Amman, Jordan, Aug. 21--Iraq needs at least $100 billion to rebuild its shattered infrastructure after four years of violence, Finance Minister Bayan Jabor said. “The country is devastated and we are in need of at least $100 billion to $150 billion to restore infrastructure--from sewerage to water to electricity to bridges and basic needs of the country,“ he told Reuters in Amman.
He said about $4 billion had been spent on infrastructure projects so far this year, more than in all of 2006, when internal violence and the limited capacity of the Iraqi private sector meant only about 40 percent of $6 billion allocated in the budget was used. “What happened last year was ... a failure in the government’s ability to execute,“ Jabor said.
Iraq’s 2007 budget allocated $14 billion for capital investment and Jabor said the government had withdrawn $7.4 billion from the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), where Iraq’s oil income is deposited and audited by the United Nations.
“There is much better execution of projects (this year), with some ministries and governors spending over 60 percent of their 2007 budget allocations so far. This is almost double last year,“ Jabor said.
More than $10 billion of oil revenues deposited in the DFI’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York were last year left unspent because projects could not be executed, he said.
A report in July by the US special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction blamed the government for failing to take responsibility for reconstruction projects. It said it had spent only 22 percent of its capital budget in 2006 but predicted that figure could reach 50 percent in 2007.
Jabor said next year’s draft budget was expected to total about $36 billion, depending on oil production estimates, against $41 billion in 2007.
The finance minister said oil production had risen to 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in July from an average 1.5 million bpd in the first half of 2007, when output was affected by the sabotage of a pipeline to Ceyhan in Turkey from fields around Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

Rodrigo Rato

MAPUTO, Mozambique,
Aug. 21--International Monetary Fund (IMF) director general Rodrigo Rato on Monday expressed the organization’s commitment to triple the voting rights of African nations in the organization. “We are conscious of the fact that current voting rights of African countries are insufficient and not representative enough“, Rato said in Maputo at the end of a meeting of African finance ministers and central bank governors, AFP reported.
“Therefore, we will try our best possible to increase the voting rights and improve on their representations,“ he said. He also hinted at the possibility of appointing an African deputy director general.
At IMF’s inception African countries had 11.2 percent of voting rights but their share has fallen to two percent. The rights are calculated on the basis of financial contributions.
Mozambique’s Finance Minister Manuel Chang said he hoped to see the African vote raised to six percent “in the first instance“ and then in stages “until we arrive at our initial voting capacity“.
African countries have demanded a reform of IMF working rules to include factors such as population and economic development in the calculation of voting rights.

HONG KONG,
Aug. 21--The finance chiefs of the world’s two biggest economies promised on Tuesday to keep a close watch on jittery markets, which are trying to gauge if the worst of the global financial storm has passed. But Japan’s Koji Omi, following a conversation with US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, said there were no plans for an emergency meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations following sharp gyrations in global markets, Reuters reported.
Underlining lingering doubts about the health of financial markets, Australia’s central bank once again pumped sizeable amounts of cash into its banking system to help meet short-term mismatches in liquidity.
Asian equity markets held firm after Monday’s Fed-inspired rally, but after hefty falls last week, investors were wary.
“There is still sense of caution in the air. I think the main reason for the strong rebound was that what happened last week was a little bit overdone. There is a certain extent of bottom fishing but generally investors are watchful,“ said Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS Bank in Singapore.
“If there is more bad news, what we saw last week is probably going to repeat itself. Most people think it will take another two months before things calm down.“
Markets were boosted by the US Federal Reserve’s surprise decision on Friday to slash a key US bank lending rate, responding to a seizure in some parts of the credit market triggered by a meltdown in the US subprime mortgage market.
The Reserve Bank of Australia continued to provide liquidity to its markets. It added A$3.45 billion ($2.78 billion) in cash in a regular daily money market operation, having earlier estimated a deficit for the banking system of A$3.275 billion.
Omi told a news conference in Tokyo that he spoke by telephone with Paulson and they had agreed to keep a close eye on markets and to stay in close contact. The finance minister said he had a frank discussion with Paulson on market and economic conditions. “We agreed that we will watch markets developments carefully for a while,“ Omi said, adding he would keep in contact with policy makers in other countries.

Nike itself is one firm that has repeatedly seen its footwear and other sporting goods copied in China.

BEIJING, Aug. 21--China has launched a new campaign to restore international trust in its products with a weeklong television series defending the country’s safety standards. The new television campaign titled “Believe in Made in China“ follows discoveries of high levels of chemicals and toxins in a range of Chinese exports from toys to toothpaste and fish, AP reported.
The first program in the series aired Sunday on China Central Television’s economic channel and featured the head of a quality watchdog criticizing the recent furor over the quality of Chinese exports as “demonizing China’s products.“
“Personally, I believe it is new trend in trade protectionism. Although recalls are necessary, it is unfair to decide that all products made in China are unqualified,“ Li Changjiang, director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said on the 90-minute segment. Li said his department was doing everything possible to monitor product quality.
“I’m here to tell you have faith in ’Made in China,’“ Li told a group of foreign and Chinese executives and journalists invited to view the show.
The programs can be seen only in China and will feature interviews with Chinese producers and officials as well as foreign buyers and chambers of commerce, CCTV said on its Web site.
Despite Beijing’s pledges to clamp down on counterfeiting, fake goods are still widely produced and sold in China.
Two Chinese shoemakers and a French supermarket group have been ordered to pay Nike compensation over fake shoes. Jinjiang Longzhibu Shoes, Jinjiang Kangwei Shoes and France’s Auchan, must pay a total of 350,000 yuan ($46,100; £23,300) to Nike, BBC reported.
The fake Nike trainers were found on sale in Auchan’s Shanghai store. This has led to repeated complaints from Western governments, most recently by the US, which last week formally requested that the World Trade Organization crack down on Chinese piracy and counterfeiting.
In the latest court case in Shanghai, Jinjiang Longzhibu Shoes was ordered to pay Nike 100,000 yuan, with Jinjiang Kangwei Shoes and Auchan being ordered to pay 90,000 yuan and 160,000 yuan respectively.
In the most recent development, the New Zealand government has said it will investigate whether imported Chinese-made children’s clothes have dangerously high levels of the chemical formaldehyde.

LONDON, Aug. 21--Investor confidence in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, probably fell to a seven-month low in August after equity markets tumbled, a survey of economists shows. The ZEW Center for European Economic Research’s index of investor and analyst expectations declined to minus 1.5, the lowest since January, from 10.4 in the previous month, according to the median of 36 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey.
Stock markets worldwide dropped last week, sending the benchmark index in Germany to the lowest level in four months, as concern deepened that companies will find it harder to borrow money after a crisis in the US mortgage market. German economic growth slowed more than economists forecast in the second quarter as a construction boom faded.
“We’ll see a relatively strong influence of the most recent market turbulence and concerns about possible negative consequences for the economy,“ said Juergen Michels, chief economist at Citigroup Inc. in London. “It doesn’t mean that we’ll have a dramatic slowdown in Germany, however.“
Credit-market turmoil worsened two weeks ago after some European banks acknowledged their vulnerability to rising defaults on American subprime mortgages, aimed at borrowers with a poor credit history. BNP Paribas SA, France’s biggest bank, was forced to halt withdrawals from three of its investment funds.
The European Central Bank and other central banks injected more than $350 billion of emergency funds into money markets to smooth lending between banks.
“We expect a considerable drop in German investor confidence,“ said Sebastian Wanke, an economist at Dekabank in Frankfurt. A decline in German stocks “can’t go by without a trace on those monitoring financial markets.“
There’s no reason to assume that there may be serious dangers for the German economy from the subprime mortgage crisis, the Berlin-based DIW economic institute said. The institute expects German growth to accelerate to 0.4 percent in the third quarter from 0.3 percent in the second.
German unemployment fell more than forecast in July, pushing the jobless rate to a 14-year low of 9 percent. Consumer confidence rose to an eight-month high, GfK AG’s index for August, based on a survey of about 2,000 people, showed.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Aug. 21--Britain is seeking to persuade its EU partners to resume imports of British meat by restricting its ban to the area of England where foot and mouth disease has been found, sources said Monday. A European Union veterinary expert panel will meet in Brussels on Thursday to reconsider the ban imposed early this month.
London hopes the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCOFCAH) will agree to “regionalize“ the ban, thereby designating most of Britain a “low-risk“ area for the disease, meaning meat and dairy produce could be exported although a livestock ban would remain, the sources said, AFP reported.
Currently the whole of Britain, with the exception of Northern Ireland, is considered a high-risk area with the ban extending to foodstuffs.
The EU committee at its last meeting imposed the ban until August 25. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is backing Britain’s moves to get the wider banned lifted as soon as possible.
At Thursday’s meeting “we expect to discuss the scope of high-risk and low-risk zones,“ said Philip Tod, spokesman for EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou. “Our aim is to regionalize as soon as the situation allows,“ he added.
A European diplomatic source said that Britain was seeking to have the high-risk zone restricted to the area around the Surrey farms in southern England where the highly infectious disease has been found.
Stewart Houston, who is part of a core group of industry experts advising Britain’s environment ministry on its foot-and-mouth policy, voiced confidence that the EU experts would accept Britain’s proposals.
Britain’s environment ministry on Monday announced the further easing of restrictions imposed after the country’s first outbreak of foot and mouth disease since 2001.
From Thursday, farmers outside the protection and surveillance zones in the county of Surrey, south-east England, will be allowed to transport livestock to collection centers where they are sorted and sized before sale and slaughter.

LONDON, Aug. 21--Global stock markets were mixed on Tuesday, with European indices falling despite earlier gains in Asia, as traders warned of more volatile swings sparked by ongoing credit crunch concerns.
“The uncertainty, as far as the credit crisis is concerned, is not yet over,“ said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Keith Bowman, AFP reported.
Tokyo, Hong Kong and most other Asian markets rallied for a second straight day Tuesday amid fears over a potential global credit crisis that could jeopardize global economic growth, dealers said.
However, Frankfurt, London and Paris markets sank into the red on Tuesday, erasing gains won at the open.
Wall Street had closed mixed Monday as investors mulled the US Federal Reserve’s actions to keep credit flowing in the face of a deepening mortgage crisis in the United States.
Rising numbers of American households are failing to keep up with payments on home loans in the US subprime or high-risk mortgage sector.
That has sparked investor fears over a potential credit squeeze--whereby banks suspend normal lending practices.
On Friday, the Fed the discount rate it charges commercial banks by a half-point to 5.75 percent, raising expectations it may also lower its key federal funds rate, the overnight rate banks charge each other.
“People have had time to sit back and reflect on the Fed’s rate cut that we saw on Friday,“ Bowman added Tuesday.
“It is seen as easing the difficulties--but it is not seen as potentially removing them. For that reason markets are still set for uncertainty.“
European and Asian markets had finished higher on Monday as calm appeared to return to global equity markets following last week’s rocky trade that was capped by the Fed announcement.
The ongoing volatility “induces downside risks“ to the global economy, according to economist Ross Walker at The Royal Bank of Scotland.
“The stock markets, and conditions in the credit markets, will make it more difficult and more expensive for companies to raise finance -- but we don’t really yet know how much more difficult,“ Walker said.
He added: “If markets were to stabilise around current levels I don’t think it would be significant for economic growth but it might give it a little bit of a knock.“
On Tuesday, many Asian markets clawed back more of their hefty recent losses, with the region’s largest market in Tokyo closing up 1.07 percent.