ERBIL, Kurdistan Region -- The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is prioritizing the development of the region’s infrastructure, Deputy Prime Minister Imad Ahmed said Tuesday following a meeting attended by representatives of the commercial and industrial sectors as well as several government ministers.
The government plans to invest in all areas, Ahmed added, but will pay particular attention to projects that develop the region’s industrial, agricultural and tourism sectors.
On Monday, at the request of Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, the Kurdistan Federal Chambers of Commerce and Industry (KFCCI) hosted a conference in Erbil to identify impediments to the region’s industrial sector. According to the Kurdistan Board of Investment, imports – primarily from Turkey and Iran – account for around 85% of the region’s 5 billion dollar in annual international trade.
“Kurdistan is still not in a position to compete with Turkey, Iran, Korea or other countries,” Osman Shwani, Secretary of the KRG’s Supreme Economic Council, told Rudaw. “Our major challenges are due to Iraqi law as well as a lack of expertise.”
Laws and protocols
One of the legal challenges facing Kurdistan’s businesses, says Nuradin Sinjari, owner of Sinjar wool washing factory in Duhok, is that international trade agreements don’t always make provisions for the Kurdish region.
For example, the Sinjar Company exports animal products and needs to have its goods signed off by a certified veterinarian before Turkish customs will allow them across the border.
“Iraq and Turkey made a protocol to let people export,” Sinjari explains, “but there are no Kurdish veterinarians involved in this protocol or on their team. A year ago, I wanted to export my wool to Turkey but they did not allow me to get my products to Turkey [because they lacked the appropriate certification.]”
After sitting at the border for three weeks, Sinjari’s wool was finally released and sent back to Duhok, at a cost of around five thousand dollars. “We need to work on these issues to make Kurdistan’s industry more successful,” he says.
Abdulwahed Aziz, spokesperson for the KFCCI, agrees. “The KRG, as a part of Iraq, does not always have the laws it needs because the central government has not yet put them in place and we are ahead of the rest of Iraq by a few steps. The KRG has to find alternatives for that so that we can develop our industry.”
Another problem with the current legal system, says Hussam Barznji, Director of the Kurdistan Economic Development Organization, is that much of the business law still in place was inherited from Iraq’s days as a socialist republic.
“Our law is socialist law, not free market law,” he told Rudaw. “There’s no law for organizing competition or preventing monopolies; there are no laws to protect private assets or encourage local production.”
Most importantly, Barznji says, there are no laws in place to prevent political parties from owning private companies.
“Economics and political parties are mixed. All the budget and economic system is serving the interest of political parties. There must be reform to solve the problem. How can political parties be allowed to have big companies in the market?”
Infrastructure
Local industry is also in desperate need of designated industrial areas, says the KFCCI’s Abdulwahed Aziz.
“There are people who want to start projects but can’t find the right place to do that,” he says. “You aren’t allowed to [build factories] just anywhere but businessmen can’t always get the right plot. In fact there are lots of areas suitable for industry but sometimes they divide those areas in an unfair way so that plots are allocated to people who won't use it for a proper business or don’t use it at all, while those people who need the land cannot get it. The system has to be organized correctly.”
As well as designated industrial zones, says Barznji, the government must do more to make available the amenities that industry needs to flourish in the region. “Industry has many requirements – electricity, freeways, insurance, loans from banks, irrigation for agriculture. All points need improving.”
Above all, he says, the KRG needs to allocate more funds for investment. Currently, only 30% of the general budget is designated for investment while the rest goes to government salaries and running costs.
Dara Jalil Khayat, Director of the KFCCI, said following Monday’s meeting that he would be asking the government to establish an industrial bank in the region to make additional funds available to local industry.
Khayat will also write a report based on this week’s meeting to be submitted to the region’s Council of Ministers, which will in turn form a committee dedicated to the development of the region’s industrial sector.
Rudaw