For all the contradictions, uncertainty and bloodshed that have come to characterize daily life in Iraq, there is no end in sight for the lucrative business opportunities that seemed to flow through every nook and cranny of the Phoenicia InterContinental Hotel on Thursday. |Full Story
The Iraqi telecommunications sector is quickly heading from a destroyed and underdeveloped industry to a modern and liberalized one, vying to become the best in the region, according to the Iraqi Communication Minister Haydar al-Abadi. |Full Story
The following statement by Ross Mountain, special representative of the UN to Iraq, was delivered at the opening session of the Iraq Economic Development Conference in Beirut on March 17|Full Story
Syria expects trade with Iraq to exceed $1 billion this year and the imminent transfer of power to Iraqis to speed up the re-opening of an oil pipeline shut down by US occupation forces last year, the Syrian economy and trade minister has said.|Full Story
Whilst 2002 was a year of review and strategic change for MTC, 2003 is likely to be seen as a year of radical change, both within the Middle East telecoms sector and within the MTC Group.|Full Story
One of the signature features of any public gathering attended by representatives of Iraq’s interim government these days is the ubiquitous presence of security operatives. Largely former special forces soldiers, most of these men come from the United States, Britain, France, and the countries of the former Soviet Union. |Full Story
Water and the scarcity thereof threaten headaches – both real and figurative – for generations of Middle Easterners, and Iraqis will be no exception. Two of the region’s most important rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, run through Iraq and have been inextricably linked to its history.|Full Story
There can be no more fitting venue than Beirut for a conference on the future prospects of a devastated Arab land. Lebanon’s capital was the epicenter of a 1975-1990 civil war that left the country economically exhausted, internally divided, and politically prostrate. |Full Story
Anyone guessing at the orientation of the Iraq Economic Forum need only scan a list of the event’s sponsors. From banking to telecommunications, they offer a hint of where the business community sees Iraq going in the next few years, early predictions on government priorities, and how consumer spending is expected to evolve. |Full Story
The Iraq Economic Forum got under way in Beirut on Wednesday, with participants upbeat despite persistent problems in that shattered country. Mindful of severe security challenges that continue to undermine stability, organizers joined Iraqi and Lebanese officials in focusing on the opportunities presented by the situation rather than the obstacles that threaten to impede economic development for some time to come.|Full Story
The buzz during the launching of the Iraq Economic Forum at the Phoenicia Inter-Continental Hotel in Beirut on Wednesday was reminiscent of a beehive readying itself for spring. The presence of over 1,000 delegates from all over the world distinctly signaled a new dawn for a better Iraq, recovering from the shambles of war. |Full Story
