Foreign Firms in Kurdistan Three Times More Than For Rest of
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 1:30 am
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Security and easier ownership laws in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region have attracted thousands of foreign companies to the autonomous Kurdish enclave, where the number of registered overseas firms is three times more than for all the rest of Iraq.
“The main difference is that a foreign businessman in the Kurdistan Region can own a company and open a representation office, while in Iraq a foreign investor has to partner with a local Iraqi company or businessman,” says Dilzar Ismael, head of company registrations at the Kurdistan trade ministry.
Iraq’s five million Kurds have transformed the three Iraqi provinces they control into the country’s only safe haven, while the rest of Iraq drowns in instability and violence.
Unlike the rest of Iraq, the Kurdistan Region is experiencing an economic boom, with foreign oil companies engaged in dozens of exploration and export projects and international airlines reporting record growth in flights to Erbil’s new and modern airport.
The number of foreign companies registered in Kurdistan is close to 27,000, three times higher than the 900 registered in the rest of Iraq, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG’s) data. The number of local companies in Kurdistan is close to 17,000.
By the beginning of October, 2,289 new companies were registered in Kurdistan, 338 of them foreign firms, according to statistics obtained by Rudaw.
However, most companies in Iraqi Kurdistan are engaged in trade, not manufacturing. But the number of factories is also on the rise, with 4,762 operating in 2012. This year, by the start of October, 250 new factories were operating, the largest number in Erbil.
With a total capital of more than $145 million, factories in Kurdistan provide 64,000 jobs.
Despite local manufacturing, officials complain that production has failed to satisfy local demand. Evidence of this is markets flooded with imports, including foods, clothing and electronics.
Ahmed Hussein, spokesperson of the KRG’s Ministry of Commerce and Industries, told Rudaw that the volume of trade with Turkey is $7 billion dollars, making it Erbil’s top trade partner. He said Iran ranks second with $4 billion dollars worth of trade.
“The trade volume in Kurdistan has reached $17 billion,” Hussein said, adding this excludes natural resources such as oil, where Turkey controls the lion’s share.
He said that the volume of non-oil trade was heavily skewed in favor of imports, with exports being so small that no statistics were available for the monetary value.
The Imports and Exports Union says that last year 123.6 tons of food and other goods were exported, mainly crushed plastic, dates, animal hide, fruits, honey and olives.
In order to increase local production and cut imports, Ismael says the government is planning to set up several industrial zones, where the government and private sector will jointly invest in projects.
