Kurdish bid to lure foreign investors

IRaqpress ^ | 07/09/04 | IRaqpress

[Pikamax]

Kurdish bid to lure foreign investors

Sulaimaniya, Iraq Press, July 9, 2004 – Kurdish officials running the regional government in Sulaimaniya say they want to turn their city into a commercial hub in the Middle East.

There are two regional governments in the Kurdish autonomous north.

The first in Arbil is run by Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party and the second in Sulaimaniya is administered by Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Early this year the government in Sulaimaniya issued an ambitious investment law under which foreign investors are exempt from taxes for five years.

Other incentives include the right to transfer profits outside the region and allocation of property without charges.

Kurdish officials invited foreign companies for a forum in the city and held an exhibition in London to promulgate the merits of the law.

They describe the law as one of the most ambitions ever passed in the Middle East and say scores of companies have shown an interest to start up businesses.

Next month the foundation of what the Kurds have billed as the first international trade center in Iraq will be set up in Sulaimaniya.

According to Adel Karim, regional government’s investments minister, several international companies have agreed to open offices in the center.

He said “gigantic projects” were in store for the region by Turkish, Korean and Dutch firms. He did not elaborate.

Karim said there were no limits or restrictions on the kind of project foreigners were willing to start in the region.

“Foreigners have the right to transfer their profits wherever they want without interference from the (regional) government,” he said.

Investors, he said, were free to have local or foreign partners.

Foreign investors have the right to start a variety of projects, he added..

Among other things, foreigners can construct hospitals, schools, hotels, housing projects and establish new banks and factories.

“We have scrapped whatever we thought would hinder foreign investments,’ Karim said.

[RonHolzwarth]

So the Kurds, in northern Iraq, will form a commercial hub?

I'm all for that! And there is no reason it can't happen!

Problem: the jerks down south, by Baghdad.

Maybe it's time for Kurdistan to have a war of Independence, OR for their Arab brothers in the south to learn something from the Kurds.

I'm by no means an expert on the Middle East, but it seems to me very unlikely that the Kurds will ever start a war,
or begin to engage in terrorism, as so many other Arab nations have.

My hope, and OPINION: (did you get that OPINION!) is that from the Kurds, a moderate Islam will arise.

[InterceptPoint]

This makes a lot of sense to me but I agree there will likely be problems with Baghdad.

The reason the Kurds can do something like this is that the Kurdish North is safer than New York City. If they set themselves up as the Hong Kong (or what used to be Hong Kong) of the Middle East they will reap huge (maybe even hugh) economic benefits. This will not go unnoticed by Baghdad who will figure out sooner or later that the haves are going to be in the Kurdish areas and the have nots are going to be everywhere else.

Given the Golden Rule of politics (he who has the gold rules) it will not be allowed to stand unless, cross your fingers, Baghdad and the rest of Iraq follow the Kurdish lead. That will be hard of course since the security situation in the North gives the Kurds such a head start. For example, it seems obvious that all the foreign companies will set up shop there long before they move into Baghdad.