Prime Minister: Starting to prepare the 2024 budget schedules
3/28/2024 Baghdad -
The Prime Minister stressed today, Thursday, that local governments must make their efforts to enhance citizen confidence, while announcing the start of setting 2024 budget schedules.
Al-Sudani said in a speech during the second session of the Supreme Commission for Coordination between the Governorates, followed by the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “This meeting is the first after the local elections were held,” pointing out that “the elections were one of the important milestones that represent an achievement of the political process.”
He added, "Local governments must work as one team and make their efforts to enhance citizen confidence." He stressed that "local governments are an integral part of the executive authority," noting that "the evaluation of officials must be subject to a professional and scientific program."
He concluded by stressing: “Our goal is to serve our people,” pointing at the same time to begin setting the 2024 budget schedules. LINK
AL-YASIRI: THE AMERICAN ADMINISTRATION IS WORKING HARD TO DESTROY THE IRAQI ECONOMY
The political and security analyst, Muhammad Al-Yasiri, today, Thursday, accused the American administration of continuing its hostile policy to destroy the Iraqi economy.
Al-Yasiri told Al-Maalouma, “The US Treasury Department continues to restrict the flow of dollars to the Central Bank of Iraq and reduce cash liquidity.” He pointed out that “the American administration is working hard to restrict the Iraqi government and discourage it from demanding the removal of its occupying forces from the country.”
He continued, “The American restrictions on Iraq regarding the dollar clearly confirm the lie of the so-called friendship of the United States of America with Iraq.”
The US Treasury Department recently imposed economic sanctions on eight Iraqi banks, preceded by sanctions on fourteen others, and prevented them from dealing in the dollar currency, as the reasons behind the imposition of such sanctions were not explained.
(In my last Newsletter I talked about the importance of getting these sanctions lifted, but only when the parallel market is stabilized and movement is downward.)
Finance Committee: Salaries are secured in the 2024 budget and there is no financial crisis in Iraq
Baghdad Today – Baghdad
The Parliamentary Finance Committee, this evening, Thursday (March 28, 2024), reassured employees and retirees regarding their salaries in the financial budget for the year 2024.
The head of the committee, Atwan Al-Atwani, told the official agency, followed by “Baghdad Today,” “We are awaiting the arrival of the 2024 budget schedules.”
He added, "The salaries of employees, retirees, and the protection network are secured in the 2024 budget."
Al-Atwani stressed, "There is no financial crisis in Iraq."
The head of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Atwan Al-Atwani, announced yesterday, Wednesday, that “the total budget for 2024 amounted to about 228 trillion dinars.”
While the Minister of Planning, Muhammad Tamim, said during his hosting of the Finance Committee yesterday that the government committee responsible for reviewing and auditing these tables is working to reduce the deficit amounting to 80 trillion dinars because it is considered a large deficit. LINK
As we approach the MICA testing and implementation of regulating Global cryptocurrencies, Exchange Traded Notes or ETNs THAT TRACK INDEXES, BONDS AND OTHER ASSETS will soon become available on May 28th, 2024.
MICA's pilot program is expected to be done near the above date as well. This will enable us to move forward with Global Cryptocurrency Regulations.
While all of this is going on, Phase 2 of Project Aurora progresses forward along with MICA. This includes anti-money laundering (AML) mechanisms to support the new digital economy. It ensures a proof of concept application able to scale this and other pilot programs.
Project Aurora allows banks to validate investments in digital transformation, and it minimizes the risk of a costly mistake in a full-scale implementation of a project such as MICA. BISAsanaRegulationAsiaLucinity
Turkish and U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to host his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on May 9, Turkish and U.S. officials said Friday, Turkish and U.S. officials said Friday, in the Turkish leader to Washington since Donald Trump was president of the United States.
Relations, long strained by disagreements over several issues between the two NATO member countries, have improved since Ankara ratified Sweden’s request to join the alliance in January, after a 20-month delay that frustrated Washington.
However, tension remains over issues involving northern Syria, where U.S. forces are allied with Kurdish militants whom Ankara considers terrorists and are waging cross-border military operations.
At the same time, Washington is putting pressure on Ankara to do more to ensure that its sanctions on Russia, which overlooks the Black Sea coast, like Turkey and Ukraine, are not circumvented.
Washington sees the meeting as an opportunity for Erdogan to agree on a complete ban on the transit of goods, which could be used civilianly or militarily, from Turkey, which Washington says is being used in Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, a U.S. official said.
Since Biden’s election in 2020, he and Erdogan have met several times on the sidelines of international summits and spoke by phone. Turkey pressed for a meeting at the White House in which Erdogan previously met with Trump in 2019, where he had good personal ties to him.
A Turkish official, who confirmed the planned visit in May, said the visit comes as an “opportunity” for bilateral relations.
“We hope that the visit will also be an opportunity to strengthen cooperation in various areas and strengthen the spirit of the coalition, including the fight against terrorism,” the official added, requesting anonymity.
Ankara has for years expressed deep alarm at U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which it is a terrorist organization linked to Kurdish militants who have been waging decades of insurgency against the Turkish state. But Washington says the YPG is a key ally against the Islamic State in Syria.
Despite the dispute over the US military presence in Syria and US support for Israel in its war on Hamas, Washington and Ankara recently struck a long-awaited deal by agreeing Turkey to buy US F-16 fighter jets.
During the visit, the Biden administration will look to see if Ankara can commit to a ban on “dual-use” goods, such as chemicals and fine chips, to Russia, the U.S. official said.
Washington is already imposing sanctions on a number of individuals and businesses in Turkey, including the shipping sector, for violating sanctions. Turkey supports Ukraine but opposes Western sanctions on Russia, with which it also has good relations. Despite a good relationship with Moscow, Ankara says sanctions on Turkish soil will not be circumvented.
The second Turkish source, a security official, said the head of Turkey’s intelligence service, Ibrahim Kalin, will meet with members of the US House of Representatives, on Friday, to discuss Erdogan’s planned visit and other bilateral issues.
