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By John Lee.
Baghdad has reportely postponed plans to create a new national oil company until a new government is formed.
In March, Iraq’s parliament voted to establish a new Iraqi National Oil Company (INOC) to manage its upstream energy sector, and serve as an umbrella body for its state-owned oil firms.
More here from MEED (subscription needed).
(Sources: Offshore Technology, MEED)
From Al Jazeera. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
People are still protesting across southern Iraq, despite a promise by the prime minister to create jobs and improve public services.
The unrest began in the oil-rich province of Basra last week and has spread to several other large cities.
Demonstrators say they’re not benefitting from Iraq’s vast oil wealth, because of government corruption and mismanagement.
Al Jazeera‘s Osama Bin Javaid reports:
By John Lee.
Protestors took to the streets of Basra for the fourth day on Wednesday, protesting the killing of a demonstrator by security forces, and demanding jobs and public services.
According to AFP, protesters also blocked the road leading to the oilfields of West Qurna, while international oil companies (IOCs) have reportedly moved senior staff out of the area for their security.
On Tuesday, the Cabinet approved measures to improve the delivery of essential public services in Basra province, with a focus on improving the supply of electricity to homes and businesses.
It also “instructed Iraq’s embassies, consulates and all border entry points to apply new visa and residency fees for foreign nationals seeking to enter Iraq“.
The Cabinet voted to establish a specialist committee staffed by teams from the Planning and the Construction & Housing Ministries to assess the value of resuming several incomplete or suspended projects, and instructed the Ministry of Finance to speed up the allocation of funds for projects that are deemed suitable for completion.
Meanwhile, Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi [Allibi, Luiebi] ordered “secondary contractor companies in West Qurna oil field to provide new jobs for the citizens of the neighbor towns near to the field“, and to “provide additional jobs for the citizens of Shatt Al-Arab district and the other towns“.
“Otherwise“, he added, “the Ministry will take the appropriate procedures towards the companies that violates the directions“.
(Sources: AFP, Iraqi Cabinet, Ministry of Oil)
(Picture credit: Ahmed Mahmoud)
By for Al Monitor. Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Moscow’s interest in the Middle East and the growing Russian presence in the region go beyond Russian involvement in the Syrian civil war. For several years Russia has been building partnerships with various regional powers, and Iraq — with parliamentary elections only days away — has been a priority.
The Soviet Union helped Iraq industrialize its economy and was the country’s largest weapons provider until the union collapsed in 1991. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Western sanctions against it interfered with the Russia-Iraq weapons relationship. Then, after the US-led coalition’s overthrow of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq got most of its weapons from the United States.
Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has been trying to gradually rebuild its ties with Iraq on numerous levels. Moscow sees Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary elections as an opportunity to breathe new life into relations to create a comprehensive partnership.
In 2014, as Islamic State militants neared Baghdad and the Iraqi government couldn’t immediately receive the arms it needed from the United States, Moscow jumped on the opportunity to provide “without delay” the weapons and equipment needed, including aircraft. Maxim Maximov, Russia’s ambassador in Iraq, later commented that the deliveries represented a long-term commitment.
“We have always said that we are ready to give this country various types of assistance in strengthening its army,” Maximov said in a February interview with Interfax. “The Russian military industry has already provided the Iraqi government with a massive installment of weapons that proved their efficiency in battles against [IS], including MI-35M and MI-28N helicopters, Su-25 jet aircraft, Kornet-E anti-tank guided missiles and other military products.”
Some vital 2017 contracts for T-90 tanks are now being filled. There have been reports that Iraq is going to buy Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile defense systems, but Iraq’s ambassador to Moscow, Haidar Hadi, has denied that possibility.
Russian energy companies operating in Iraq are another critical tool for Moscow. These companies had been in Iraq long before the United States invaded in 2003 and had bid on oil and gas projects. Currently, there are two companies developing such projects in Iraq: Gazprom Neft Middle East and Lukoil.
Business for Russia’s Rosneft corporation is still uncertain. The company had contracts in the Kirkuk oilfields with the Kurdistan Regional Government, but when Baghdad overtook Kirkuk last year, the Iraqi Oil Ministry renounced those deals. Negotiations are still possible according to Russian business media reports, but the company has not confirmed the news.
Iraq is important for Russia not only as an economic and trade partner, but also as a factor in influencing regional policy. Russia clearly understands that its possibilities in the country are limited, as Iran and the United States are the main foreign players with direct influence on Iraq. Saudi Arabia, which took a number of steps to reinforce its influence in the country in the past year, still lags behind.
China, Iraq’s key economic partner, keeps a rather low profile regarding Iraq’s domestic politics. What’s important for Russia is that Iran partially and cautiously supports Baghdad’s collaboration with Moscow and the United States doesn’t openly oppose it.
That said, it’s not quite accurate to think Tehran is the one inviting Moscow to Iraq, hoping to create a counterbalance to Washington. In recent years, Baghdad politicians have increased their ability to implement independent foreign policy, and relations with Russia have been important to Iraqi officials. Russia, in turn, doesn’t seek to intervene in Iraq’s internal matters and basically operates by building pragmatic relationships with any government looking for such an arrangement. This approach helps Russians forge important political and business contacts.
For its part, Baghdad supports strengthening Moscow’s positions in an exchange that creates a new point of influence in the country potentially able to balance both Iran and the United States. Iraq thus gets a broader space for maneuvering among all the interested parties.
Certain areas of cooperation that Russia and Iraq have been exploiting have tangible potential. Military sales and energy cooperation are the most obvious ones, but Moscow is also becoming what it sees as a “natural ally” of Iraq in the fight against terrorism.
Since Russia, Syria, Iran and Iraq formed an information-sharing group in 2015, Russia has sought to deepen this area of cooperation through joint operations against radical groups. Russian lawmaker Ziyad Sabsabi has coordinated activities within that group to rescue Russian children whose parents joined IS from Iraq and Syria.
The fight against IS will gradually shift from the front line to broader counterterrorist initiatives, and Russia will be there to experience new forms of engagement with Iraq.
Institutional interaction between Moscow and Baghdad is already rather comprehensive. In addition to the counterterrorism information center and the rescue group, there’s a Russian-Iraqi action group for cooperating in the power industry and a Russian-Iraqi commission on trade, economic and scientific cooperation — a key coordinating intergovernmental body.
Russia takes advantage of all of these formats to interact with Iraqi and Kurdish governments as well as with the highest-level political leaders and contacts among “unofficial players” in the region.
Based on Maximov’s recent meetings, one can see Moscow’s attempts to maintain contacts with virtually all important actors — from major politicians in Iraqi Kurdistan such as Massoud Barzani, Iraqi Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers Mahdi al-Alaq, Vice President Nouri al-Maliki and National Wisdom Movement leader Ammar al-Hakim, among many others.
Therefore, while Russia’s strategy in Iraq aims to develop of all kinds of relationships with Baghdad and stresses support of the country’s territorial integrity, it is also multifaceted, seeking to engage with virtually all players from the country’s leadership to the leaders of the Popular Mobilization Units.
This path is meant to provide the policy flexibility necessary to maintain and increase cooperation regardless of who holds power after the upcoming elections.
At a major Iraqi business event in London on Tuesday, there was a strong sense that Iraq’s perceived risk profile is improving, and that this is an excellent time to do business in the country.
Nearly 300 delegates attended the Iraq Britain Business Council (IBBC)‘s Spring Conference at the Mansion House, which focused on “building a diversified and modern economy“, with many of those flying in from Iraq specially for the occasion.
This record attendance was just one of the positive indicators in evidence at the event, with speakers pointing to improved security, better relations between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the central government in Baghdad, and a growing trend towards up-skilling and capacity building in the local population; here at Iraq Business News, we’ve seen a positive indicator of our own, with a 15 percent increase in our website traffic over the past year.
Closing the conference’s first day, IBBC Managing Director Christophe Michels also drew attention to the growing number of companies joining his organisation, and a much more relaxed atmosphere in Iraq’s major cities.
The second day of the conference also saw a full house at the Royal Overseas League to discuss business opportunities for Iraqi and British small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
(Picture: Baroness Fairhead CBE, UK Minister of State for Trade and Export Promotion, addressing the conference.)
By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad.
Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Immediately after the Iraqi parliament voted the new INOC Law and after thorough and critical examination and analysis of the law it becomes apparently clear that the law is full of shortcomings, ambiguity, contradictions and above all it contrives the Constitution repeatedly and thus it is unconstitutional. Hence, an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court becomes urgent necessity to revoke this devastating law.
Due to the importance of the law and its highly likely damaging impacts on the petroleum sector and on the Iraqi economy at large, it is imperative and of vital necessity to adopt inclusive and participatory methodology for combating the law. For this purpose I adopted four phases AMTA approach: Awareness, Mobilization, Teaming-up and Action.
Awareness phase aims at highlighting what is seriously wrong with the law by, first, providing preliminary evaluation of the law. The evaluation, written in Arabic on 8 March, was posted on many websites, such as (http://www.akhbaar.org/home/2018/3/241534.html ) and disseminated among my very extensive network of contacts inside and outside Iraq (ca. 2000 contacts). Similarly, an English article was posted on 12 March on IBN website (http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/2018/03/12/inoc-law-dysfunctional-unconstitutional-and-disintegrative/ )
Further article in Arabic was shared, on 20 March, among my network and also published widely provides further specific and with economic evaluation on how this law could violate the constitution, weaken INOC itself and contribute to the disintegration of the country, (http://www.akhbaar.org/home/2018/3/242198.html)
Mobilization phase began by calling upon Iraqis, collectively or individually, to protest the law and file “open” appeal to the Federal Supreme Court; two articles in Arabic were shared and posted on 26 and 27 March respectively: http://www.akhbaar.org/home/2018/3/242229.html and http://www.akhbaar.org/home/2018/3/242284.html
The call aims at prompting the citizens to know their constitutional rights and empower them with the knowledge base to act as was enshrined in the constitutional article 93, which says the Federal Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction over the following, among others: “Overseeing the constitutionality of laws and regulations in effect” and “The law shall guarantee the right of direct appeal to the Court to the Council of Ministers, those concerned individuals, and others.”
Much of my writings were in comparative and structuralist methodology: by comparing this law with first, the constitution, second, with previous INOC laws, third, with other laws of direct relevance to the topic and fourth with lessons learned from INOC history and structural progression since its foundation in early sixties of the last century.
Team working phase began when many oil professionals, lawyers, civil society organization, politicians, parliamentarians and media sources among others supported the idea of appealing to FSC.
Three groups of Iraqi lawyers volunteered to provide legal support on substantive and procedural matters pertaining to the appeal before FSC and a small group of Iraqi oil professionals was assembled in Baghdad to maintain contacts with the lawyers and follow-up the matter inside the country especially with media sources and events organization. The discussion with the lawyers suggests that at this stage, two fundamental steps must be done: the first is to prepare a draft of detailed appeal against the law on article-by-article base and the second is to provide the lawyers with “Power of Attorney” by me and other plaintiffs.
A detailed appeal (in Arabic) was drafted and circulated, 4 April 2018, among the wider network and also posted on many websites such as, http://www.akhbaar.org/home/2018/4/242627.html . The draft proves that INOC law contravenes ten constitutional articles in addition to other critical flaws; in total there are 29 identified cases for appeal against the law.
Action phase began with many different actions:
– Many of the contacts in my professional network recirculated the articles above mentioned among their own networks;
– One lawyer convened a big gathering in one of Baghdad known hotels attended by active parliamentarians;
– A well-respected journal, Al-Thaqaf al-Jadeda, convened, on 7 April, in Baghdad, a roundtable debate on the law attended by known professionals on both side of the isle, my participation was in absentia and the PowerPoint was presented by one of the supporting group there;
– A report on the debate was published on 8 April on Tareeq Al-Shaab Newspaper;
– A group of Iraqis abroad launched on 4 April an online-campaign against the law (http://ehamalat.com/Ar/sign_petitions.aspx?pid=1002 )- the number of cite visitors exceeds 8000 (at 13 PM Norway time today 8 April 2018).
Copy of the “Power of Attorney” was circulated among “the willing and like-minded” to authorize specified two lawyers to pursue the appeal once the law was published on the Official Gazettes- Al-Waqaee Al-Iraqiya. It is also available for anyone willing to pursue the appeal action.
All components of the AMTA approach are ongoing and continue until this atrocious law is revoked.
Those willing to see the text of draft appeal in Arabic can access it freely through
تفاصيل الطعن المباشر بقانون شركة النفط الوطنية العراقية http://www.akhbaar.org/home/2018/4/242627.html
For endorsing our campaign against the law one can sign on the electronic appeal through
http://ehamalat.com/Ar/sign_petitions.aspx?pid=1002
Mr Jiyad is an independent development consultant, scholar and Associate with the former Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), London. He was formerly a senior economist with the Iraq National Oil Company and Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, Chief Expert for the Council of Ministers, Director at the Ministry of Trade, and International Specialist with UN organizations in Uganda, Sudan and Jordan. He is now based in Norway (Email: mou-jiya(at)online.no, Skype ID: Ahmed Mousa Jiyad). Read more of Mr Jiyad’s biography here.
By Omar Sattar for Al Monitor. Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
For the first time since 2005, Kirkuk governorate in Iraq will hold elections Dec. 22 to select its local governing council. Parliament included the multiethnic province of the Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens in the provincial election law approved March 3.
The decision follows an agreement among the three groups’ representatives in parliament and was greatly welcomed by all segments, especially the Kurds, who for years have demanded that elections be held in Kirkuk. Khalid al-Mafraji, an Arab parliament member from Kirkuk, told Al-Monitor that negotiations took more than a year.
The agreement binds the Independent High Electoral Commission to review voters’ records in coordination with the ministries of Interior, Commerce, Planning and Health. If they aren’t able to review the records before the elections, the commission will be obliged to undertake an audit within six months after the elected council begins its work.
“The most important articles of the agreement relate to sharing power,” Mafraji said. The largest bloc in the election will appoint the governor, and the two deputy positions will go to the other two groups. Moreover, federal positions will be determined by the governorate’s residents, according to party size. The agreement also states that the constitution and the law take precedence over the governorate’s council, parliament and the federal government.
The electoral law will remain in effect for four years. Shakhawan Abdullah, who represents Kirkuk in the Kurdistan Democratic Party in parliament, told Al-Monitor, “The agreement between the three components of Kirkuk’s governorate will be effective for only one electoral round, and the elections will not be held in the same way in four years’ time.”
Abdullah believes the provincial election law presents a good opportunity to resolve conflicts in the governorate and give it more administrative powers, like other governorates. The governorate has gone without elections all these years for various reasons. Oil-rich Kirkuk is a disputed area claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil. Its situation is also unique because of its ethnic diversity and disagreements among them.
The constitution stipulates the conflicts in the governorate must be normalized in three stages. The first stage is to allow the return of displaced Kurds and Arabs who emigrated during the regime of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The second stage is to carry out a population census, and the last stage is to hold a general referendum on whether Kirkuk should become a new region, like the autonomous Kurdistan Region, or be annexed to the Kurdistan Region.
All of those procedures were to be carried out before 2007, which wasn’t done. This caused political conflict, partly because of the disagreement between Baghdad and the KRG over having elected authorities with the right to control the governorate’s future.
The Kurdistan independence referendum in September, which included Kirkuk, ended in crisis, and the central government subsequently took over the governorate and cut the Kurds’ authority. The coming elections will give Baghdad and the KRG a chance to solve the current dispute over Kirkuk’s administration.
However, the most important problem that may affect holding elections in Kirkuk is the agreement on a unified record of voters, which may raise doubts about the election results. Iraq hasn’t conducted a census in decades. Ali Khalil, the Arab bloc member of the governorate council, told Al-Monitor that Arabs weren’t in favor of the agreement’s clause that allows an audit to be delayed until after the elections if records can’t be reviewed before then.
“How would we elect a new governorate council while doubting voters’ records at the same time?” Khalil asked.
The Kirkuk local elections will provide a chance to reduce tension in the governorate, a good way to determine the real size of each of the three ethnic groups and a way to form a more legitimate administration — but it could lead to negative results. If one segment is counted and found to have significantly fewer representatives than before, that segment might refuse to accept the election results.
By Ali Mamouri for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Following Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s two visits to Saudi Arabia last year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is set to visit Iraq soon, according to Iraqi parliamentarian Saadoun al-Dulaimi.
Although neither Riyadh nor Baghdad have officially announced the visit, Dulaimi said in a March 12 tweet that Prince Mohammed will spend two days in Iraq, first meeting with Abadi in Baghdad to “sign agreements,” followed by a visit to Najaf to meet religious leaders.
Saudi Arabia was scheduled to reopen its consulate in the oil-rich city of Basra, which is adjacent to Iran, in March, but this was delayed for administrative reasons. Some reports say that Mohammed may open the consulates in Basra and Najaf, the Shiite religious center that is home to top Shiite clerics, during his upcoming visit to Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Embassy in Iraq is in the process of setting up the consulate office at the Sheraton Hotel in Basra. The consulate was closed in 1990 in the wake of the Gulf crisis that erupted during the regime of Saddam Hussein, and remained closed as a result of tensions in Saudi-Iraqi relations.
The Saudi kingdom opened a consulate in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, in early 2016.
The decisions to expand Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic representation in Iraq come as part of a broader framework to strengthen the official political relations between the two governments. Saudi Arabia is seeking to establish economic and social bridges between the two countries in various fields.
Abdul Rahman al-Shahri, head of the Saudi delegation responsible for the establishment of the consulate in Basra, said that these measures are carried out to “provide services and incentives to both religious pilgrims and economic delegations between the two countries.”
Abdul Aziz al-Shammari, Saudi ambassador to Iraq, said in a statement in January, “Saudi Arabia is mostly interested in developing relations between the two countries in all areas that serve their aspirations.”
In late February, a friendly soccer game was held between Saudi Arabia and Iraq in the city of Basra, the first between the two countries in three decades. The game was attended by Saudi delegations and a large crowd of Iraqi fans.
The media office of Abadi said in a statement March 5 that the prime minister had received a phone call from Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in which the latter pledged to build a soccer stadium in Baghdad for 100,000 spectators. It was later announced that Saudi Arabia would increase the number of seats to 135,000.
The statement said that “King Salman expressed his readiness and commitment to expand the positive relations between Iraq and Saudi Arabia at the economic, commercial, popular and cultural levels, as well as all levels of interest to both countries.”
Saudi companies, most recently the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, one of the world’s leading petrochemicals companies, have been opening offices in Baghdad and Basra to expand economic exchange between the two countries.
Saudi Arabia is focusing its attention on Basra because it is the richest city in Iraq with the country’s largest oil fields and gateway to the Persian Gulf. It is also the most populous city after Baghdad, is adjacent to the Iranian border and home to an overwhelming majority of Shiites who share the same tribal and ethnic origins with Saudi tribes. In addition, many Saudi and Basra families are linked through marriage.
Saudi Arabia is also receiving Shiite figures who are viewed as independent of Iran. These include Sadrist movement leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who visited Saudi Arabia last year and met with King Salman and Prince Mohammed. He was warmly received amid much fanfare.
Saudi news sites, most notably Al-Arabiya, are refraining from criticizing supreme Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani, because his views are independent from those of Tehran and has broad influence among Iraqi Shiites.
All this has been a matter of concern for Iran, which has allegedly mobilized parties to raise banners in Basra condemning the opening of the Saudi Consulate and the various economic and sporting activities.
The State of Law Coalition led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is close to Iran, opposes Saudi Arabia’s opening of a consulate in Najaf.
Iraq is seemingly determined to pursue rapprochement and cooperation with Saudi Arabia, and is organizing regular visits by political, economic and media delegations. These included Abadi’s visit to Saudi Arabia last October, during which the memorandum of establishment of the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council was signed to develop relations between the two countries.
Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji also visited Saudi Arabia last year, and Abadi insisted on receiving Saudi delegations even if they were not high level. In February, for instance, he received the Saudi media delegation that visited Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi Journalists Union.
In October, Saudi Arabia resumed its flights to Iraq after 27 years, and it opened in October 2017 its border crossing in southern Iraq to expand economic travel and increase tourist and religious travel between the two sides.
The first initiatives to expand relations between the two countries were directly sponsored by the United States with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attending the meeting of the establishment of the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council in Riyadh in October.
The Iraqi-Saudi rapprochement appears to take place in the context of the new US policy that followed the support garnered by President Donald Trump from the US allies in the region to form a united front to counter Iran’s rise in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia has seemingly made great progress in achieving rapprochement with Iraq and expanding its areas of influence within the last year. Such rapprochement is likely to get stronger should Abadi manage to keep his seat for another term in the elections scheduled for May.
Press Release
We live in a very uncertain world, currently fraught with geopolitical tensions, social upheaval and economic ups and downs. For these reasons – and more – people around the world, and especially in the Middle East, are increasingly looking for second citizenships to protect their assets and, more importantly, ensure a secure and prosperous future for themselves and their families.
The motivations for seeking a second citizenship are ranging from a desire to avoid difficult and often painfully long visa application processes to a desire for the peace and stability that often eludes many countries.
Jeremy Savory, founder & CEO, Savory & Partners, one of the largest companies in the Middle East that provides citizenship-by-investment programmes, commented:
“There are certain countries in the world where it’s legal to obtain citizenship, provided you meet certain criteria, one of which is the financial contribution you need to make, [through] real estate, financial products, or a one-time investment, which is non-refundable.”
“Right now, there are a lot of countries in this region where people don’t feel like they can travel freely into the Schengen zone in Europe, or to the UK or the US,” he says.
Other cases, however, are more unique. Savory & Partners has helped a Bedoon, one of the more than 100,000 officially “stateless” individuals that call the GCC home.
“This wasn’t about getting a second passport. It was actually this person’s first passport. Trying to prepare a file for someone that doesn’t have much to go on in terms of showing they exist is very tricky,” he says of the case.
For some, having a second passport is nothing more than a sound financial decision. “We’ve had royal family members come to us and say that whenever they want to buy a property, they submit their passport copy, it says “HRH” on it and the price goes up,” Mr. Savory notes. “The cost of getting the passport will save that price increase.”
Citizenship and residency programmes around the world are vastly different, each with their own requirements, benefits, timeframes and obligations.
Citizenships from St Lucia and Dominica, for example, can be obtained in a few months with investments from as little as $100,000 without any obligation to live there for any amount of time.
Permanent residency from countries such as Spain and Portugal, on the other hand, require investments of €500,000 ($623,000) and can take as long as ten years to process.
Perhaps understandably, the most in-demand citizenships are those for countries in the European Union.
“The benefits that come with it [EU citizenship] are innumerable. Having said that, it’s priced accordingly,” Savory says.
In Malta you’re looking at not less than €1m ($1,23m) worth of investments when it’s all put together of which typically 55 percent – 75 percent is non-recoverable whereas Cyprus is €2m ($2.45m) in real estate of your choice as long as the paperwork process is correct.
An individual’s chosen second citizenship is largely based on their particular needs. An ultra-high net worth individual, for example, is likely looking for more than ease of travel.
An important distinction – which consultants at Savory & Partners often find themselves explaining to potential clients – is between citizenship programmes and residency programmes.
A residency programme, for example, will only lead to citizenship if one actually resides in the country and is able to demonstrate both a tangible physical presence in the country as well as a fiscal presence. In some cases, applicants need to pass language tests. These types of programmes can often take significant amounts of time to complete.
People should be transparent in the application, and there should be nothing to hide. That’s never truer than in today’s times when the topic of sovereignty is highly sensitive.
Additionally, Savory & Partners is very straightforward with potential clients about their chances of success – even if there aren’t any – which differentiates it from the many companies operating around the world that promise what they can’t deliver.
“I think maybe sometimes clients come to our company because we can tell them ‘it’s not going to happen’, or that they need to do this and change that. There are a lot of companies that say ‘yes’ without actually knowing what the solution is or saying ‘yes’ and knowing full well that ‘no’ is the answer. Clients need to know they are getting qualified [expertise] and are aware of the situation,” Jeremy explains.
“We don’t take on all files because we are happy about the success rate we have and the high volume of files we have already. I don’t want to have a client that isn’t successful, especially if it’s something we could have avoided. We really invest our time and in-house due diligence policies to make sure the clients we take on get their citizenship. Contractually, if they don’t, we have to refund them the full amount of our fees.”
For those inclined to seek a second citizenship the timing is right. Affordability is there, although application checks are becoming more and more stringent. If you are rejected for a visa, then you are automatically ineligible for half the country programmes.
While this strong demand has led new countries – such as Montenegro, Armenia, Kazakhstan and others – to introduce or plan to introduce citizenship or residency by investment programmes, it has also brought with it problems that make finding the right citizenship by investment agent essential.
“It’s getting tougher to obtain a second passport definitely, but I think that gives me comfort. The higher levels of governance then the longer such programmes can continue to exist for those seeking second passports. I had to earn every government accreditation available, so I welcome increased industry scrutiny and regulation,” Mr. Savory concludes.
(Source: Savory & Partners)
By John Lee.
Platts reports that the final details of Iraq’s latest oilfield licensing round will not be completed by the planned date of July, due to the upcoming elections.
Abdul Mahdy Al-Ameedi, Director General of the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate (PCLD) told the CWC Iraq Petroleum Conference in Berlin:
“The timing may extend a bit especially as the whole project is connected with elections in April and May …
“Comments have been made by specialists in order to reorder contracts to include all the commitments and provisions I doubt that we will finish by July 5. It will take time but it will be done.“
The list of qualified companies can be found here.
(Source: Platts)