Six measures to protect gold and regulate its market: Mazhar Saleh explains Iraq’s vision for national wealth.
The Prime Minister’s financial advisor, Mazhar Muhammad Saleh, outlined six key measures on Monday to regulate the gold market, noting that the Gold City project is a strategic initiative to protect one of the nation’s greatest assets.
Saleh said in a press statement: “The global rise in gold prices has not led to a decline in demand for it in the local market, but rather has contributed to changing its function from an ‘ornamental commodity’ to a ‘savings tool and protection of value,’ stressing the ‘need to adopt a unified national mark and the obligation of modern technical examination to protect household savings.’”
He added that “this functional transformation of the yellow metal makes quality control and government oversight an urgent economic and social necessity, as it protects families’ wealth and enhances confidence in the market,” indicating that “quick and low-cost procedures, such as the unified national marking and rapid technical inspection, represent sufficient means to restore discipline and reduce manipulation.”
Saleh pointed out that “gold remains a symbol of family security and savings for generations in the Iraqi social memory, and with rising prices, it has become part of the tools of unofficial monetary policy, as it is a store of value parallel to the dinar,” noting that “regulating the market is not a formal procedure, but rather a basic condition for building confidence and protecting national wealth.”
Saleh called for “a comprehensive reform of the gold market system, through the adoption of a unified and mandatory Iraqi mark that includes (carat, testing authority, and year of mark), while criminalizing the trading of unmarked gold,” stressing “the importance of strengthening oversight through field testing using modern technologies such as (XRF), which reveals the truth about gold immediately without causing any damage to the pieces.”
The financial advisor added that “the next stage requires regulating gold smelting and import operations through workshop licensing and tightening border inspection, as well as establishing a national register for gold traders and adopting unified official invoices to reduce undocumented trading,” noting that “empowering the consumer through awareness campaigns and effective reporting mechanisms represents a fundamental pillar in this system.”
Saleh concluded his remarks by saying: “The institutional completion of the ‘City of Gold’ project has become an urgent necessity, as it represents the official incubator for protecting this great national wealth and providing the highest standards of legal and professional protection for it.”
Alforatnews.iq