| 2008: New power station investment of Dana Gas Company in Kurdistan Region |
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May 8, 2008 KRG Minister of Planning, Othman Shwani, says the KRG and Kurdistan Parliament have decided to allocate 37.7% of Kurdistan's total budget to investment projects. Shwani said the amount is classified into 24.2% for Municipality Ministry projects, 21.3% for Ministry of Electricity projects, 14.6% for the projects of the Ministry of Reconstruction, 5.4% for the Ministry of Health, 4.3% for the Ministry of Education, and 5.5% for the Ministry of Agriculture. Kurdistan Region gets 17% of the Iraqi budget, which is $7 billion (USD); this amount should increase as the price of oil rises. Shwani added that this amount, 37.7%, is divided into three parts. The first part will be spent on unfinished projects already started; there are 766 unfinished projects and the KRG has allocated $1 trillion, 84 million dinars to finish them. The second part of the amount will be spent on 688 new projects proposed by the ministries, for which the KRG has allocated $1 trillion, 299 billion, and 816 million dinars. The third and last part will be spent on developing the three provinces of Kurdistan: Erbil, Sulaimaniya, and Duhok. The KRG has allocated 495 billion dinars for 677 projects proposed by the three governorates: 180 billion dinars for Erbil province; 200 billion dinars for Sulaimaniya province; and 115 billion dinars for Duhok. Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Region Parliament passed the distribution of the budgets allocated to the presidencies and a number of ministries. The budget for the presidency of Kurdistan Region is 45 billion, 222 million dinars; presidency of KRG budget is 54 billion, 16 million dinars; and presidency of Parliament budget is 54 billion, 908 million dinars. The Ministry of Education budget is 79 billion, 430 million dinars; the Ministry of Higher Education budget is 191 billion, 619 million dinars; 62 billion, 95 million dinars is allocated to the Ministry of Reconstruction and Housing budget and 353 billion, 728 billion dinars is from the capital of public services. For the Ministry of Agriculture, 116 billion, 212 million dinars is allocated from the expense budget, additionally 48 billion, 624 million dinars is allocated from the capital of the public services. The Ministry of Water Resources could get $13 billion, 488 billion dinars from the budget of works and dinars from the budget and 83 billion, 885 billion dinars as extra from the capital of the projects. The Ministries of Interior and Region received 627 billion, 59 billion dinars, while 21 billion, 450 million dinars was provided to the Ministry of Region alone; 11 billion, 165 million dinars is added to the Ministry of Interior from the capital of the projects. It is expected that the allocated budgets to the remaining ministries will be set by vote and revealed in the coming sessions. |