Mesaa al khair. I am Paul Bremer, Administrator for the Coalition
Provisional Authority. My number one priority remains, as always,
security: providing the security which Iraq needs in order to rebuild.
Those who reject progress in Iraq know that they are losing. They
are now targeting you and the basic services like water and electricity
which you need. If you have information about these renegades, you
should tell a coalition military or civilian person. We have already
hit them hard. And we will defeat them. Our second priority is to
get the economy going again so that we can create jobs for you.
Here , I have a couple of important announcements on the economy.
First, I have just approved the Iraqi budget for the remainder of
this year. This is a very important step in getting Iraq and Iraqis
back to work. For the last few weeks, coalition officials have been
working hard alongside Iraqi officials in all the ministries of
state to put together a budget that will serve the Iraqi people.
The officials who used to steal most of Iraq’s resources, and misuse
what little was left, have gone. All of Iraq’s resources will now
be spent on you, the Iraqi people, and on projects which directly
benefit you. With this budget, ministries will be able to spend
money on important projects. Many state companies will be able to
begin operating again. Your budget allocates over 9 trillion to
these key projects and the key challenges ahead. A little over half
of the money will come from oil revenues. It is the coalitions policy
that Iraq’s oil will finally be used for the benefit of all the
Iraqi people. I might add that the US government is contributing
an additional 4 and a half trillion dinars towards the reconstruction
of Iraq. The key priorities in the budget are to improve the lives
of all Iraqis Some of the key areas are:
- Projects in the areas of security
and justice worth around 350 billion dinars
- Improvements to the electricity
system worth around 440 billion dinars
- Construction and other reconstruction
spending of around 385 billion dinars
- Public health improvements worth
around 315 billion dinars
- Water and sewerage improvements
worth around 110 billion dinars; and
- Spending on telecommunications to
the value of 225 billion dinars
Together, these programs will have an enormous impact on your lives.
But some will take time to come into effect, so you and we, working
together, will have to be patient. And, again, I want to stress
that all this money will be spent in a way that the Iraqi people
will know what it was spent on. For the first time, you will know
what is being done with your money. Secondly, I am announcing
today that the Coalition on behalf of the Iraqi people will print
and distribute new banknotes for all of Iraq. Iraqis need banknotes
which are both high quality and easy-to-use. Neither the so-called
"print" dinars in circulation in most of Iraq, nor the
formal national currency (or "Swiss" dinar) still used
in some parts of the North are suitable. "Print dinars"
are poor quality, and in practice circulate widely in only two denominations
– the 250 dinar note, and the 10,000 dinar note. This makes them
very inconvenient to use. The "Swiss" dinars, while of
higher quality, are so old that they are literally falling apart
in people’s hands. Everywhere I have traveled in recent weeks, Iraqis
have told me about these problems. So I have consulted with Iraqi
political, economic and business leaders to find a solution. The
Solution is to print new bank notes. On October 15, new Iraqi dinar
banknotes will be available to the Iraqi people. They will replace
the existing Iraqi "print" dinars at parity: one new Iraqi
dinar will be worth the same as one "print" dinar. The
new dinar will replace the "Swiss" dinar at the rate of
150 new dinars to one Swiss dinar. These different rates reflect
the different prices, expressed in local currency, in different
parts of the country. For the first time in 12 years, all of Iraq
will again use one set of banknotes. We have not designed a new
currency for Iraq. Only a soverign Iraqi government could take that
decision. So we have taken the designs from the former national
dinar (the "Swiss" dinar). But the new notes will be impossible
to confuse with the "Swiss" dinar, as both the colours
and the denominations will be different. Let me show you an example
[show slide]. The new dinars will be printed in a full range of
denominations: in 50s; 250s; 1,000s; 5,000s; 10,000s; and 25,000s.
They will be higher quality and last longer. They will be very hard
to forge, and thus be notes in which all Iraqis can be confident.
On 15 October, these new notes will be ready. Until then, you need
do nothing. When the time comes we will provide practical instructions
on how to trade your old notes for the new ones. After Oct 15 you
will have three months to swap your existing notes for the new ones,
so there will be no need to rush. There will be plenty of new notes
available. And you won’t need to withdraw money from your bank accounts
to change over to the new notes: that will be done automatically
for you. Together, these two new developments underline that the
coalition, working closely with Iraqis at all levels, is determined
to improve the economy of this country, and the lives of all its
citizens. Shahran
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