 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Iraqi session of the World Economic Forum in the Middle East and North Africa. My name is Sunna Vidinli. I'm an anchor for Turkey's leading network and TV and television. I'll be moderating the panel today. We have four very important guests with us to discuss the future of Iraq. Let me first introduce you my panelist. His Eminence Said Amar al-Hakim is the Chairman of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq. His Excellency Mr. Baker J. Zubedi is the Member of Parliament of Iraqi National Assembly. Also formerly the Minister of Finance of Iraq. We have His Excellency Mr. Salih Mohammed Almutlak who is the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq. And finally Mr. Wadi Habush President and CEO of Habush Group. Today we're going to discuss how Iraq is doing. Despite what the headlines of the news media project to the world, Iraq is actually a country that promises significant growth in the coming years. We're going to discuss how Iraq can deliver this inclusive growth in light of the changes in the region and the current political and security landscape. We will see how different groups making up the Iraqi society could achieve that. In light of this introduction I would like to start with His Eminence Mr. Said Amar al-Hakim. As we know obviously Iraq is made up of Shiites and Sunnis and also Kurdish region. There were in the past years a lot of confusion about how these sects were interacting with each other. We sometimes hear of the conflict as well. As the Supreme Leader how do you see in the coming years your projection of the different sects interacting with each other for a common goal in Iraq if we could start with that? In the name of God, most compassionate, most merciful. At the outset we would like to extend our congratulations to the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan to its king, its government and its people for the 67th anniversary of its independence. As to the question you raised, we hear a lot about Iraq. What we hear may be positive or negative. Some of this may be true. Some may only look at the half full glass and the others may see only the empty half. And some may look at the partial picture. The crisis in Iraq goes well beyond the Iraqi borders. There is a regional situation in which we see a rich fabric of nationalities and religions. We find this in all countries in one manner or the other. Sometimes it is a composition of Sunni and Shiite. Sometimes it is Christians and Muslims. Sometimes it is an Islamist orientation and a civil orientation. There is diversity and pluralism. This all means we have to reach a consensual point of view to know how we can live with each other. How can we judge issues in a manner that would bring in all these different groups and would give them a sense of confidence and security? The Iraqi situation with the presence of foreign forces on its territories, the way the regime was changed, all this led to many concerns regionally and internationally. This placed major challenges before us over the last decade. And we all feel that we have taken important steps forward and we have to continue this process with additional steps. The progress is major but we need to achieve more for we have major ambitions. Iraq is a rich country. It has a civilization that goes back 7,000 years. It has huge human and material resources if we can, as Iraqis, agree on a partnership of the strong and seek out the strong that would represent all the different components of this country. And if we can determine or decide on a security creed that will go beyond a purely security or criminal approach for the security situation is related not merely to the criminal aspect of the matter but it is related to the broader structure of the country. It also includes the regional component and the countries of the region that may have their own fears of the situation and its repercussions. Therefore, we have to re-draft the security concept that can establish good neighborhood relations with the neighboring countries and within the country itself between the different components in addition to the importance of vision for development and for developing our services. All this will place Iraq on the right path. A new security concept for the neighboring region. I'd like to turn to Mr. Zubaydi. When we talk about a security concept, obviously Iraq has six neighbors. All of them, we can say four Arabic and two Islamic ones. These two Islamic ones, one of them is obviously Turkey and the other one is Iran. As an experienced politician, how do you see Iraq in the coming years balancing out the different relations it has between Iran, its relations via Iran and vis-à-vis Turkey? When we talk about Iraqi relations with the four Arab countries, the four neighboring Arab countries, is one matter. And this is different than a discussion of our two other neighboring countries, Turkey and Iran. When we go back into history, if we go back 400 years, for example, we shall find that Ottoman, Turkey occupied Iraq. And at other periods in time, the Safawid regime of Iran occupied Iraq. But modern Iraq, if it wants to have stability, it should have the best of relations with these two states, with Turkey and with Iran. For we have 1,450 kilometers of borders with the Islamic Republic of Iran and over 600 kilometers of borders with Turkey. In addition, we are in need of these two states in our commercial relations in exporting our oil through Turkish territories and in the future to export our gas through Turkey to Europe. And Iraq could be the link, the bridge between the Gulf countries and Europe through Turkey. Therefore, I believe having good relations and to overcome any tensions that may arise now and then is the wise policy. And if it balances the relations with these two countries, it can overcome the crisis. Prime Minister Mr. Almutlak, obviously when we talk about relations vis-a-vis Turkey, one cannot help but ask that they were deteriorating during Maliki's period. Turkey and Iran used to enjoy a considerable smooth relation period but then when Maliki came to power, those relations have deteriorated. How do you as the deputy prime minister evaluate that? Maiki, somehow they seem, comes increasingly closer to Iran and the Turkish foreign minister has been increasingly vocal about saying its criticisms towards Maliki. So I'd like to know your personal reaction to that relationship. In fact, since the U.S. occupation of Iraq and even prior to that period our relations with Turkey were excellent. And these relations continued to be excellent until some politicians made certain declarations. These declarations angered some of the politicians in Turkey, especially when they were personalized. And this led to a situation of revenge and retaliation. I did not reflect a true problem between the two countries. There are common interests that Turkey cannot keep away from Iraq. Nor can Iraq move away from Turkey. This is a strategic situation. We need water and most of the sources of our waters are from Turkey. Turkey has a huge market in Iraq, hence it will be undermined if this market is undermined. I believe that the whole problem arose from certain statements made by some politicians and this led to a retaliation. In addition, the marginalization of certain parts of the population in Iraq is partly related to what is happening with Turkey. There are certain parties in the political process that are acting in a manner that was not the norm. Turkey started to focus on the issue and wanted to set it straight and this is a matter that has to be set straight anyway, no matter what the Turkish position is and no matter whether Turkey intervenes or not. We have to set straight our internal relations. This should not be dependent on the intervention of any states such as Turkey or Iran. If the Iraqis are able to live in harmony amongst themselves and focus on Iraq and their sole interest to develop Iraq, then no neighboring country can intervene in the affairs of Iraq as is happening today. However, due to these political differences between important political components in Iraq, this allows opportunity for this country or that to exploit this situation. To the neighboring countries and the relations. But in most cases, that intervention was also welcomed. The northern side of Iraq did want to cooperate extensively with the Turkish government, so it was a complicated relationship going on there. I'll turn to Mr. Wadi Habush. Mr. Habush Group is a big group that operates in the region. Most of our guests here might be wondering what's going on in the ground in Iraq. Are there big companies there? Are they investing there? A lot of international focus has been on the northern region because the Kurdish region is obviously autonomous, so they have been attracting a lot of investment. What's going on in the south? What kind of companies are operating there? What are you guys doing there? Can you just give us a general economic outlook of the region? Sure. You're absolutely right in terms of perception. As an Iraqi and as an Iraqi businessman, we unfortunately suffer from a huge misperception of what is going on in the south of Iraq particularly, which is where we operate and where our group is heavily interested, one for various reasons. Sure, my native background is from that area, so that's what really draws me into that region. But more so than that, it's not just that, but the economic dynamics are quite simple. I think the south offers huge potential. When you look at it from a macroeconomic standpoint, you see the demographics and also looking at security, which is also fairly assessed, you look and you see where is the oil coming from? Where is the natural resource? The natural resource is from the south. Today, the majority of exports of oil come from Basra. There is no doubt this is something that everybody I think in this room also knows. Where are most of the reserves of Iraq? Where are 96% of the oil reserves of Iraq? They're from the south. To answer your question in terms of are there operations or are these things just sort of there? No, I would say there are operations. If you go to Basra, you do see a movement of the economy. You see energy companies there. Major oil companies have mobilized. They have American companies, western companies, Asian companies, the Chinese. We are there cooperating with all those international players to ensure that their operations also work successfully and that they are utilizing the local labour force and the local means to execution and operation. It's fairly simple that I go back to the fact that we have a misperception in the business world and in the business sector. Our international friends outside of our borders do not really see and they do not know what is really happening on the ground outside of Kurdistan which has done a marvelous job and I have to applaud them for their marvelous job in presenting their region and really saying look, we need to look at our future. We need to connect with the outside world and we need to do it. We lack that in the rest of Iraq. In the next round I'll ask more specifics about the economic outlook. Can I turn to Mr. Zubayli? Why do you have talks about Basra and how critical it is obviously for Iraq? As far as I remember, there was a law that was passed to make Basra an economic capital, that is. It's a hub, it's a port. So what has happened to that? Because during Maliki's time it has been somehow tabled and it hasn't been executed. How does that help affect the overall economy of Iraq and why was that law tabled in your opinion? Maybe Salih Mutlak do that. Because he's the Deputy Prime Minister. Let me first get your reaction and then I'll go. I'm sorry. He will have the question as well. Basra is the economic capital and Mr. Al-Hakeem in his visit raised this project. It is an important project in any modern democratic state that wants its economy to move forward. This is the case in European countries and it is in Turkey. Istanbul is the economic capital and Istanbul set the example for all the different governance of Turkey. If we take for example the airport or the Istanbul airport today it hosts 1,200 planes a day and this of course employs so many workers and receives so many tourists. It receives a commercial movement. Now, I was entrusted as head of the Muwatin block, the parliamentarian block to adopt the question of making Basra the economic capital and I think all the different blocks we were limited in number for in the recent elections. Yes, today we are number one. We got the highest number of votes in the different governance councils but in the last elections we had a setback and in spite of this we were able to persuade all the different blocks through meetings with the heads of the blocks to draft this law and then it went through the different committees the finance committee, the reconstruction committee the legal committee and then through the presidency and then it was voted on. It got the highest number of votes and the law was passed but this law needs money in order really to turn the city into an economic capital to draw the interest of the world to this city to have international airports as a civil engineer and as a businessman I calculated it about 250,000 jobs would be created in the area and there is unemployment there today. Unfortunately our brothers in the government and I want to ask Mr. Al-Mutlaq perhaps he has the answer. What's happening now? I ask you sir to take the law out of the drawers and to activate it. But there are, may I ask there are allegations of corruption towards Miley's government obviously Urak just had the provincial elections and Miley's party did not do so well now you have the general elections coming up as well in light of all of these criticisms we look at this, deterring relations with Turkey within inside the economic stagnation how do you think the Miley's party going to perform in the coming elections and what are your reactions to the current performance of Miley's since you are the deputy prime minister I mean I know that you do not agree totally with everything Miley is saying and those some politicians you were talking about in your previous speeches actually Miley but we are on record so You have to answer, you have to answer The main ally of Miley is Mr. Al Baqir I worked with him three or four years of these I was in two years in and two years out of the government in all cases, seriously I believe that corruption is a major problem in Iraq however if there is a political will from all the political groupings to combat financial corruption in Iraq we would be able to achieve a boom in the country but in all honesty I have to say that most of the political blocks in Iraq are involved in the corruption that exists hence they pay lip service but and this lip service covers the fact that there is no true intent to hold accountable the more important symbols of this corruption had the intention existed to hold them accountable the situation would have been different but to hold these people accountable means to shake the foundations of power and then these blocks in parliament may be led to withdraw confidence from the prime minister for example so here I'm not defending Miley and I'm well aware that perhaps corruption was most rampant during the last two governments and both were headed by Miley the largest demonstration of corruption was during these two governments so it is not just a matter of the state or the Miley government all the political groupings should be involved in combating terrorism it means confronting those within each of the blocks who are involved in corruption I want to move on to another topic that is very important and we have not talked about this so far Iraq is a rich country it has great wealth and it could build one of the greatest countries of the world but one of the obstructions in the face of that is corruption and it's not only financial corruption we are speaking also of administrative corruption ever since the political process started and since we established our new governments we brought in incompetent elements we pushed away all the qualified people due to certain laws that were put in place by Bremer and the politicians followed in that path therefore political leaders found new administrative arms who could carry out their plans Mr. Bayan Jabbar spoke about Basra and the capital needed for Al-Basra today and over the last three years we find that Basra was not able to spend over 60% of the allocations made for it in the field of investment there are monies but there is no qualified administration for these funds why? because unqualified people were put in positions of responsibility and this has been the case since the beginning of the political process in Iraq we have the second or third size of all reserves in the world we account 10th in gas reserves perhaps we are the first or the second in phosphate deposits we have huge resources we are the dry channel through which goods can be exported and this can be a major source of returns for the country energy politics as well obviously Iraq has gone through an invasion a foreign invasion and we are all sympathizing with the fact that after any invasion there is a painful transition period and it's not easy once all of your infrastructure has been bombarded into pieces so we understand that and we sympathize with that to the specifics I'll go back but may I turn to his Eminence Al-Hakim when you watch this and when you see this whole picture both within Iraq the Shiites against the Sunnis against the Shias in the Kurds they're competing with each other when you look at neighboring Syria as well our Muslim brothers are also being killed there by Assad's forces obviously you are a supreme leader and there is a surah in the Quran in Maida it says if God had so willed he would have made you one community he has not done so in order to try all of you in competing with each other in good deeds as the Muslims of Iraq let me put it this way do you feel that Muslims are living up to their book or are they failing in that respect? Thank you as I said in my intervention the complexity of the formula in Iraq and in the reasons that have given rise to sectarian strife which is actually a political form of strife and not a sectarian one and we have noted that over the long history of Iraq the Shiites and the Sunnis the Christians and the Kurds and the Yazidis and the Sabias all of them lived together and intermarried nobody asked his neighbor what his sect was and nobody cared if his wife or relative was from this or that sect there has been an exploitation of this matter going beyond the borders of Iraq and the Iraqis whether Sunni or Shi'a became the victims of this agenda in 2006 and after this pace we found that the Iraqis soon went back to their former harmony when the extremists were curbed recently there have been other efforts made by these extremist forces exploiting the regional tension that we are all witnessing in the region and the Syrian situation is one of these considerations we are for democracy and freedom in Syria we are in a peaceful turnover of power we are for free and transparent elections we want the Syrian people to run their own affairs yet we are for the peaceful people to take up the role to take up the role needed we have seen some extremist elements acting with bloody brutality and making calls of God is great this is not Islam and this is not democracy and what will happen if such people attain power what will they do to the Syrians firstly and what will they do to the neighboring region we in Iraq feel very concerned about such behavior and we hope that there will be a peaceful political solution that will enable the Syrians to regain the initiative and run their own affairs all this has created tension within Iraq and some extremist groups have hardened their position depending on the situation in Syria the regional situation is impacted by what is happening in the region hence we need a regional solution regional misunderstandings to address this we feel that the understanding between the different political forces is much better than before there may be certain reservations on this or that political personality yet there is dialogue there are deliberations and we have the opportunity to bring together our home, our internal home and move ahead they actualize I want to go back to Wadi Habush Wadi obviously this is a World Economic Forum meeting so there are many young professionals also businessmen you've educated yourself in the States and you actually have offices in Turkey and the United States and other places if you want to give out a message here there are many expat Iraqis that live outside of Iraq obviously and some people are hesitant about coming and investing in Iraq what would be some of the your message would be to your fellow businessman or to fellow investors who would want to come what would be some of the challenges and risks that face them and what would be the advantages of coming to Iraq to invest I face this challenge pretty much every day in dealing with foreign partners and also in dealing with as you mentioned the Iraqi expatriates who are living overseas and have spent their life pretty much overseas waiting in exile for the right time to come back home which came to us in 2003 and that's what really brought me back and hold me back to my native grounds but the challenge is two folds one is for the Iraqi living overseas a lot of them have accustomed their lives to being overseas and a lot of them have actually accustomed their business their commerce to being part of those communities so it's very very hard for them to actually even come back to Iraq and re-establish themselves on the ground and build a foundation from scratch and it's not just building a foundation and moving an office or moving people but it's actually also a cultural issue we live in a country today where there is a disparity between as you mentioned young business leaders there is a disparity in my generation and I see it by being on the ground in Iraq and one of the main reasons of why I want to rebuild my business in Iraq is to really help my country as a lot of our political friends are here to work on the political side in my side I want to really give back to my community by building a business so this is one of the major aspects that I do see is by really becoming the bridge of bringing back all those utilities that we were able to learn overseas and let's call them sophisticated methodologies or business practices etc bring those back so that my generation all that time that has actually surpassed where they have not been able to educate themselves or learn or really have let's say a freezing between what's happening inside of the country and what's happening outside of the country the mere fact of globalization is something that a lot of Iraqis don't really understand to date still or if they do understand that it's not understanding is not enough but it's also about execution how do you execute globalization how do you bring Iraq back into the global business community and then when you talk to the other side which is the foreign partners and you're trying to convince them as an Iraqi look whether they're from the region or whether they are from Asia, from America a lot of the questions come again back to what I said earlier, perception perception of security issues perception of corruption of what you addressed with His Excellency Deputy Prime Minister and I try to fight these I try to fight these risks by mitigating these risks for them helping them, giving them a different understanding of what's going so my message is if anybody really is really interested in doing something in Iraq or if you are let's say you have a little bit of doubt in Iraq let me help you release that doubt come with me, visit Basra you will be my guest I will show you around and you will not need 10 or 15 bodyguards with armored vehicles taking you around you will feel safe you will feel the Basra Hospitality the Iraqi Hospitality the generosity of the people on the ground an opening invitation ladies and gentlemen to the business management this is an open invitation you could meet Mr. Habush after the session this is an open invitation to anybody who wants to visit south of Iraq Kurt is your world economic part but true, what you said is true and I think it's important a family legacy is important and a legacy for a country so I think besides the obviously the informal part of it but it's important to go back and I think that has a lot of challenges that come with it I would like to turn to Mr. Zubaydi do you have an economic model or a political model that you see for Iraq obviously oil politics is a major part of Iraqi economy I know that there are a few projects on the table and the capacity of oil production actually could rise so what is the situation there if you could draw us the big picture what should Iraq do what kind of oil pipelines should be built or should be reactivated what is needed there in that respect the ministry of oil and the government of Iraq have actually started signing contracts service contracts and ever since the very beginning I have said very clearly at the ministry at the prime ministers office I have said that such contracts cannot actually be executed because there are no companies who would like to come and serve a country without gaining profits I believe that any company would like to get profits from any investment and at the end of the day the government decided not to turn to these service contracts and not to turn to what is known as sharing revenue contracts they decided to turn to bidding that is to say they turned to international companies and they brought them to Iraq unfortunately no prior planning took place no prior planning in order to build new pipelines for this oil that is going to be extracted and how that oil that is going to be extracted is going to be exported unfortunately there were no such plans and the ministry of oil has failed hence in increasing the oil productivity in Iraq it turned to those international companies in order to enhance or to increase productivity but unfortunately once they have increased productivity there were no pipelines in order to transport that oil and I think that that problem has not yet been settled as it should have been and according to the contracts that were signed we were supposed to export 10 to 12 million barrels of oil every day now we are exporting around 3 million barrels of oil per day of course we have achieved some progress unfortunately we have problems when it comes to licensing for example the prices that are given by companies in order to buy pens for example pens that you can buy for one dollar in the market you see that those companies are considering the price of those pens to be 30 dollars and here a watch that you can buy for 10 dollars is written down as being a watch for 3000 dollars now this is one of the major problems that we are facing and I personally believe that we need to increase productivity because we are growing as a country and we are achieving great growth because of the real economic growth that is taking place in Iraq we have industrial growth we have agricultural growth and we are achieving and progress on all levels including when it comes to the sale of oil but we cannot depend only on the selling of oil we need to enhance our revenues that are not oil generated because any country that has oil can increase its oil generated revenues I believe that we have a problem with Kurdistan because we are negotiating with Kurdistan we are discussing a number of contracts with Kurdistan we don't know if Kurdistan is going to build pipelines through Turkey or not this situation because he is the deputy prime minister the situation in the north is a bit complicated why don't you continue with this is your job I will continue with questions let's see coming back to the subject the Turkish government has signed contracts with the northern Kurdish region with ExxonMobil to drive oil from there and they have been doing that because the Turkish energy minister says 19 countries are operating there are like 40 companies in the north why should we not do business with the northern region but that is bypassing the central government the Maliki government what is your take on that the increased cooperation between the Turkish government and the Kurdish region and what does the Maliki government standpoint this is by far the most interactive session of the whole forum ladies and gentlemen look if the problem now the problem between Iraq and Turkey was over personalised and it was inflated Turkey refused to build such a pipeline between Kurdistan and Turkey however in the past few days and because of the situation that we are witnessing each country is trying to focus on its own priorities I personally don't agree with this I don't think that Kurdistan I don't think that Kurdistan should deal with companies in a way that is different than the way the central government is dealing with those companies because Kurdistan at the end of the day is part of Iraq we need a unified oil policy for the entire of Iraq otherwise we are not talking about one country we are talking about two different states and each state has its own policies and its own way of doing things this is my own personal point of view I think that many people might criticise me for this point of view but this is my personal opinion I believe that this is not something that should be tolerated and I believe that any agreement between any part of Iraq and any other country should go through the central government any dealings and any cooperation between any part of Iraq and any other part of any other country should be through the central government and in cooperation with the central government cooperation government and even the US administration knows about that so the situation in the ground and the situation in Bada are completely different at this point I'd like to turn to the audience right now if there are any questions please sir is there a microphone for the gentleman my name is Dr. Goktuna I'm from Istanbul next international my question goes to Deputy Prime Minister a simple question and we wanted to work with the central government Iraq projects state projects and we were turned back they said that Turkish companies are not welcomed are we boycotted or not would like to have a clear answer please thank you I will first get all of the questions any other questions yes sir I have a microphone Shakir Wajid I am Shakir Wajid and I head Dana Gas Company in Kurdistan I actually don't have a question I have a comment a comment about the real problem in Iraq the real problem in Iraq has to do with the fact that two laws were issued two very bold laws a law about oil and gas about the distribution of revenues in the country the distribution of the resources of the country do I would like to correct some of your information about the relation between the Turkish government and the Iraqi government regarding energy and oil first you have to go to the Iraqi constitution there are articles 111, 12 and 15 which really regulate the work between the region and the central government and the second thing I agree with the deputy prime minister you cannot have a region anywhere in international law can work independently from its federal government thank you I agree with you sir and I think that is the right the constitution says that but I have to say as the moderator the situation in the ground is different than what the constitution says so in order to clarify yes hello says Bayan my question goes to Mr. Bayan what are your expectations about the situation the security and political situation in Iraq in the coming few months questions from the audience if there are any ok ok if there are no further questions I am going to go back to it ok one more let's take that as well we know we know that all advanced democratic states have political parties to political parties in Britain we have two political parties two main political parties in the US we also have two key political parties the democrats and the republicans and I would like to turn to the politicians here in this room and I would like to ask you when do you think that we might see only two political parties in Iraq my second question the Iraqi constitution states that the economy in Iraq must be a free economy however after 10 years we still have not seen a free economy in Iraq and we have not even seen any indication that there will be a free economy in Iraq when do you think we'll be able to have a free economy in Iraq let's start with the deputy prime minister Al-Mutlak you've heard the questions so I believe that the person who asked the question actually agreed with what I said so I will not attempt to reply to what he said your question sir I personally and to the best of my knowledge I don't think that there is any decision that has been taken within the Iraqi government to boycott Turkish companies however there are some people who make statements here and there however from a legal point of view no minister no prime minister and no deputy prime minister can prevent any Turkish company from dealing or from having business in Iraq there was no decision taken in this field there was no agreement on this and I don't think that we need to do this we must not boycott Turkish companies we are welcoming Turkish companies in Iraq they are more than welcome in Iraq and if there are some problems in Iraq I believe and some problems between Iraq and Turkey I believe that we as good neighbors we have proven that we are quite capable of cooperating with each other and of building strong economic and political ties in all fields so that we can achieve the development of both countries this cooperation is very important and this political cooperation is very important any conflicts in this field would actually harm both countries and we must avoid them security concept but also before the security some questions two questions about how distribute the budget and also about the law of gas the oil and gas law it was adopted in 2007 and then within the council of ministers there was a problem when it comes to this law there was no agreement on this law and it was postponed I personally believe that it should not have been postponed because delaying the adoption and the implementation of this law would only make the situation more complex unfortunately this law was not endorsed and a different law actually was endorsed in 2009 a different law it is now ready so we have this law from 2007 and another law from 2009 I personally believe that this law should be endorsed and should be implemented as quickly as possible I believe that the key political blocks in Iraq have actually agreed more or less on the importance of these two laws because we know that the situation on the ground is different we know in Kurdistan they have started digging for oil and gas now I think that Basra and any other region does not have the right to export its oil or its gas to Soleimaniya or to any other country or Soleimaniya does not have the right to export its own gas and oil this gas and oil is the property of the Iraqi population and I believe that all the revenues of the selling gas and oil has to come to the central government through the DFI because we know that we are still working under this DFI agreement we're still paying compensation to Kuwait and I am quite astonished why some people are talking about the distribution of the riches or the distribution of the revenues of oil and gas we have one budget this budget has different categories and this budget sometimes has deficits and we have the public budget of the state that has to be adopted by the council of ministers and by the parliament and then by the president's office and then this budget can be adopted and it becomes a law now speaking about the distribution of revenues I know that some people are speaking about this and have been speaking about this ever since 2007 but I believe that we must not distribute revenues in this way we need to create different funds maybe we need to have 10 maybe 10 different DFI's it is I know that it is difficult to have more than one DFI because we need to ensure that the central government controls its funds and controls its budget I think that the constitution is very clear it says that the oil and gas of Iraq are the property of the population of Iraq and have to be distributed in line with the number of citizens and the population of Iraq now there are some problems that have not been settled yet we don't know whether these grievances we have a number of grievances we don't know whether these grievances come from the pre-Saddam era or from after the fall of Saddam era and anyway when it comes to the other question about the two key political parties it is true that there are two political parties in Great Britain and also in the USA and in other countries but this is the result of more than 300 years of democratic process whereas we in Iraq we are democracy is recent in Iraq and I believe that the number of political parties have actually been reduced over the past years and it shall be reduced in the future and maybe one day we'll only have two political parties so that's the lady and Mr. Mutlak if you want to say may I turn to his Eminence Nisir Hakim when I hear about oil production and different steaks Kerkuk comes to my mind so I would like to know your personal opinion about the future of Kerkuk for our audience here it's a very oil rich region but different steaks have different claims on that region the situation on the ground is very delicate as a supreme leader what are your hopes and what are your expectations concerning the future of Kerkuk because it's an asset for all of Iraq obviously but it seems that some conflict might arise anytime there thank you if you allow me I'd like to go back to the question about two political parties I believe that this is very important I don't think that we will have two political parties by reducing the number of parties gradually what we need to do is to have a clear political path that does not have political or religious affiliations and this way and of course with a number of years we'll be able to have two political parties the layman in Iraq is now more ready to accept certain political stances that were not accepted maybe five or ten years ago we have the unified coalition in Iraq and we had Jabhat Attawafuq which had its own way of thinking and Attawafuq block had also its own way of thinking and nobody in the past would have thought or could have thought that somebody from one of these factions or from one of those blocks would come out with an opinion that is different from the opinion of the block to which he or she belongs now in Erbil we see that some people are thinking out of the box they are thinking in a way that is different so this means that we are actually building a political faction that does not belong to a certain political or certain religious affiliations now Mr. Saleh al-Mutlak today who is part of the government and some of his colleagues are no longer part of the government we hope to see them back in the government but just this shows us that we are a modern and advanced country that is more diverse politically speaking than it was in the past and now examiners what would you say about the future of Karku when it comes to Karkuk I believe that Karkuk belongs to the people of Karkuk and we need to give to the people of Karkuk whether they are Arab or Turkmen Christians or Muslims we need to give them back what belongs to them because Karkuk actually is an example of the diversity that we have in Iraq it's hard for us to come here and to judge the situation in Karkuk and to say that Karkuk belongs to this or that faction or to this or that category of the population we need to give the people of Karkuk a say in the matter and I believe that if they ask us our opinion we would tell them that the best thing to do would be to agree on a common way to administer Karkuk talking about Karkuk and talking about certain minorities or majorities in Karkuk could have huge repercussions on the country as a whole. I believe that we need to respect the diversity of the city and to respect the needs of the entire population of Karkuk regardless of their political or sectarian affiliations Reward to Mr. Mutlag and the last word would go to Mr. Wadi Habbush I would like to second what was said by Mr. Al Hakim it is true that we need political parties that are not restricted to certain political or to certain religious affiliations that are cross sectarian we need to do that in order to have strong political parties in the country. When we established the dialogue block in Iraq in 2004 we participated in the elections at the time and there were other blocks taking part in those elections blocks that were Sunni and other blocks that were Shia and ever since those elections back in 2004 we understood that we needed cross sectarian political parties otherwise we will hinder the development of the country it is true that we did not win many votes we did win some votes we did secure some votes and we knew that those votes would provide us with the nucleus that would enable us to grow in the future and that the solution would be what was said by Mr. Al Hakim we need political parties that are cross sectarian that would make citizens feel that they belong to Iraq and not to certain political or religious sects to the lady here we have a question I have a question regarding the most educated people among the region historically and the most cultured people don't see why the people of Iraq cannot build their country my question to the public isn't that if they improve the public service delivery if they treat their clients and look for customer satisfaction and make equity and fairness in delivering the services don't you think that people will forget all about their clashes about their political and religious conflicts thank you I would direct this question to Wadi Havush because he's a businessman and he represents the young generation as well you've been overseas as well so what the lady is saying rightly so what kind of expectations Iraq obviously has an important legacy in world history cradle of civilizations Baghdad was very important I had the luxury of having visited Baghdad one of the most beautiful cities in the world it was just before the war and then it was very painful to see it get bombarded into pieces obviously so obviously difficult times painful transition periods Wadi what as a businessman and as a young Iraqi as well what are your expectations what would you like the politicians to achieve there and what's your future outlook I think to answer to the lady's comments I think the question is fairly simple which is Iraq does have the Iraq is geopolitically well positioned the socio-dynamic of Iraq is a mosaic as his eminence laid out I grew up even you know not knowing what is religion what is sectarianism what is ethnicity we had neighbors that we really didn't even I didn't even know what their religion was but they were brothers and sisters to me complete strangers so you know as an Iraqi I second the lady in terms of Iraqi people being very cultured historically being very sensitive multicultural sensitive people and they remain to be by the way and that's why I extended an invitation to everybody to see that but I think what we have is really and to put it really out front it is a political question nothing more it's not a question of culture of religion it's not a question of society it's a question of it's a political balance and I think it goes back to management because I'm a businessman and I believe everything has management you manage your family you manage your friends you manage your life you manage your business and you manage your country if you're a politician and I think what I like about this discussion and this is what I encourage everybody here to see especially our foreign non-Iraqi friends is that this is the democratic Iraq what we see here today we see Dr. Saleh Halmut like giving his point of view we see his excellency Al-Jabadi giving his point of view democratic and very interactive exactly and as you can see we're all very friendly always we are and you know of course with respect to the wisdom of his and the family background that he comes from and the religious position that he has that we all respect regardless of where we are from in Iraq is what makes up this is just a small mosaic of what Iraq is really about so this is democracy and I'm glad to see this with a Turk as a moderator by the way and not just any Turk but Sunafi dinli but this is what really is an example of Iraq so you know I think to sort of end it and to sum it up I think Iraq is at the point where we are refining our management we are refining our management skills we are realizing that there are administrators that failed there are administrators who tried who failed and that's fine now it's a chance to give to others an opportunity and it's about you know but again we also come from a culture and I think this is a broader Middle Eastern culture of being you know falling in love or being attached to a position and it's not just politicians but even business people we as business people get attached to you know and we fall in love with where we position ourselves so I think I need one minute because I don't neglect the question about the security the question of the security I believe the security solution for Iraq and I believe most of those present with us here are from Iraq a difficult solution therefore I call upon the Iraqi government and all those who are demonstrating in the streets to be wise and to resort to reason we are one country, one people we have a long standing history we should unite and solve our problems with reason and wisdom and we do hope to we do hope to continue this conversation in the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa which is going to take place in Istanbul so we hope by then that there will be less people dying both in Iraq and Syria and that we live up to the book what the book the Quran says as Muslims and as Iraqis hopefully thank you so much