“Iraqi Dinar HOLDERS” Iraq’s Budget Increase (Uncut) 02-15-2025

 “Iraqi Dinar HOLDERS” Iraq’s Budget Increase, Wins & Reforms

Hello everyone. I’m gonna give everybody a second to come on. It’s Valentine’s Day.

Hello everyone. Hello everyone. Can you guys hear me? I don’t do these streams very often so… Hi Libby.

Hello beautiful. So I’m coming on today live for Valentine’s Day because I wanted to send my love to everybody, number one, but I wanted to do something different because it is Valentine’s. So what we’re gonna do is I prepared everything that I wanted to talk about all together and then I’m just going to go over everything.

However, I won’t be able to see all the screens at one time because I have quite a few screens, but I wanted to come on and do something just a little different because we don’t get to do this very often. And the hubby is like, you should just go live today. And so I decided I’m gonna come on and do that.

Hi. Hi Jenny. Hi Brian.

Hi everybody. So let’s just jump right into everything that we’re gonna go over. Hi Rob.

And I’m gonna keep going back between our data and the live. So bear with me if I don’t see your your comments right away. I’m gonna try to go back and forth.

Okay, so I want to welcome everybody back to Newsroom. I’m Chell Smith with your Middle East U.S. entertainment news here on YouTube. I air on Fridays bringing you the latest on reforms and economics of Iraq based on reports put out by the Middle East news media outlets.

I do this weekly review and it’s based off my interest. Thank you everyone for joining me. Last week we talked about unlocking prosperities, training programs for currency strength, digital finance, financial integrity, and cross-border payments.

Taved Sammi on financial reforms, decreasing external debts and salary resolutions, economic growth through strategic partnerships, real estate reform, and NATO’s advisory support. So let’s take a look at this week’s headlines. I’m just gonna X them out as I go through them all.

Let’s see here. Happy Valentine’s Day firecracker. I love that name.

Okay let’s drag some of these screens over here. Let’s see if I can open the screen up bigger so I can see everybody here. And I’m gonna figure out how I share my screen like some other YouTubers.

They share their screen. I’m still trying to learn how to do all that. So hi! We’re just gonna hang out and we’re gonna go through the news this week.

There hasn’t been a whole lot of news but there’s been enough that we can go over and have a great show. So let’s get started. Okay so the Prime Minister Mohamed Chiasudani received Friday, which is today, at his residence in Minich, the commander of NATO’s Joint Force Commander Admiral Stuart Minch.

During the meeting they discussed strengthening bilateral cooperations with NATO. So but basically today the Prime Minister Chiasudani met with NATO Joint Forces Commander and they discussed strengthening bilateral cooperations and training, intelligence coordination, and logistical support. They discussed combating terrorism and developing Iraqi security forces.

So yes I’m drinking green tea today. Yeah so I’m trying to feed my kidneys with lots of fruits and vegetables and green drinks and I’m trying to do things the healthy natural way. Oh Jenny you’re from Ohio.

I didn’t see that before. Hello Ohio. I’m from Ohio too.

Okay let’s keep going. So Iraq’s economic shift has begun and Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohamed Chiasudani affirms that the balance of foreign policy, which is pushing economic reforms with the US troops withdrawal, it is set for 2026. Eyes are open with Iraq’s security self-sufficiency and strong investment ties.

Meanwhile Baghdad and Erbil advance economic cooperation, resolving salary and oil disputes. Experts say that these moods could booster the investors confidence and Iraq’s financial stability. Now we’re going to get into a little bit of this throughout some of these news releases that were released this week.

However let’s keep on going. Iraq’s oil losses have been reported that Iraq has suffered massive financial losses due to the suspension of the Kurdistan Regional’s oil exports, with experts estimating damages over 15 billion. The financial committee confirmed a 13 trillion dollar shortfall in the state revenue with a recent budget law amendment.

We’ll also get into those later on. The exports through the Turkey-Seham pipeline are set to resume offering economic relief, which is a great thing. Meanwhile officials stress that the importance of ensuring the Kurdistan employees salaries are paid.

Analysts say that restoring the oil flows could stabilize Iraq’s economy. Oh goodness, you know, there’s a lot going on there, right? Iraq has audit fights their corruption. So the Prime Minister Mohamed Chiaossoudani has reaffirmed Iraq’s commitment to combating corruption at the internal audit conference, calling it the first time of defense against financial misconduct.

With 12 trillion dollars allocated for service projects in 2024, he stressed that the internal audits ensure transparency and prevent public fun misuse. The government is strengthening audit mechanisms, prioritizing high-profile corruption cases, and pursuing stolen assets abroad. Officials emphasize that the accountability and integrity are key to restoring the public trust and advance economic reforms.

And I do agree with that too. What about you guys? Do you guys agree that these audits are good for Iraq? Okay, let’s keep on going. Okay, so we have the pension law agreement that came up in our news this week.

Iraq and the Kurdistan region have finalized an agreement to implement the unified pension law number nine of 2014 securing employment entitlements. The Kurdistan Ministry of Finance confirmed the deal, emphasizing that it aligns salary payment mechanisms across Iraq and the Kurdistan region. The Kurdistan regional government began enforcing the laws in July of 2024, marking a significant step towards financial stability and cooperation.

Officials view this agreement as the foundation of resolving border economic disputes and strengthening official unity between Baghdad and Erbil. And this has been a fight for a really long time, so it’ll be it’ll be like really nice when this is when they can just pay their salaries and it’s no longer a problem. And let’s see what else we got here.

And they talked about the 2025 budget nears. That was a report that was put out. The Iraqi government is set to submit.

And I want to remind you guys that these are my summaries, these are not the actual news articles. I summarize them all for an easy understanding so that way we can get through these easily because they use words that are sometimes, you know, you can’t understand what’s going on. However, the Iraqi government is set to submit the 2025 budget.

Again, they’re only amending these budgets. These budgets have already been passed, but they’re, you know, they make amendments to them. So the 2025 budget tables, though, to the Council of Representatives, as in the coming days, according to the Parliamentary Finance Committee member Jamal Cougar, assures that the disputes and delays, employees and retirees summaries remain secure for the coming months and will be distributed without interruption.

Lawmakers will review and study the budgets before proceeding with the vote. The budget approval process is expected to shape Iraq’s financial planning for the years ahead. It’ll be nice when Iraq can move forward.

Yes, happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Okay, so Barzani was in Dubai. So the Kurdistan Regional Prime Minister, Mauser Barzani, has, he had a ride in the UAE to attend the World Government Summit in Dubai, leading a high-level delegation. The event ran from February 11th to yesterday the 13th, bringing together global leaders to discuss the governance, the technology, and the economic development.

Barzani was set to meet up with top officials to strengthen ties and expand the cooperation in trade, investment, and regional stability. His discussions was set to address Iraq evolving politically in their landscape. All things in Iraq are starting to really move forward and they’re starting to get a hold of the corruption and releasing the corruption and talking about it and we need to see them end all that so that way Iraq can step forward.

Speaking about corruption and courts and stuff like that, courts uphold the laws. So Iraq’s federal Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the parliamentary session that amended three key laws, the general amnesty law, the personal status law, and the property restitution law or the real estate law. Lifting the prior suspension orders in the public hearing on Tuesday, the court dismissed the appeals from lawmakers challenging the amendment passed on January 21st, 2025.

This decision reinforces the viability of legislation, dispute, initial judicial intervention. The Supreme Judicial Council confirms that the laws cannot be halted before official publication, reinforcing parliamentary authority in the legislative matter. So it’s really nice to see that even though there’s a lot of stuff going on in Iraq, that they can get laws passed through parliament and they can all at least agree there.

This is great. This is actually great news. And it shows that they have strong economic ties.

The Iraqi financial advisor to Prime Minister Moussa Mohammad Shaleh affirmed that Iraq and the U.S. relations remain strong despite all the different articles that’s been coming out. They’ve remained strong with deep economic trade and investment cooperation. And according to the Friday’s news, Shaleh dismissed concerns about the tensions, attributing them to speculation tied to the shift in the U.S. administration policy.

He emphasized that Iraq remains committed to the stable partnership, ensuring economic growth and diplomatic collaboration between the two nations. This is actually great news because we’ve read a lot of stuff as Trump was coming into office and he was setting some boundaries with Iraq and things like that. So it’s nice to see that we’re getting some good political reports in regards to that.

The discovery of the East Baghdad oil field is significant milestone for Iraq’s energy sector. Let’s talk about it. With the reserves now reaching 15 billion barrels, it’s strengthening Iraq’s position among the world’s top oil producers.

The involvement of the Al Wassef oil company and Chinese firm, the EBS, as explorations of the development showcasing growing international partnerships in Iraq’s oil industries. The expansion will not boost national revenue, but will enhance the fuel supply for plants, the power plants in the central and southern Iraq, supporting energy stability. Moreover, this reinforces Iraq’s role in OPEC as the second largest oil producer.

That’s pretty great for Iraq also. I know, right? I’m hoping for the Dinar as well. I’m hanging on to my Dinar and I’m hoping for the I’m hoping for Iraq to get it together and spend some time.

And I think they’re really pushing through with innovation. And we’ll get to that at the very end of the show. But they are pushing forward.

And here on this platform, if you’re here with us each week, we talk about how Iraq made those steps. We’re writing the history for them. Basically, we’re talking about their story and how they did it.

So when it finally happens, we reported on it. And you guys are all here with me as we did it. Iraq demands information.

The Iraqi Ministry of Finance has officially requested from the Kurdistan Regional Government to provide employees and retiree data following guidelines from the federal Supreme Court. The ministry also called for the transfer of non oil revenues to ensure salary payments. This comes after an agreement of law number nine of 2014.

This was kind of a big deal this week regarding the employment entitlement disputes over salary distributions have caused delay and protest in the Kurdistan region. So yeah, they had been protesting this week in regards to this. And I would too if I wasn’t getting paid when you guys when you guys if you guys wasn’t getting paid put a 777 in the comments that you guys would be out there protesting to if you didn’t get paid.

Iraq’s GDP has suppressed 260 billion with local and foreign investments reaching nearly 60 billion. According to the Prime Minister’s Advisory, Mohammed Al-Daraji, I probably chopped that up, external debt has dropped significantly now at a 9.8 billion enabling a new era of external financing. Al-Daraji stressed the importance of profitable funding initiatives and diversifying investments, particularly outside the housing and real estate sector.

Are you guys getting advertisements in the middle? Oh gosh, YouTube puts those in there. Okay, so the Iraq approves the budget increases. This is pretty big too.

The Iraqi Council of Ministries has approved a capital increase for our Shib bank to 50 billion dinars. Additionally, the council decided to raise the reserves amount for several key projects including residential complex complexes in a couple of the cities including Nineveh and Bilwell and as well as upgrading to the Al-Kandaniya sewage project. This moves are part of the ongoing effort to support to support the infrastructure development across the country.

Sorry guys, some of those some of their names that are over there in Iraqi are kind of hard so I just kind of with the flow here. Okay, and here’s more on the salaries. They have been doing this for a while.

I know that the federal government had stopped the ruling on the lawsuits filed by the Iraqi president against the Prime Minister. So just so you guys know, yes, the president actually put a lawsuit on the Prime Minister al-Sudani and the Ministry of Finance regarding the delayed salaries in the Kurdistan region. The case will be reviewed further with the final results for February 18.

So that’s in a few days. The president seeks the resolution of the ongoing salary disputes emphasizing the need for a constitutional clarity. So it’s getting pretty serious.

If the president puts a lawsuit on the Prime Minister, yeah, I guess he probably had to if the people wasn’t getting paid. So the Iraqi president and the UAE, the Iraqi president Abdullah Shafjani Rashid arrived at the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday and for the official visit he was set to participate in the ongoing world government summit which we knew about that. There was no further details disclosed by the president’s media office so we didn’t have a whole lot on that.

We only have a few more left, guys. The Iraq’s dollar dilemma. What’s going on there? So the United States dollar remains deeply integrated into Iraq’s economy functionings amongst the parallel currency especially in the oil exports and daily transactions.

However, older dollar bills particularly those before 2003 are facing growing redirection from traders and the official offices due to counterfeiting concerns and the new introduction of newer more secure notes. While the Central Bank of Iraq continues to accept all the US dollar bills, many businesses are reluctant to handle the older designs offering lower exchange rates and refusing them altogether. The issue reflects a shift in Iraq’s financial landscape fueled by security risk and evolving market preferences.

Oh goodness. So did you get what that was about? They’re not accepting the United States dollar, the older notes. It’s not one thing in another, isn’t it? Okay, Iraq is the US ally.

We heard about that. Gabrielle Soma, a consultant for the former president Donald Trump, describes Iraq as a key point in the US security and vital ally speaking on the Samaritan TV forum. The latter program, Soma emphasizes the importance of the Iraq to the United States noting that Iraq is a critical, is critical for regional security.

He also criticizes the Shiite fraction loyal to Iran, questioning their role giving a presence of the Iraqi army and highlighting their risk, particularly regarding Syria. Some reaffirm that Iraq remains a strong ally with deep ties to the US. You know, they don’t just got the the United States over there.

They got the international coalition. That’s many countries. It’s not just the United States.

So Iraq should feel pretty secure. Okay, and Iraq achieves maritime milestone. This is pretty big for Iraq.

This next one. Iraq has reached a significant milestone in maritime regulations with the International Maritime Organization, the IMO, officially recognizing an Iraqi auditor for the first time. Captain Zain Al Abedin, Adel Abdul Maman has been certified under the IMO member state audits scheme, the IMSAS marking a historical historical achievement for Iraq’s Ministry of Transport and the port sector.

This certification will help Iraq prepare for upcoming mandatory IMO audits, advancing compliance with global maritime standards and improving port operations. This move is seen as critical for boosting international confidence and streamlining Iraq’s maritime governance. Let’s see.

And we got one more here. The UNDP applauds Iraq’s reforms. The United Nation Development Program has committed.

I’m sorry, they have commended that the Iraqi government economic reforms anticipating positive outcomes for the third reform package by 2026 and 2027. The UNDP’s resident representative in Baghdad highlighted key achievements, including the adoption of three year budget framework and improved its digital payment regulations and anti money laundering efforts. The upcoming reforms aim to strengthen Iraqis banking sector, enhance financial access for youth and small businesses and ensure greater transparency in the public service.

Laksma was his name. He also recommended establishing a more inter digital financial system and better consumer protection laws. That is going to be with your innovation.

That’s what innovation that’s where innovation is going to come from the inner digital finance that’s coming abroad. That was last week’s information going into this week’s a lot on the salaries and getting those distributed to their citizens and the people that worked their retirees and their government workers. Most of the workers in Iraq are government workers.

You know, they still need to build up Iraq. So we’re seeing a lot of things there. And I’m going to start doing a live like once, maybe once a month, because it seems like everybody really likes when I go live.

Libby, I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s. Happy Valentine’s to everybody. Thank you guys for being here.

Don’t forget to hit the light button. And if you really liked what we were doing here today, please share us in your groups and stuff like that. So that way other people can find us.

Well, again, I hope you guys have a fabulous Valentine’s Day. And thank you for spending your time with me and tuning in. I appreciate you guys and Sophia.

Hi, everybody. Hi, whoever I didn’t say hi to. Hi, ZM news food.

They always put hashtag news food in our comments. I love that. That’s so cool.

He trends that here on our station. And we appreciate you guys. So happy Valentine’s Day.

I hope everybody has a wonderful day and is filled with love. If you don’t have somebody there, I’m here with you right now. And here’s my love.

I’m sending it to you. I’ll see you guys next week, everyone. Thank you for being here with us.

And I’ll see you soon. Bye. Make sure you join us Fridays 4pm with newsroom updates with Chelsea.