Blake
09-05-2004, 10:21 PM
I think we caught an inkling of this deadline extension before, but this is a more informative article about it from September 2nd...
RFP Deadline Extended For Iraq Stock Exchange (http://www.securitiesindustry.com/article.cfm?articleid=13765&pg=ros)
September 2, 2004 - The deadline to respond to the request for proposal (RFP) to modernize the Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) has been extended from Sept. 6 to Sept. 20, said Air Force Reserve Major Charles Hurry, the contracting officer on the project, in a telephone interview from Baghdad.
Major Hurry said the Army's project and contracting office in Iraq planned to award the $750,000 to $1.5 million hardware and software deal not long after the deadline--in late September or thereafter--so that it could quickly enter the first phase of the plan to automate the ISX. Hurry had yet to receive responses for the new deadline.
The first phase of the plan calls for simple desktop computers to drive the exchange. "That's not a huge amount of computing power," Hurry admitted, but added that desktops are enough to make the current paper-intensive system more efficient.
"We're just trying to get a very basic level of automation over there to be able to execute trades and record them, instead of using whiteboards," Hurry said. "The idea is to get this thing off the ground."
If a PC-based electronic exchange will make the ISX leaner, it remains to be seen if it will make it meaner: Only 47 companies were listed at press time. And it is unclear how many Iraqis are aware of the ISX project--most remain focused on basic infrastructure needs and security. "It's just not something that the people have had access to before," said Hurry, a certified financial planner with American Express Financial Advisors, who plans to return in a few weeks to St Paul, Minn., after a four-month tour in Iraq. "It's my understanding that the previous stock exchange was Saddam's personal financial playground, and it wasn't reputable."
The ISX--which has been trading manually between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon on Sundays and Wednesdays since reopening on June 24--operates as an independent, self-regulated, not-for-profit institution, under an interim securities rule, codified on April 19. Among other things, the interim rule established an Iraq Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee the exchange.
Reforms--which were instituted by the CPA and passed on to the interim government through a clause in the interim constitution--include removing the intraday price controls that formerly restricted price changes to 5 percent, and establishing a business conduct investigative committee to uncover fraud, manipulation and undue influence.
Other plans for the exchange, such as turning state-owned businesses into listed firms, remain hazy.
Privatization schemes are part of a $9 million USAid package for economic rehabilitation and reform, awarded to BearingPoint in July of 2003, within which ISX modernization plans are included, according to Atlas Investment Group, an Amman, Jordan-based investment bank. The idea is to fund privatization of state-owned companies and list them on a rebuilt, modernized ISX.
The first year of the contract is worth up to $79 million, but according to the Center for Public Integrity, the overall estimated value of the contract--including two option years--is $240 million. BearingPoint expects to hire more than 30 subcontractors to finish the project.
The plans stem from a directive released by the former Iraq Governing Council, designed to speed Iraq's reintroduction into the international marketplace. The directive allows 100-percent foreign direct ownership of companies involved in all sectors, except natural resources.
Foreign banks can establish subsidiaries, branches, representative offices and joint ventures with local banks in Iraq. Six foreign banks, according to Atlas, will be allowed to purchase up to 100 percent of local banks within the next five years, after which a limitation on entry expires.
The ISX Web address, www.isx-iq.net, was registered by a Wall Street investment bank, Diehl & Company, and was designed by a Silicon Valley Web developer. Diehl managing director Russell Diehl is also a privatization and commercialization specialist for Seer Market Systems, whose co-founder Bill Gorman authored the RFP for ISX.....I tell ya, I sincerely think the people who invest in the ISX on the "ground floor" right when it opens to foreign investment are going to make a killing one way or another.
RFP Deadline Extended For Iraq Stock Exchange (http://www.securitiesindustry.com/article.cfm?articleid=13765&pg=ros)
September 2, 2004 - The deadline to respond to the request for proposal (RFP) to modernize the Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) has been extended from Sept. 6 to Sept. 20, said Air Force Reserve Major Charles Hurry, the contracting officer on the project, in a telephone interview from Baghdad.
Major Hurry said the Army's project and contracting office in Iraq planned to award the $750,000 to $1.5 million hardware and software deal not long after the deadline--in late September or thereafter--so that it could quickly enter the first phase of the plan to automate the ISX. Hurry had yet to receive responses for the new deadline.
The first phase of the plan calls for simple desktop computers to drive the exchange. "That's not a huge amount of computing power," Hurry admitted, but added that desktops are enough to make the current paper-intensive system more efficient.
"We're just trying to get a very basic level of automation over there to be able to execute trades and record them, instead of using whiteboards," Hurry said. "The idea is to get this thing off the ground."
If a PC-based electronic exchange will make the ISX leaner, it remains to be seen if it will make it meaner: Only 47 companies were listed at press time. And it is unclear how many Iraqis are aware of the ISX project--most remain focused on basic infrastructure needs and security. "It's just not something that the people have had access to before," said Hurry, a certified financial planner with American Express Financial Advisors, who plans to return in a few weeks to St Paul, Minn., after a four-month tour in Iraq. "It's my understanding that the previous stock exchange was Saddam's personal financial playground, and it wasn't reputable."
The ISX--which has been trading manually between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon on Sundays and Wednesdays since reopening on June 24--operates as an independent, self-regulated, not-for-profit institution, under an interim securities rule, codified on April 19. Among other things, the interim rule established an Iraq Securities and Exchange Commission to oversee the exchange.
Reforms--which were instituted by the CPA and passed on to the interim government through a clause in the interim constitution--include removing the intraday price controls that formerly restricted price changes to 5 percent, and establishing a business conduct investigative committee to uncover fraud, manipulation and undue influence.
Other plans for the exchange, such as turning state-owned businesses into listed firms, remain hazy.
Privatization schemes are part of a $9 million USAid package for economic rehabilitation and reform, awarded to BearingPoint in July of 2003, within which ISX modernization plans are included, according to Atlas Investment Group, an Amman, Jordan-based investment bank. The idea is to fund privatization of state-owned companies and list them on a rebuilt, modernized ISX.
The first year of the contract is worth up to $79 million, but according to the Center for Public Integrity, the overall estimated value of the contract--including two option years--is $240 million. BearingPoint expects to hire more than 30 subcontractors to finish the project.
The plans stem from a directive released by the former Iraq Governing Council, designed to speed Iraq's reintroduction into the international marketplace. The directive allows 100-percent foreign direct ownership of companies involved in all sectors, except natural resources.
Foreign banks can establish subsidiaries, branches, representative offices and joint ventures with local banks in Iraq. Six foreign banks, according to Atlas, will be allowed to purchase up to 100 percent of local banks within the next five years, after which a limitation on entry expires.
The ISX Web address, www.isx-iq.net, was registered by a Wall Street investment bank, Diehl & Company, and was designed by a Silicon Valley Web developer. Diehl managing director Russell Diehl is also a privatization and commercialization specialist for Seer Market Systems, whose co-founder Bill Gorman authored the RFP for ISX.....I tell ya, I sincerely think the people who invest in the ISX on the "ground floor" right when it opens to foreign investment are going to make a killing one way or another.