| 2007: Iraq signed an agreement to protect investors from arbitrary actions |
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October 23, 2007 Iraqi Finance Minister, Baqir Jabr Zubaidi, announced that Iraq signed an agreement on Saturday with the International Agency for Protecting Investment by which the World Bank will allocate $ 17 billion to protect investors in Iraq from any possible arbitrary action. Al-Zubaidi added that he ended preparations with the International Monetary Fund to make a draft convention according to which Iraq is committed to a number of conditions relating to the financial and banking policies in return for writing off most of Iraq's debt by the Fund, pointing out that the agreement will be signed as final with the end of the current year. The Iraqi minister admitted the state of administrative and financial corruption involving all levels of the State, but reduced the importance of the accusations made by the former Chairman of the Integrity Committee, Judge Radi Hamza Al-Radi, pointing out that most of the issues raised recently concern governments that preceded the government of Nuri al-Maliki, and attributed the causes to the incomplete control authorities at the time. Iraqi Minister of Finance confirmed that the United States considers concluding commercial, economic and investment agreements by the Iraqi government is an internal Iraqi affair. He explained that the project of building an electrical station in Sadr City was won by Iran because of the better specifications provided by the Iranian side. Minister Baqir Al-Zubaidi criticized the delay in supplying the Iraqi armed forces with American weapons by the United States, within a deal financed almost a year ago; it was reported that the American Defense Minister Robert Gates said that the reasons for the delay in the arrival of weapons to Iraq are due to what he described as bureaucratic factors. Source: Iraq Directory |