AL-SUDANI SUMMARIZES HIS GOVERNMENT’S ACHIEVEMENTS TWO YEARS AFTER ITS FORMATION, 3 NOV

AL-SUDANI SUMMARIZES HIS GOVERNMENT’S ACHIEVEMENTS TWO YEARS AFTER ITS FORMATION

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Two years after the formation of the government, Al-Sudani celebrates the completion of 62% of the government program

Highlights of the speech of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani during today’s cabinet session, Tuesday, October 29, 2024, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the formation of the government:

The government’s overall achievement rate of targets in various fields during the government’s term reached 62%.

🔷 We succeeded in prominent and important files, faced difficulties in other files, and were late in some details and files.

🔷 Over the course of two years, we stopped more than once to evaluate the course of work, and we issued 3 reports on the implementation of the government program.

🔷 Our achievement was not limited to one sector, nor to one city or governorate, but rather covered the districts, districts, and city centers.

🔷 The service and engineering effort team was dedicated to completing quick services, and we addressed stalled projects, some of which date back to 2005, through Cabinet decisions.

🔷 The number of stalled projects was (1471) projects. We resumed work on (555) projects for ministries, and the stalled projects decreased to (916) projects.

🔷 We resumed work on (442) contracts and projects at the governorate level, and the ongoing projects amounted to (8934) projects.

🔷 We focused on infrastructure projects, sewage treatment plants and networks, and the provision of drinking water, and until yesterday we included new projects due to population expansion.

🔷 The traffic congestion relief project was one of the most prominent projects in Baghdad, which has not seen a bridge since 1996, despite the expansion.

🔷 Last year, we started road and bridge projects related to the million-person visits, to serve millions of visitors, and the number of traffic accidents decreased.

🔷 We were late in providing some services, such as the water desalination project in Basra, and the required service at Iraqi airports, which is still below the required level.

🔷 We were late in preparing residential plots of land, and it was our obligation to start distributing 500,000 residential plots of land, and land is one of the complex problems that hinder residential projects.

🔷 In health, we opened new hospitals, specialized centers, health centers and primary care, and a large number of hospitals and health centers were rehabilitated.

🔷 In electricity, we achieved the highest production of electrical energy by reaching 27 thousand megawatts, and we started new projects, and opened projects to resolve grid bottlenecks, and others related to the combined cycle and new feeders.

🔷 We have taken an important step in solar energy, and work is underway on 15 projects with a total capacity of 5,720 megawatts.

🔷 At the housing level, we announced important residential cities that will bring about a qualitative shift in allocating housing units with all services to citizens.

🔷 We have made significant progress in school building projects, some of which are lagging behind, such as Project No. 1. This year, we will complete the Iraqi-Chinese agreement projects, and schools have been rehabilitated and restored in all governorates.

🔷 There is a project by the (Iraq Development Fund) that will end the issue of the need for schools according to a new vision related to purchasing the service.

🔷 The National Education Strategy 2022-2031, the Study in Iraq project, and scholarships for studies at reputable universities were launched.

🔷 In the axis of combating poverty, 962 thousand families were covered by social protection, an increase of 85%, which means that 7 million and 600 thousand individuals were covered by social protection.

🔷 130 million food baskets have been distributed monthly since the formation of the government, and over a period of two years.

🔷 We have activated the student grant, school nutrition, and tuition fees for those covered, people with disabilities, and children with diabetes, and added them to social protection and health insurance.

🔷 We targeted multidimensional poverty and poverty alleviation for families below the poverty line.

🔷 Government measures contributed to reducing the poverty rate in Iraq to 17.6% after it was 23%.

🔷 In the file of combating unemployment, the government addressed inherited problems by appointing hundreds of thousands of higher education graduates, contracts, and top graduates, and we launched the (Riyada) initiative for employment.

🔷 Government measures contributed to reducing the unemployment rate in general from 16.5% to 14.4%.

🔷 In combating financial and administrative corruption, we worked at several levels to reform the administrative institutions, and adopted a new philosophy in recovering funds and wanted persons, and achieved numbers in this field.

🔷 In the axis of economic and financial reform, the government has taken steps that constitute structural reforms in which all state institutions have contributed.

🔷 Overall inflation was reduced from 4.9% in 2022 to 3% in 2024.

🔷 We achieved a 6% increase in non-oil revenues, and increased tax revenues for the year 2024 by 23%.

🔷 The amounts collected from electronic payments reached (7.6) trillion dinars, after they did not exceed (2.4) trillion dinars in January 2023.

Highlights of the speech of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani during today’s Cabinet session, Tuesday, October 29, 2024, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the formation of the government:

🔷 The establishment of the (Iraq Development Fund) represented the most important reforms included in the budget law, and represents a new vision to support the private sector, and we included an article related to granting sovereign guarantees for projects.

🔷 We have achieved a shift in offering investment opportunities and granting investment licenses in the field of industrial and agricultural projects.

🔷 We started localizing the pharmaceutical industry, opening several projects, and reaching 35% coverage of local needs after it was 10%, and it is hoped to reach 85% within 3 years.

🔷 The failure to properly implement the Social Security Law has had a negative impact on the private sector as companies, and has also undermined workers’ guarantees.

🔷 We have taken measures to support an attractive business environment for companies, register companies with tax departments, and provide customs facilities.

🔷 We face challenges at border crossings, despite the reforms and implementation of network connectivity, but the revenues of the crossings have not reached the required level, especially with regard to our crossings in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and we need more measures to control them and unify the customs tariff.

🔷 We have been late in developing the tourism sector, and we have not invested in our religious, historical, archaeological and natural sites, despite their importance in supporting the national economy.

🔷 We have the right to achieve self-sufficiency in terms of strategic crops, and we need to work more to implement an agricultural vision according to the available water resources.

🔷 We have made decisions to establish a national mobile phone company, and we are waiting to complete the matter with international companies so that the service will be available and represent additional revenues for the state.

🔷 In the sports sector, there are advanced percentages of stadiums that have been completed and that are important to athletes.

🔷 We announced the Strategic Development Road project, and signed the quadripartite memorandum of understanding with Qatar, the Emirates, and Turkey, and work is ongoing to complete it.

🔷 We work in parallel with companies specialized in the design process for current railway rehabilitation projects, to be a second project until the development road project is built.

🔷 We announced the (Karbala-Najaf Train) and (Baghdad Metro) projects, and we are continuing negotiations with the sectoral entities and the consulting company.

🔷 The water management project with the Turkish side is one of the most important strategic projects that will ensure sustainability in the agricultural sector.

🔷 We have achieved advanced completion rates in the announced projects for the Grand Faw Port, including the docks, the submerged tunnel, the navigation channel, the container yard, and the link road.

🔷 We have reached an agreement with the countries of the international coalition to end the coalition’s mission within a declared time frame.

🔷 We were able to issue a resolution in the UN Security Council regarding the UN mission.

🔷 We face financial challenges through providing cash liquidity, controlling spending priorities, and shifting to a program budget according to the ministerial program.

🔷 We seek to increase revenues, rationalize spending, and digitally transform financial and customs transactions.

🔷 We work to subject all financial transactions to compliance and governance rules.

🔷 The old legislation does not keep pace with the current stage, and it disrupts the process of reconstruction, investment and services.

🔷 The region is going through developments as a result of conflicts, which directly affect the security and economic conditions in Iraq.

🔷 We are in the process of making a ministerial amendment according to performance and work indicators. It is not a political position towards this bloc or this party, but rather a desire to achieve more effective performance to meet the requirements of the stage and the aspirations of citizens.

🔷 We have completed an important entitlement, represented by the provincial council elections, after it was delayed for years.

🔷 The population census is one of the important entitlements that await us.

THE CBI CONTINUES TELLING TO THE CITIZENS THAT THEY ARE GOING TO RAISE THE VALUE OF THE DINAR

 

STATUS OF THE RV, PART. 4 BY MNT GOAT, 3 OCT

 Then we learn in another the article titled “AL-ALAQ CALLS FOR FIXING THE PRICE OF A BARREL OF OIL IN THE BUDGET AT $40”  Yes, when the CBI talks I listen. Ali Al-Alaq has never let me down. I am big fan of his. I do believe in his plan to bring this reinstatement to reality. He is a very strong believer in the possibility of the great wealth that could be Iraq’s, if only they can manage these much needed reforms.

In this news articles we also find that Ali Al-Alaq, the governor of the Central Bank, revealed the imminent/establishment of national companies and banks specialized in electronic payment and financing small projects, while calling for fixing the price of a barrel of oil in the budget at $40. So, to me it sounds like he has control over the fate of the economy and is planning changes to coincide with the new monetary and financial system. Opps…. Did I just say “new monetary and financial system”?

As investors following the CBI moves, we must keep remembering that the main goal of the CBI is to watch for inflation. It is the Central Bank and so it must protect the reserves of the country and use them wisely for the benefit of all. Is this not “monetary policy” ? Oh… but let’s not forget that the dinar is all part of this effort too and the nations wealth is always dependent on the sovereignty and value of its currency. So can you see Ali Al-Alaq also know this factor and this too is a final outcome of all his efforts. But his effort are also ongoing even after the reinstatement we have left the bank from our exchange. These reforms are NOT about us, but about making Iraq a power house of wealth, prosperity and abundance. We are just a small part of it, the last stop on the choo-choo train. When the train stops they are at their destination. Then they must continue to grow from that point.

Next, the CBI talks about “cross border” controls for money transfers. The bank said, according to a statement received by “Baghdad Today”, that “in order to reduce the risks of bringing in and out money across the Iraqi borders and exploiting this in money laundering or terrorist financing operations, and based on the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law No. 39 of 2025, and the provisions of Controls No. 1 of 2029 (amended Controls No. 1 of 2017), the following must be adhered to. You can go read the list of controls if you wish in the article section of today’s Newsletter.

Going forward let’s turn our attention to see if the prime minister is a good prime minister or if he is sandbagging the reforms, like many Iranian officials have alluded to.

So after Two years after the formation of the government, Al-Sudani celebrates the completion of 62% of the government programs. I would say this is VERY accomplished.

https://mntgoatnewsusa.com/latest-mnt-goat-newsletter/

IRAQ IS DITCHING THE US DOLLAR. WHY? BY MNT GOAT, 3 OCT

 IRAQ IS DITCHING THE US DOLLAR. WHY?

I wanted to bring this video to you today so you can hear the news of what is taking place in Iraq and to know it is NOT all just about the RV. This is not my words but words of researched news journalist. This process of ditching the US dollar has a much wider, a more concerning reason for Iraq. But having said this, ditching the dollar is, in my opinion, as it is Iraq’s, the first real step to solidify the inevitable end to corruption with their currency and the revaluation. This will lead to what outside Iraq investors in the three zero dinar notes want to hear, yes it will lead to getting back on the foreign currency exchanges.

But what about BRICS? Rumors have talked about Iraq wanting to join BRICS. Can they? Will they be allowed to full accession to BRICS?  

Before we answer these pivotal questions, let’s first take a look at what BRICS is so we all are on the same page and understand this organization first. Then we can answer the question – Is this Iraqi membership coming in the near future?

The rate will change NOV 3 or 4 FROM MAJEED @DINARREVALUATION

 

STATUS OF THE RV, PART. 3 BY MNT GOAT, 3 NOV

 Next, we read in the article titled “BOTTLENECK RISKS: IRAQ’S RELIANCE ON A LIMITED NUMBER OF CORRESPONDENT BANKS”. The Iraqi economic and financial system is facing a major transformation with the cessation of the “window” and “platform” and the shift to direct bank transfers, which may reveal gaps in the readiness of financial institutions for this change. I call this one of those WOW!

 statements. If have been following this currency auction saga and all its corruption over the last decades, you can see this is going to be huge, huge and be exciting but also very scary too. Like I said the longer you do things one way, even if its supposed to be temporary (as the currency auctions were supposed to be) the harder it is to revert back to a normal way of doing business. You also have the “keepers” of the goose who lays the golden eggs and they are not going to let go without a fight. So, we see the negative articles. We must be smart enough to see through them ad ignore them.

The above article also talks about the Central Bank, and how, it was not able to rehabilitate and develop Iraqi banks and prepare them for the platform’s shutdown phase in time, and it will be forced to rely on only 4-5 banks initially that have the ability to pass direct transfers through their correspondent banks, which will create a large (financial bottleneck), so they predict. But again this is only their “opinion”. 

The author also pointed out and I quote – “that these fundamental changes coming to the Iraqi monetary and financial system, and the challenges and risks they entail, have not yet motivated either the government or the Central Bank to move and adopt a special and urgent action plan related to dealing with the variables and data of this critical transitional period, which the Iraqi economy has never experienced before!” 

https://mntgoatnewsusa.com/latest-mnt-goat-newsletter/

Three Obstacles to Iraq’s Accession to BRICS, BY MNT GOAT 3 NOV

 Three Obstacles to Iraq’s Accession to BRICS

Al-Saadi told Baghdad Today, “Iraq has not joined the BRICS group yet for several reasons related to the current economic and political situation, in addition to the fact that Iraq does not meet the conditions for joining, the most prominent of which is that it be among the major economies in the region. However, Iraq’s economy is primarily rentier and depends solely on oil exports as a primary source of income, which makes its economy less diversified compared to the group’s founding countries such as China and India.”

He added: “The second important question is that Iraq should have absolute financial sovereignty over its economy, and not as it is now, where it is subject to the rules and conditions of the US Federal Reserve in granting financial shares .”

(Mnt Goat: This last statement is VERY important and shows us once again who is holding up Iraq and the RV)

“Iraq’s trade relations with some BRICS members, such as Brazil and South Africa, are not strong enough to support it in this direction. In addition, Iraqi foreign policy is still balanced between competing global powers, including the United States, which is cautiously looking at BRICS expansion and its geopolitical influence,” he said, noting that “ in the future, these dynamics may change, especially if economic diversification is enhanced, internal political stability is achieved, and absolute financial sovereignty is achieved.”

He noted that “if Iraq joins, it may benefit from expanding opportunities for economic cooperation with countries such as China and Russia, including investments in infrastructure and non-oil sectors, which may help reduce dependence on oil and diversify sources of income .”

The professor of international economics concluded his statement by pointing out that “there are some potential harms to Iraq joining BRICS and entering a bloc that challenges Western hegemony, especially the United States, which may lead to diplomatic or economic tensions with the West,  which negatively affects Iraq’s current trade and political relations with Western countries. Also, dealing with some of the founding countries of BRICS, such as Russia, which faces international sanctions, may put Iraq in sensitive positions on the international scene.” BRICS is a group of nine countries: Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, South Africa, India, Brazil, the UAE, Iran and Egypt.

The number of members of the bloc, which focuses on economics before politics, has increased and seeks to break Western “hegemony” over the international system, but many factors make this a long and thorny path, according to experts.

Russia, the group’s founding state and embroiled in a brutal war with Ukraine, is hosting more than 20 leaders at the annual summit, setting an ambitious agenda, most notably “dedollarization” and alternative financial mechanisms.