net/paper.php%3Fsource%3Dakbar%26mlf%3Dinterpage%26sid %3D76117&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhhI2iY AggDWavxWSISfKY1MA4-A8w
Was one based on the oil sector after U.S. forces entered Iraq in 2003 directly, and quickly ascended the helm of the Ministry of Oil during the government of Iyad Allawi, and was one of the three who were placed first draft of the oil and gas law the controversial, now heads an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Thamer Ghadban Interview (range economic) for energy and other economic hubs.
What is the role the advisers, especially with regard to economic decision making?
- Our role is in our activity in regard to civilian activity, including the State and have broad participation with the state bodies, for example we have a legal office and this office is to prepare drafts of laws, we have found a lot of bills
At the economic level, we study the economic office referred us ideas and studies, for example, we have the idea of working for compensation Many countries able to invest in agreement with the supplier companies to invest part of their profits in these countries has received the approval of this project, and we made a proposal reduce the interest rate the central bank in order to stimulate lending to investors and has declined from 20% to 7% and have an office for agriculture and water where many Iraqi and foreign experts and we are responsible for follow-up initiative, Agricultural and we have also the Office of the oil and energy affairs, which means oil, electric power and show through a lot of our opinions and proposals in this aspect.
Despite the high reserve of Iraq, but we still import oil derivatives, Yearly import between 6 to 8 million liters of gasoline, not this indicates that there is considerable imbalance in the oil industry?
I noticed this in the strategic plan submitted by the Ministry of Oil that we will stay until the import of oil derivatives in 2012 in addition to the import of petroleum products for electricity and this thing was the subject of criticism and objection from us and asked to delete the thing of the plan, what should be done?
We need to develop the existing refineries and accelerate the building of refineries that are drafts years ago found Kmcefy center in Karbala and other refineries in Amarah, Nasiriyah and Nadim and modernize existing refineries we had a refining capacity of up to 700 thousand barrels per day, only half are currently less than 500 A. barrels per day is not enough for local consumption.
-fact that you are an adviser to Prime Minister for Energy, how do you assess the reality of power in Iraq at present?
-
- To come first on oil for energy production is around two and a half barrels per day, only about two and may increase slightly over the past few months, but the first months of this year was low, the increase over the previous year mainly came from the security provisions of the export pipeline across the North Turkey launched the energy that had been dormant in the fields of Kirkuk, bringing the total production capacity of Kirkuk to approximately 700 thousand barrels per day capacity added to the south of Basra and Maysan up to eight hundred million barrels, does not see production and export capacity increases significantly as a result of the development of large events and hope now lies in the past the next and the Ministry of oil and put specific projects, including the first licensing round and the second addition to the development of the national effort and the purchase of towers for drilling and this is what we count on him, that there be a policy vehicle of the State in terms of national capacity development and the restructuring of the national oil company has approved a draft law in the Council of Ministers and is now in In the case of Parliament and formed the national oil company will take is the national activity will be managed by national oil companies and has current authority for the establishment of other companies.
On the other hand there is a need for cooperation with international oil companies according to gender, which maximizes the national interest and resources on both, and we must have no goals in any co-Iraqi oil policy, the first is to maximize the resources of oil and gas, and the second provision of oil derivatives to citizens the quality scale, high-flow, With regard to electricity, heavy legacy inherited also remarks that there is a sophisticated production per day, year after year, but not sufficient, the State and the Council of Ministers support the Ministry of electricity resources to add more than ten thousand megawatts but at the same time required and this is carried out by the Ministry of Electricity to open investment in energy investor to come and build a power station and provide it with fuel in accordance with long-term contract and buy electricity at a price which allows him to recover the money with a reasonable profit and this is the case in most countries of the world, which is called (the independent generation), and the best of my knowledge there was an understanding between the National Commission for Investment and Ministry of Electricity has almost the last to mature form by which the investment will be invited foreign investors to invest and Iraqis to engage in this aspect, we can not remain in this situation can not remain in this lack of energy must also be consistency and cooperation between the ministries of oil and electricity, because the both need each other.
Is it a crisis of resources in both sectors, and if they were not there is a crisis, where lies the fault?
Is it to manage these resources in the cause of the suffering of the country's energy crisis?
- With respect to the oil sector, I do not see a crisis of resources due to budget provides a good investment for several years for the oil ministry also said that its sales prices established breed of good resources, the Ministry has now entered its first licensing round and agreed with the foreign entity for the development of Rumaila and the basis for this contract is that the investor is the investment brings, if there is no shortage of resources now, it is a matter of contract and the provisions of the contract to be completed within a period of time to increase production, and there is another round of licenses for unproductive fields which contain large reserves and are very promising and could be the next three years could The production of these new fields and in the past that there will be significant increases in production in Rumaila North and South rather than to produce one million and will produce two million barrels per day Alkhmsmip, but there are passages in the system of the southern and northern export pipelines and I mean by strategic line should go together and not to be there bottlenecks in these interlinkages that we walked so I would say that the coming years will see the following: an increase in energy production and export of crude oil, increased refining capacity through the modernization of our refineries, and set up units to improve the production of gasoline added to the increase in investment instead of gas to burn through the national effort, plus the use of foreign companies invested factory or invest so full of gas, either the new development of oil fields will prevent the burning of gas for up to one year and there is a value-added gas billions of dollars, either in regard to electricity, the plan of the Ministry electricity at the end of 2012 there is supposed to be self-sufficient in my opinion, unless the contracts are performed by the contractor also said that a free hand to invest in the implementation of the new stations in the whole of Iraq we will face the problem may persist for many years.
you are one of the three who put the first draft of the law of oil and gas, what has changed between the draft and other drafts and in any case settled the bill?
- This story is like a lot of confusion and lack of understanding, knowledge, and this is an opportunity to clarify the matter, the first draft was written by three experts are all from Farouk Al-Qasim, Tariq Shafiq and I am in coordination with the Oil Minister, Dr. Shahristani and the latter adopted the draft as if it were the Oil Ministry and submitted to the committee was formed at the time under the chairmanship of Dr. Barham Salih, the membership of each of the ministries of oil, electricity and Trade and Minister for Natural Resources in the Kurdistan region and I, personally, this Committee has discussed the draft and used to give a coordinating role for the region and the oil-producing states where the Constitution, Article (112) that there is a role for the federal government and the territorial Government and provinces produced in the production of oil from existing fields through cooperation between these agencies and there is another text of the second paragraph on strategic planning, what happened in the first draft of the drastic changes in the powers of the Federal Government and the territorial Government and the provinces because the federal nature of the Iraqi state and the Commission was able in the last day is 15 / 2 / 2007 agreement on these broad powers, and called the draft February 15 Under the draft, established a federal council for oil and gas over the Council of Ministers of the Council, which oversees the oil and gas activity in Iraq and the Federal Council has been given the powers of the Council of Ministers and the Prime Minister and is chaired by the members are federal ministers who were ministers of oil, planning, finance and central bank governor and minister of natural resources in the region and representatives of the producing provinces, which increases production of 100 thousand barrels in addition to the President of the national oil company after its founding, and a number of experts, if you select certain powers which not only supervisory and executive powers but addressed the subject of contracts and how to negotiate and who negotiate, there are differences by those outside the process did not support because they identify a central vision, and some wanted more powers to regions and provinces but that there are some criticized this draft because it is in their view gave powers to the government gave more than the Constitution, the draft was presented to the Cabinet and approved on 26 / 2 and sent to the State Consultative and remained there about seventy days have been studied and reworked them, especially in the power and configurations, either technical matters be left as it is my opinion that the amended version by the State Consultative is better than the first version of the Iraqi state, why?
Jurists because they were able to remove duplication and improvement in the tab and the organization and I personally think the formula prepared by the State Consultative better than the first version that participated in the writing, but there are things that belong to the powers of the State Consultative because was not interested in negotiating because he represents the Iraqi state, so we came back to discuss this issue and we had guidance that all agreements reached, particularly to the terms of reference should be restored and established as it is, and the fact that the formula prepared by the Council of State in relation to conventions and powers are the same as agreed to by the 15 / 2 and was approved by the Council of Ministers have been sent to the House of Representatives for a vote, there was the four annexes, is that the first version of this whale four annexes were discussed and whether the supplements or not?
Some have begun to distinguish between Bmlahakha approved the draft and approved the draft without supplements and drafts considered different and this is not true and was the basis is the draft into law either supplements are subject to discussion and agreement, a four tables where the names of fields and exploratory area and when there is an intention to enact the law can be no room for discussion and deletion and there is no problem, but what are the key players were prepared in the law has not been able to go by to take a range of legislation until the end and there are voices and the voices against him is still a draft law in the House of Representatives has sent them a draft on the Law of the national oil company and there is a draft law and the Oil Ministry and the Law water resources and there is an agreement that recognizes these laws one package as a kind of overall agreement between the Federal Government and the Government of the Territory, but sufficient time for approval of these laws is not a question of technical but political.
economy suffers from a chronic problem, namely, its dependence on oil, and increased the reliability in recent years after the cessation of many industries, what is your comment?
- Without a doubt that the Iraqi economy and inherited a heavy legacy which is very natural During the three decades were marked by three wars and an economic blockade lasted three years was the economic policies pursued over the years were not successful, the Iraqi economy is now facing major challenges The first challenge is its dependence on oil as a resource a key role in the present time, perhaps for years to come whether it is a resource for foreign currency, of the total income or the large size of over 60% in the gross national income, despite a natural resource that Iraq is a country rich in natural oil and gas and can develop these capacities, including owned reserves and increase production and export of crude oil, as well as to become satisfied with the local uses of gas and the establishment of industries based on oil and gas through the expansion of the liquidation and petrochemical industries, fertilizers, etc. But the problem is the lack of stability of oil prices we have seen what happened in the last year that the price of oil reached the $ 148 and began decline to reach $ 38 this year, so how can immunize the Iraqi economy from price fluctuations in the global market and the answer is that there is recruitment of oil revenues that would be a value-added of the Iraqi economy through the employment of oil imports and the development of all economic sectors, and on the increasing income from other sources of non-oil income this is a very small during the final accounts of the past years is not worth more than 5 to 10% or less of crude oil to something that was 85% estimated for 2009 and the rest of the years from 90 to 95%.
How to benefit from these energies if the private sector is not yet verified and foreign direct investment is still in its inception, a means for the advancement of these sectors?
- The answer lies in the economic reform process to see that there are institutions and public companies, state-owned to be repaired, removed from the direct control of the ministries and activate the law No. (22) and amendments to it also, and there-duty unit, set up my office and under my orders and with the support of the Secretariat and the Prime Minister's Office and extensive cooperation with seven organizations of the United Nations and led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and there are four groups concerned with economic reform of state-owned enterprises and the private sector and legislative reform and social dialogue.
We have come quite a bit and we are going in this direction and further reforms are Kalislah banking and public sector modernization and this program in collaboration with the United Nations so that it works efficiently and can also intervened in support of economic reform is not the matter only on the men who believe economic reform and the dissemination of this culture must to move away from domination and central work so that there is capacity in the provinces and the public companies that operate on the basis of profit and loss and throwing and reform itself administratively and technology.
There is an effective means for the state budget is introduced from within the financial policy of the state must redress the imbalances existing in the Iraqi economy is mirrored in the budget and which are also legacies of this distortion has increased after 2003 in terms of expenditure as general resources of the state how to spend We note that most of them go to the budget operational and by 78 -80% of spending goes to operating and nearly 50% of salaries and notes that Iraq may be the first country in the year by the number of staff to the population, there are two and three hundred and twenty thousand degrees and functional addition to approximately 600 thousand degrees and careers in corporate self-funded In addition to the social welfare network in addition to the number of retirees who have more than a million.
Have been made this year and the strategic vision of the Ministry of Finance for three years as a counterbalance and found these imbalances by itself has been formed a committee of the Council of Ministers and I was one of its members and proposed more than twenty-five workers to fix these imbalances and directing spending towards sectors the most important and is no doubt that security and because of the circumstances experienced by Iraq and the need to build up armed forces capable of protecting Iraq's byproduct of this security, so this sector accounts for about 17% of the total expenditure and this percentage is very high when compared to other countries stable, but we know the reasons why it is necessary to build the security forces and armed forces to maintain the achievements of the Iraqi people.
There are many other challenges stand as an obstacle to the advancement of the Iraqi economy, including foreign debt and attract foreign investment, how can the national economy to overcome these obstacles?
-
- External debt are dealt with so well was put out of debt through the Paris Club arrangements, 80% were left non-debt Arabic and this needs to be addressed politically, and the investment laws and the Constitution provides that the State shall ensure and encourage investment in all sectors were approved Investment Law No. ( 13) for the year 2006 and address some of the flaws in the law and hope to pass by the parliament was formed National Commission for Investment and local bodies in all governorates in addition to the investment in the Kurdistan region and a lot of work on the investment map and there is progress in this regard and it is not visible now, but foundations and developed, but require?
Requires removing the conflict between the law of investment and some restrictive laws such as Investment Law No. (32) and is also required to deal positively and dynamic ministries and understand the importance of investing so that Iraq is a magnet for investment and there will be significant opportunities for the operation of the Iraqi workforce, especially in the area of housing is well known that Iraq's need of about two and a half units and possibly up to three and a half million units in 2014, it is known that this sector is a lot of crafts and trades sector is labor intensive and it can be to spend on unemployment permanently.
with what has the housing sector is of paramount importance in moving the economic wheel did not find any serious steps by the government to activate it, why do you think?
- There are some steps that we can consider as inadequate in this area, including increasing the capacity of the lending staff and citizens and increase the capital of the Land Bank and these steps are not enough of these sectors because the government and relying on the investment projects in the area of housing, such as those in Dubai and Jordan, for example, these projects have focused on three pillars: first, that there is a way of financing that the banks lend money to the contractor, the second pillar of the invested implemented, and the third pillar is the need of the citizen and there is housing investment projects such as the secretariat of Baghdad toxicity 10 × 10, which includes the implementation of 35 thousand housing units in Sadr City Holha and then increased to nearly 100 thousand units in addition to the housing project in the camp of governance, and must overcome obstacles, particularly the provision of land and the granting of leave so that the investor can implement his project housing and ability to pay by bank financing of Iraqi and foreign.
Why do not the guarantor of state intervention in housing projects to resolve this growing crisis?
-
- State can not be a guarantor, has renounced this role in accordance with the so-called market economy, but with the state forestry, so I felt the situation and its impact on Iraqi citizens, offered a bill called the structures was discussed salute the House of Representatives and the idea is that the state provides about $ 25 billion for projects housing through an agreement with investors and companies are coming to money, and implement units and these can be joint projects or guarantee or direct investment, this financing is credit and uses oil to pay for these amounts for housing projects and other projects and these projects total $ 70 billion dollars.
What about agriculture and the sector suffers from serious problems, what steps have been taken from Halhp these problems?
- The State and through the initiative of Prime Minister agricultural In the past year has been monitoring the $ 500 million has been allocated the same amount this year and a large part of these amounts from the form of loans granted to farmers to improve agricultural reality, for example, dates, was destroyed in Iraq and sent to Gulf States and issued on their behalf ..
Prices doubled last year and starting this year there are more interesting under the auspices of palms and there are ideas and action encouraging the export of dates, according to our information that the private sector will be entered in this field during the manufacture and marketing of dates through the import of modern laboratories for the mobilization and export of dates, and there is plastic sheeting being funded by these projects by the Agricultural Bank, as well as livestock and there is more than $ 250 million has been allocated to this area.
http://74.125.127.132/translate_c?hl=en&sl=ar&tl=en&u=http://www.almadapaper.net/paper.php%3Fsource%3Dakbar%26mlf%3Dinterpage%26sid %3D76117&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhhI2iY AggDWavxWSISfKY1MA4-A8w
Was one based on the oil sector after U.S. forces entered Iraq in 2003 directly, and quickly ascended the helm of the Ministry of Oil during the government of Iyad Allawi, and was one of the three who were placed first draft of the oil and gas law the controversial, now heads an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Thamer Ghadban Interview (range economic) for energy and other economic hubs.
What is the role the advisers, especially with regard to economic decision making?
- Our role is in our activity in regard to civilian activity, including the State and have broad participation with the state bodies, for example we have a legal office and this office is to prepare drafts of laws, we have found a lot of bills
At the economic level, we study the economic office referred us ideas and studies, for example, we have the idea of working for compensation Many countries able to invest in agreement with the supplier companies to invest part of their profits in these countries has received the approval of this project, and we made a proposal reduce the interest rate the central bank in order to stimulate lending to investors and has declined from 20% to 7% and have an office for agriculture and water where many Iraqi and foreign experts and we are responsible for follow-up initiative, Agricultural and we have also the Office of the oil and energy affairs, which means oil, electric power and show through a lot of our opinions and proposals in this aspect.
Despite the high reserve of Iraq, but we still import oil derivatives, Yearly import between 6 to 8 million liters of gasoline, not this indicates that there is considerable imbalance in the oil industry?
I noticed this in the strategic plan submitted by the Ministry of Oil that we will stay until the import of oil derivatives in 2012 in addition to the import of petroleum products for electricity and this thing was the subject of criticism and objection from us and asked to delete the thing of the plan, what should be done?
We need to develop the existing refineries and accelerate the building of refineries that are drafts years ago found Kmcefy center in Karbala and other refineries in Amarah, Nasiriyah and Nadim and modernize existing refineries we had a refining capacity of up to 700 thousand barrels per day, only half are currently less than 500 A. barrels per day is not enough for local consumption.
-fact that you are an adviser to Prime Minister for Energy, how do you assess the reality of power in Iraq at present?
-
- To come first on oil for energy production is around two and a half barrels per day, only about two and may increase slightly over the past few months, but the first months of this year was low, the increase over the previous year mainly came from the security provisions of the export pipeline across the North Turkey launched the energy that had been dormant in the fields of Kirkuk, bringing the total production capacity of Kirkuk to approximately 700 thousand barrels per day capacity added to the south of Basra and Maysan up to eight hundred million barrels, does not see production and export capacity increases significantly as a result of the development of large events and hope now lies in the past the next and the Ministry of oil and put specific projects, including the first licensing round and the second addition to the development of the national effort and the purchase of towers for drilling and this is what we count on him, that there be a policy vehicle of the State in terms of national capacity development and the restructuring of the national oil company has approved a draft law in the Council of Ministers and is now in In the case of Parliament and formed the national oil company will take is the national activity will be managed by national oil companies and has current authority for the establishment of other companies.
On the other hand there is a need for cooperation with international oil companies according to gender, which maximizes the national interest and resources on both, and we must have no goals in any co-Iraqi oil policy, the first is to maximize the resources of oil and gas, and the second provision of oil derivatives to citizens the quality scale, high-flow, With regard to electricity, heavy legacy inherited also remarks that there is a sophisticated production per day, year after year, but not sufficient, the State and the Council of Ministers support the Ministry of electricity resources to add more than ten thousand megawatts but at the same time required and this is carried out by the Ministry of Electricity to open investment in energy investor to come and build a power station and provide it with fuel in accordance with long-term contract and buy electricity at a price which allows him to recover the money with a reasonable profit and this is the case in most countries of the world, which is called (the independent generation), and the best of my knowledge there was an understanding between the National Commission for Investment and Ministry of Electricity has almost the last to mature form by which the investment will be invited foreign investors to invest and Iraqis to engage in this aspect, we can not remain in this situation can not remain in this lack of energy must also be consistency and cooperation between the ministries of oil and electricity, because the both need each other.
Is it a crisis of resources in both sectors, and if they were not there is a crisis, where lies the fault?
Is it to manage these resources in the cause of the suffering of the country's energy crisis?
- With respect to the oil sector, I do not see a crisis of resources due to budget provides a good investment for several years for the oil ministry also said that its sales prices established breed of good resources, the Ministry has now entered its first licensing round and agreed with the foreign entity for the development of Rumaila and the basis for this contract is that the investor is the investment brings, if there is no shortage of resources now, it is a matter of contract and the provisions of the contract to be completed within a period of time to increase production, and there is another round of licenses for unproductive fields which contain large reserves and are very promising and could be the next three years could The production of these new fields and in the past that there will be significant increases in production in Rumaila North and South rather than to produce one million and will produce two million barrels per day Alkhmsmip, but there are passages in the system of the southern and northern export pipelines and I mean by strategic line should go together and not to be there bottlenecks in these interlinkages that we walked so I would say that the coming years will see the following: an increase in energy production and export of crude oil, increased refining capacity through the modernization of our refineries, and set up units to improve the production of gasoline added to the increase in investment instead of gas to burn through the national effort, plus the use of foreign companies invested factory or invest so full of gas, either the new development of oil fields will prevent the burning of gas for up to one year and there is a value-added gas billions of dollars, either in regard to electricity, the plan of the Ministry electricity at the end of 2012 there is supposed to be self-sufficient in my opinion, unless the contracts are performed by the contractor also said that a free hand to invest in the implementation of the new stations in the whole of Iraq we will face the problem may persist for many years.
you are one of the three who put the first draft of the law of oil and gas, what has changed between the draft and other drafts and in any case settled the bill?
- This story is like a lot of confusion and lack of understanding, knowledge, and this is an opportunity to clarify the matter, the first draft was written by three experts are all from Farouk Al-Qasim, Tariq Shafiq and I am in coordination with the Oil Minister, Dr. Shahristani and the latter adopted the draft as if it were the Oil Ministry and submitted to the committee was formed at the time under the chairmanship of Dr. Barham Salih, the membership of each of the ministries of oil, electricity and Trade and Minister for Natural Resources in the Kurdistan region and I, personally, this Committee has discussed the draft and used to give a coordinating role for the region and the oil-producing states where the Constitution, Article (112) that there is a role for the federal government and the territorial Government and provinces produced in the production of oil from existing fields through cooperation between these agencies and there is another text of the second paragraph on strategic planning, what happened in the first draft of the drastic changes in the powers of the Federal Government and the territorial Government and the provinces because the federal nature of the Iraqi state and the Commission was able in the last day is 15 / 2 / 2007 agreement on these broad powers, and called the draft February 15 Under the draft, established a federal council for oil and gas over the Council of Ministers of the Council, which oversees the oil and gas activity in Iraq and the Federal Council has been given the powers of the Council of Ministers and the Prime Minister and is chaired by the members are federal ministers who were ministers of oil, planning, finance and central bank governor and minister of natural resources in the region and representatives of the producing provinces, which increases production of 100 thousand barrels in addition to the President of the national oil company after its founding, and a number of experts, if you select certain powers which not only supervisory and executive powers but addressed the subject of contracts and how to negotiate and who negotiate, there are differences by those outside the process did not support because they identify a central vision, and some wanted more powers to regions and provinces but that there are some criticized this draft because it is in their view gave powers to the government gave more than the Constitution, the draft was presented to the Cabinet and approved on 26 / 2 and sent to the State Consultative and remained there about seventy days have been studied and reworked them, especially in the power and configurations, either technical matters be left as it is my opinion that the amended version by the State Consultative is better than the first version of the Iraqi state, why?
Jurists because they were able to remove duplication and improvement in the tab and the organization and I personally think the formula prepared by the State Consultative better than the first version that participated in the writing, but there are things that belong to the powers of the State Consultative because was not interested in negotiating because he represents the Iraqi state, so we came back to discuss this issue and we had guidance that all agreements reached, particularly to the terms of reference should be restored and established as it is, and the fact that the formula prepared by the Council of State in relation to conventions and powers are the same as agreed to by the 15 / 2 and was approved by the Council of Ministers have been sent to the House of Representatives for a vote, there was the four annexes, is that the first version of this whale four annexes were discussed and whether the supplements or not?
Some have begun to distinguish between Bmlahakha approved the draft and approved the draft without supplements and drafts considered different and this is not true and was the basis is the draft into law either supplements are subject to discussion and agreement, a four tables where the names of fields and exploratory area and when there is an intention to enact the law can be no room for discussion and deletion and there is no problem, but what are the key players were prepared in the law has not been able to go by to take a range of legislation until the end and there are voices and the voices against him is still a draft law in the House of Representatives has sent them a draft on the Law of the national oil company and there is a draft law and the Oil Ministry and the Law water resources and there is an agreement that recognizes these laws one package as a kind of overall agreement between the Federal Government and the Government of the Territory, but sufficient time for approval of these laws is not a question of technical but political.
economy suffers from a chronic problem, namely, its dependence on oil, and increased the reliability in recent years after the cessation of many industries, what is your comment?
- Without a doubt that the Iraqi economy and inherited a heavy legacy which is very natural During the three decades were marked by three wars and an economic blockade lasted three years was the economic policies pursued over the years were not successful, the Iraqi economy is now facing major challenges The first challenge is its dependence on oil as a resource a key role in the present time, perhaps for years to come whether it is a resource for foreign currency, of the total income or the large size of over 60% in the gross national income, despite a natural resource that Iraq is a country rich in natural oil and gas and can develop these capacities, including owned reserves and increase production and export of crude oil, as well as to become satisfied with the local uses of gas and the establishment of industries based on oil and gas through the expansion of the liquidation and petrochemical industries, fertilizers, etc. But the problem is the lack of stability of oil prices we have seen what happened in the last year that the price of oil reached the $ 148 and began decline to reach $ 38 this year, so how can immunize the Iraqi economy from price fluctuations in the global market and the answer is that there is recruitment of oil revenues that would be a value-added of the Iraqi economy through the employment of oil imports and the development of all economic sectors, and on the increasing income from other sources of non-oil income this is a very small during the final accounts of the past years is not worth more than 5 to 10% or less of crude oil to something that was 85% estimated for 2009 and the rest of the years from 90 to 95%.
How to benefit from these energies if the private sector is not yet verified and foreign direct investment is still in its inception, a means for the advancement of these sectors?
- The answer lies in the economic reform process to see that there are institutions and public companies, state-owned to be repaired, removed from the direct control of the ministries and activate the law No. (22) and amendments to it also, and there-duty unit, set up my office and under my orders and with the support of the Secretariat and the Prime Minister's Office and extensive cooperation with seven organizations of the United Nations and led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and there are four groups concerned with economic reform of state-owned enterprises and the private sector and legislative reform and social dialogue.
We have come quite a bit and we are going in this direction and further reforms are Kalislah banking and public sector modernization and this program in collaboration with the United Nations so that it works efficiently and can also intervened in support of economic reform is not the matter only on the men who believe economic reform and the dissemination of this culture must to move away from domination and central work so that there is capacity in the provinces and the public companies that operate on the basis of profit and loss and throwing and reform itself administratively and technology.
There is an effective means for the state budget is introduced from within the financial policy of the state must redress the imbalances existing in the Iraqi economy is mirrored in the budget and which are also legacies of this distortion has increased after 2003 in terms of expenditure as general resources of the state how to spend We note that most of them go to the budget operational and by 78 -80% of spending goes to operating and nearly 50% of salaries and notes that Iraq may be the first country in the year by the number of staff to the population, there are two and three hundred and twenty thousand degrees and functional addition to approximately 600 thousand degrees and careers in corporate self-funded In addition to the social welfare network in addition to the number of retirees who have more than a million.
Have been made this year and the strategic vision of the Ministry of Finance for three years as a counterbalance and found these imbalances by itself has been formed a committee of the Council of Ministers and I was one of its members and proposed more than twenty-five workers to fix these imbalances and directing spending towards sectors the most important and is no doubt that security and because of the circumstances experienced by Iraq and the need to build up armed forces capable of protecting Iraq's byproduct of this security, so this sector accounts for about 17% of the total expenditure and this percentage is very high when compared to other countries stable, but we know the reasons why it is necessary to build the security forces and armed forces to maintain the achievements of the Iraqi people.
There are many other challenges stand as an obstacle to the advancement of the Iraqi economy, including foreign debt and attract foreign investment, how can the national economy to overcome these obstacles?
-
- External debt are dealt with so well was put out of debt through the Paris Club arrangements, 80% were left non-debt Arabic and this needs to be addressed politically, and the investment laws and the Constitution provides that the State shall ensure and encourage investment in all sectors were approved Investment Law No. ( 13) for the year 2006 and address some of the flaws in the law and hope to pass by the parliament was formed National Commission for Investment and local bodies in all governorates in addition to the investment in the Kurdistan region and a lot of work on the investment map and there is progress in this regard and it is not visible now, but foundations and developed, but require?
Requires removing the conflict between the law of investment and some restrictive laws such as Investment Law No. (32) and is also required to deal positively and dynamic ministries and understand the importance of investing so that Iraq is a magnet for investment and there will be significant opportunities for the operation of the Iraqi workforce, especially in the area of housing is well known that Iraq's need of about two and a half units and possibly up to three and a half million units in 2014, it is known that this sector is a lot of crafts and trades sector is labor intensive and it can be to spend on unemployment permanently.
with what has the housing sector is of paramount importance in moving the economic wheel did not find any serious steps by the government to activate it, why do you think?
- There are some steps that we can consider as inadequate in this area, including increasing the capacity of the lending staff and citizens and increase the capital of the Land Bank and these steps are not enough of these sectors because the government and relying on the investment projects in the area of housing, such as those in Dubai and Jordan, for example, these projects have focused on three pillars: first, that there is a way of financing that the banks lend money to the contractor, the second pillar of the invested implemented, and the third pillar is the need of the citizen and there is housing investment projects such as the secretariat of Baghdad toxicity 10 × 10, which includes the implementation of 35 thousand housing units in Sadr City Holha and then increased to nearly 100 thousand units in addition to the housing project in the camp of governance, and must overcome obstacles, particularly the provision of land and the granting of leave so that the investor can implement his project housing and ability to pay by bank financing of Iraqi and foreign.
Why do not the guarantor of state intervention in housing projects to resolve this growing crisis?
-
- State can not be a guarantor, has renounced this role in accordance with the so-called market economy, but with the state forestry, so I felt the situation and its impact on Iraqi citizens, offered a bill called the structures was discussed salute the House of Representatives and the idea is that the state provides about $ 25 billion for projects housing through an agreement with investors and companies are coming to money, and implement units and these can be joint projects or guarantee or direct investment, this financing is credit and uses oil to pay for these amounts for housing projects and other projects and these projects total $ 70 billion dollars.
What about agriculture and the sector suffers from serious problems, what steps have been taken from Halhp these problems?
- The State and through the initiative of Prime Minister agricultural In the past year has been monitoring the $ 500 million has been allocated the same amount this year and a large part of these amounts from the form of loans granted to farmers to improve agricultural reality, for example, dates, was destroyed in Iraq and sent to Gulf States and issued on their behalf ..
Prices doubled last year and starting this year there are more interesting under the auspices of palms and there are ideas and action encouraging the export of dates, according to our information that the private sector will be entered in this field during the manufacture and marketing of dates through the import of modern laboratories for the mobilization and export of dates, and there is plastic sheeting being funded by these projects by the Agricultural Bank, as well as livestock and there is more than $ 250 million has been allocated to this area.