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Iraq is set to unveil major contracts worth $5 billion as part of its ongoing reconstruction. Trade between Dubai and Iraq reached $1 billion in 2002 but, understandably, dipped thereafter. It has recovered to more than $500 million during the past few months, according to Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) officials. It is expected to accelerate in the next few months, trade officials said yesterday. "The immediate investment being made into Iraq's reconstruction could be between $4 and $5 billion, according to our estimates," said Ahmed Al Banna, DCCI's deputy director general. He sought to allay fears that...

<p>BERLIN, Germany -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder says Germany, which opposed the war in Iraq, is committed to helping rebuild the war-torn country.</p> <p>Germany is ready "to make a contribution" to the reconstruction of Iraq and "strongly help" move along the democratization process, Schroeder told reporters after a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.</p>

The Department of Defense announced today that the fiscal 2003 report of "100 Companies Receiving the Largest Dollar Volume of Prime Contract Awards (Top 100)" is now available on the World Wide Web. The Web site address for locating this publication and other DoD contract statistics is: http://www.dior.whs.mil/peidhome/procstat/p01/fy2003/top100.htm . According to the new report, the top 10 Defense contractors for fiscal 2003 were: (In billions) 1. Lockheed Martin Corp. $21.9 2. The Boeing Co. 17.3 3. Northrop Grumman Corp. 11.1 4. General Dynamics Corp. 8.2 5. Raytheon Co. 7.9 6. United Technologies Corp. 4.5 7. Halliburton Co. 3.9 8. General...

<p>Iraq's ambassador to the United States said yesterday that Americans risk alienating Iraqis in the workplace if U.S. companies scoop up prime contracts to rebuild the country and leave the locals doing lower-level work.</p> <p>"We are in danger of creating a feeling of alienation between those who have the money and those who do the menial work," Rend al-Rahim Francke told Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) officials and businessmen at a two-day Iraq reconstruction summit in Washington.</p>

After enduring months of intense heat, long hours, dust and Spartan living conditions since their arrival in May, Army postal units have nearly completed turnover of military postal operations to contractors. The turnover began in October, when the first KBR postal workers began to arrive, said Lt. Col. Steven Heggen, commander of the 461st Personnel Services Battalion, an Army Reserve unit from Decatur, Ga. Originally, the Joint Military Mail Terminal here was manned exclusively with soldiers from the 461st PSB and units from the National Guard, Army Reserve and active Army, numbering about 300 in all. Now, except for a...

Coalition Provisional Authority Baghdad, Iraq   Contact:   Victoria Whitford Office of Strategic Communications 914-822-5001   whitfordv.gbr@orha.centcom.mil     Open for Business: Iraqi companies discuss contract opportunities worth $18.6 billion   Baghdad, January 29 – Representatives of the Coalition Provisional Authority today held an open meeting with Iraqi business people. Iraqi companies, together with the CPA’s Project Management Office and Private Sector Development Team, discussed opportunities to bid for prime and sub-contracts from the Supplemental Budget.   Iraqi business organisations - the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Iraqi Industry, Federation of Iraqi Businessmen, Society of Iraqi Businessmen, and the Iraqi...

PARIS - France has been assured by a US government official that French companies will be able to take part in the second round of bids for Iraqi reconstruction contracts, a French government spokeswoman says. The US under secretary of commerce for international trade, Grant Aldonas, told French Foreign Trade Minister Francois Loos that French companies would be able to "compete directly and freely" for rounds of reconstruction contracts in Iraq in the future, the spokeswoman for the French ministry said. Aldonas, during talks on Tuesday, "confirmed that French companies will be able to intervene as subcontractor for the first...

Arotech Corporation announced that its Israeli MDT vehicle armoring subsidiary was awarded a $1.1 million contract for armored vehicles for operations in Iraq. The Land Rover Defender SUVs are being armored for delivery to Iraq over the next 6 weeks. "These vehicles join the other armored vehicles that we have already delivered to Iraq," said Robert S. Ehrlich, Arotech Chairman and CEO. "It is clear that those serving and working in Iraq continue to need armored protection, and we are working diligently and proudly to serve them." MDT is a leader in state-of the art, lightweight armoring of vehicles. MDT's...

<p>U.S. to Open Iraq Contracts to Germany, Handelsblatt Reports Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will allow German participation in $5 billion worth of contracts to rebuild Iraq, the Handelsblatt business newspaper reported, citing unidentified U.S. government officials.</p> <p>German companies will be permitted to bid for orders to rebuild Iraq's electricity network, water supply and transport systems, the paper said in an advance release of a story in tomorrow's edition. Along with those of other countries that didn't join the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, German companies were excluded from an initial batch of contracts worth 18.6 billion euros ($23.6 billion), Handelsblatt said.</p>

NEW YORK, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- As an Arkansas businessman, Wesley Clark lobbied Vice President Dick Cheney, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, aides to FBI Director Robert Mueller and his former chief deputy commander in Europe on behalf of a company eager to get post-9/11 security work, Newsweek reports in the current issue. The aim: to get a contract for Acxiom, a Little Rock firm whose "data mining" techniques are useful in tracking terrorists. The lobbying -- for which Clark was paid about $400,000 -- must have helped: Acxiom got a contract. Everything was aboveboard and disclosed, says Chris Lehane, who...

The $500 billion fire sale In a shattered postwar Iraq, there are rich pickings to be had - and for US businesses at least, it promises to be a risk-free bonanza. Naomi Klein joins those at a trade show jostling for a stake Saturday January 17, 2004 The Guardian It's 8.40am, and the Sheraton Hotel ballroom thunders with the sound of plastic explosives pounding against metal. No, this is not the Sheraton in Baghdad, it's the one in Arlington, Virginia. And it's not a real terrorist attack, it's a hypothetical one. The screen at the front of the room is...

Turkish firms snatch lucrative deals in Kurdish north Arbil, Iraq Press, January 17, 2004 – Turkish investors are flocking to the Kurdish north although moves by Iraqi Kurds to bolster their autonomy have unnerved politicians in Ankara. “Business is something and politics something else,” said Delshad Razkar, the Kurdish businessman who works as a liaison officer for several Turkish companies in the region. Iraqi Kurds won their autonomy in 1991 when they began administering most of their region away from the authority of ousted leader Saddam Hussein. Politically, the main two Kurdish factions running the three Kurdish provinces of Sulaimaniya,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is leaning toward reversing policy and allowing French firms to bid for prime contracts on some of $18.6 billion in reconstruction projects for Iraq (news - web sites), U.S. officials said on Thursday. The Bush administration was also considering allowing all countries to bid on the next round of contracts, one official said, a move that would totally abandon President Bush (news - web sites)'s previous stand that only nations whose troops risked their lives in Iraq with American soldiers would be eligible. U.S. officials, who asked not to be named, said they did...

French defence minister Alliot-Marie to Washington PARIS (AFP) Jan 15, 2004French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie travelled to the United States Thursday for her first visit there since the US-led invasion of Iraq. The minister was to hold talks with her American counterpart Donald Rumsfeld and with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, her spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau said. "The discussions in Washington will take place in a positive spirit of cooperation. They are a sign that our American partners want to talk to us as much as we want to talk to them," he said. "In everything to do with security and...

<p>SACRAMENTO - A law targeted for repeal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of his plan to change parts of state education spending survived an attempt to eliminate it in a Senate committee Wednesday.</p> <p>Schwarzenegger had sought the repeal of the law, which requires school contracts for landscaping, busing and other services to protect workers' wages and salary, saying it prevented schools from spending their money more efficiently.</p>

MONTERREY, Mexico, Jan 13 (Reuters) - In a policy reversal, U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that Canadian firms would be allowed to bid for a second round of major reconstruction contracts in Iraq. Bush said he told Canada's new prime minister, Paul Martin, that Canadian firms were eligible now for subcontracting projects and when a second round of major projects are awarded, they would be eligible for those too. "Canada will be eligible to bid on all of the construction projects in the next tranche," Martin said. The two leaders spoke at a joint appearance on the...

MONTERREY, Mexico - President Bush (news - web sites), seeking to mend relations with America's northern neighbor, said Tuesday that Canada will be eligible for a second round of U.S.-financed reconstruction contracts in Iraq In a breakfast meeting with new Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Bush said he had told Martin of the shift in policy. Martin "understands the stakes" in rebuilding a free and peaceful Iraq, Bush said. He offered no details of what the contracts would be worth. Martin is eager to patch up the cross-border relationship after his predecessor, Jean Chretien, abstained from the Iraq war, angering...

Mexico (AP) - President Bush, seeking to mend relations with America's northern neighbor, said Tuesday that Canada will be eligible for a second round of U.S.-financed reconstruction contracts in Iraq. In a breakfast meeting with new Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Bush said he had told Martin of the shift in policy. Martin "understands the stakes" in rebuilding a free and peaceful Iraq, Bush said. He offered no details of what the contracts would be worth. Martin is eager to patch up the cross-border relationship after his predecessor, Jean Chretien, abstained from the Iraq war, angering Bush.

US keeps Germany, France out of Iraq work -official Reuters, 01.11.04, 10:27 AM ET AMMAN, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Companies from countries that opposed the Iraq war remain barred from bidding for $5 billion in U.S.-funded reconstruction contracts, a U.S. official said on Sunday, despite hints the United States could soften its stance. "With the current RFPs (Requests for Proposals) there has been no change to the original position," Retired Adm. David Nash, who is in charge of the Pentagon-run Program Management Office, said on the sidelines of an Iraqi reconstruction conference in Jordan. He declined to say whether the...

<p>The Army Corps of Engineers has exonerated Haliburton Co. of any wrongdoing in a Kuwait fuel-delivery contract that Pentagon auditors claimed has overcharged the U.S. government by more than $100 million.</p>