Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Iraqi govt to help farmers
Agriculture
(Middle East Times) - Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki Wednesday announced a new plan to provide subsidies for Iraqi farmers to protect them from "unjust competition" from other countries. "All farmers in Iraq have encountered extreme economic hardship when faced with unjust competition from growers of other countries that export their produce to Iraq at discounted prices," a statement from his office said.
"In order for Iraqi farmers to compete in such uneven economic conditions, the Iraqi government has the responsibilities to protect them from unfair trade policies," it added. The initiative will provide subsidies for seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides and guarantee the "purchase of their produce of strategic crops at market price," the statement said.
The statement did not say how much the government would be spending on the initiative, which will also include loans to farmers, rural irrigation projects, and the creation of a government agency to supervise the agricultural sector. The new agency, to consist of agricultural experts, will "stabilize domestic prices and control foreign trade to ensure adequate food supplies and to stabilize domestic prices for several food commodities," the statement said. The agricultural sector in Iraq accounts for around 40 percent of the local economy, but has suffered from decades of war and economic sanctions.
Labels: agriculture, Iraqi farmers, Nouri Al-Maliki, subsidies
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Missan council invites regional and international reconstruction bids
Business, Reconstruction
(VOI) – Missan has received offers from Iraqi, Arab and foreign investors to launch projects in the oil, industrial, agricultural and service sectors in the province, an Iraqi official said on Friday. "The offers came thanks to the province's stable security conditions and investment outlets that would contribute to building infrastructures in the province that suffered from negligence for many decades," Taha al-Dayf, the chairman of the Missan investment committee, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Dayf added that the Missan local council had received investment offers from Arab and global corporations in the fields oil, power and establishment of tourist cities, referring to a company that offered bids worth 12 billion Iraqi dinars (roughly 9,436,188 million U.S. dollars) to establish vital projects to re-build the city. "There are other offers "to invest oilfields and build first-class hotels and residential compounds," said Dayf. The local council in Missan, 390 km south of Baghdad, had invited Iraqi, Arab and foreign investors to start business projects in the province namely in the service and infrastructure sectors, praising security conditions in the province compared to other Iraqi provinces.
Labels: agriculture, bids, industry, Missan, oil, reconstruction, Taha al-Dayf
