6-18-13 Twilight News / Select the Kurdistan Regional Parliament on Tuesday majority chairman of the BSA in the region, after the position remained vacant for two years.

He said media adviser to parliament speaker Tariq essence of “Twilight News”, that he “was chosen Khaled Hadi Jaohley, majority chairman of the BSA in the Kurdistan Region and has 75 members voted.”

It is said that the BSA remained for more than two years without a president after the submission of the former president resigned from his post.

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6-18-13 Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Head of the Iraqiya Slate, Ayad Allawi, stressed “The situation in Iraq is heading towards civil war following the violence spate.”

Allawi mentioned in his (Twitter) page “The situation in Iraq indicates its drifting towards civil war,” pointing out “Iraq is losing 1500 martyrs every month except the injured and the persons with disabilities.”

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6-18-13 Iraq Business News: France24 reports that Chevron has signed another oil exploration deal in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The contract, under which Chevron will acquire an interest in and operatorship of the Qara Dagh block production sharing contract, is the company’s third in the autonomous region; it was previously barred from working in non-Kurdish parts of the country following the previous agreements.

The block lies southeast of Erbil and is about 860 square kilometres (332 square miles) in total area.

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Erbil, Kurdistan Region – In her pursuit to open an upscale daycare center in Erbil, 27-year-old Amanda Chahla said she had greatly benefited from the Kurdish-Lebanese Friendship Association, which has been helping Lebanese entrepreneurs take the Kurdistan Region by storm.

“This is an amazing place to do business, everything is developing and happening so fast, so it’s exciting to be here,” said Chahla, recognized as one of the youngest Lebanese to have come for business to Erbil.

“Some people don’t realize that you need to put in serious efforts,” she said recently at a meeting of the Kurdish-Lebanese Friendship Association at Erbil’s Lebanese-owned Rotana hotel.

The aim of the association is to support incoming Lebanese expats and identify investment possibilities.

Already, Lebanese investors and businesses have a firm grip on the Kurdistan Region’s business landscape: Eight of the largest banks in Lebanon have opened branches, more than 10,000 Lebanese businessmen reside in Kurdistan and over 800 Lebanese companies operate in the autonomous enclave.

In addition, a number of Erbil or Sulaimani luxury hotels and restaurants are owned by former Beirut residents. The Lebanese are also very active in construction, media, and advertising.

The Friendship Association was founded in 2007 by eleven businessmen from Lebanon, as there was nobody to represent the Lebanese in the region, besides a Lebanese embassy in Baghdad. The association’s main goal is to help cooperation between the Kurds and Lebanese in both the Kurdistan Region and Lebanon.

With a background in Education, and experience gained teaching at the Sabis International School in Erbil, Chahla began to plan her own kindergarten. She partnered with another young Lebanese, Romy Salem, in order to secure investment, when she realized there was no “safe, clean daycare in Kurdistan.”

Modeled — like many other businesses in Kurdistan — after a successful line of businesses in Dubai and the Gulf, the kindergarten is aimed at the region’s wealthy local and foreign residents who do not want to leave their children in the care of a nanny or au-pair when at work.

But setting up the business has not been easy, Chahla said.

“When I arrived, no one was taking me seriously as a woman. It wasn’t perfect in Beirut, but in here it was definitely worse. I absolutely love Kurdistan, which is why I want to open a business here, but it certainly was not easy.”

According to Chahla, many young Lebanese entrepreneurs come to Kurdistan every year to try their luck, convinced that “they can just grab money everywhere.” Soon, however, their dreams of independence fall apart in face of the difficult, competitive market, and they end up accepting jobs at one of the large companies already firmly grounded in the region.

“The most important thing for me was to maintain a perfect image at all times,” Chahla said. “To make sure that people are serious, I am constantly aware of my every move. I never take a meeting in a bar, I never go clubbing and I never go out with the wrong people: That is a price to pay, for sure.”

Chahla and Salem are very optimistic for the future, and feel lucky to have received a lot of support from the Lebanese community in Kurdistan.

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6-18-13 Giant United States , Chevron Oil Corporation signed on Monday a new contract with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for oil exploration in Qara Dagh field.

The statement reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP), briefed by “Shafaq News” that “sharing production contract was signed with KRG officials to carry out oil exploration in Qara Dagh field that extends southern the three provinces of the region”.

The field extends over an area of 680 square kilometers, according to the statement.

Chevron has signed a contract for exploration, is the third in January that was preceded by two contracts in July 2012.
Baghdad banned Chevron last year from working in other areas in Iraq, outside Kurdistan after its contract with the region.

The dispute over oil contracts is considered one of a series of disagreements between Baghdad and Erbil. As diplomats and analysts say that the issues that were unresolved are among the greatest threats to Iraq’s stability in the long term.

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6-17-13 Integrity electronic – Baghdad, said the decision to economic and investment commission deputy Mahma Khalil that “the central bank demands to issue monthly data are correct and ultra-precision about the size of Central Reserve and expectations for the amount exceeds more than 80 billion dollars during the month of July next, find out whereabouts in the Banks of the world” .

He said the “increased balance of hard currency sovereign will give strength and durability of the Iraqi dinar يجنبه the state of economic risks in the country.”

He pointed out that “in the event of reaching the size of the reserve to more than 80 billion dollars, it means that every dinar both inside or outside the country covered by (2.5), because the size of the money supply of the national currency of 33 trillion dinars Iraqis. ”

The governor of the Central Bank of Abdel Basset Turki has stressed that “the bank reserves of hard currency will exceed the $ 80 billion during the month of July.”

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6-17-13 Electronic integrity – Baghdad:   Central bank sales rose by about $ 9 million for up to 238 million and $ 650 thousand, which recorded sales of $ 229 million.

Sales were covered by the bank at an exchange rate basis was 1166 dinars to the dollar.

Rasheed Bank was more banks Hraoua for foreign currency reaching bought 49 million and 575 thousand dollars, followed by the International Development Bank and by 23 million and 378 thousand dollars.

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