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SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq - The contrast between Iraq's
Kurdish provinces and the insurgency-wracked cities
to the south is evident in the 100 or so laborers
gathered at the main square of this Kurdish town,
looking for work.
They are among many Iraqi Arabs who have come from
unemployment-stricken Baghdad and other cities to
earn $10 for eight hours of work in a relatively
safe environment. That they are Arabs among
historically hostile Kurds suggests that ethnic
coexistence is not dead in the new Iraq.
What draws the laborers, some as young as 14, as
well as legions of investors, is a Kurdish economy
that is flourishing on investment and capital that
has been driven out of the insurgency areas.
"We expect terrorism to continue for another year or
two," said Mohammed Karim, director of the Board for
Promoting Investment in Sulaymaniyah. "We don't hope
for this to happen, but if it does continue, the
economy of the north will continue to flourish."
He said foreign investment, Iraqi capital and
laborers continue to flow in.
In contrast to the rest of the country, hotels,
offices, villas and high-rise apartment buildings
are going up at a frenzied pace. An international
airport is up and running in Irbil - its first
flight took Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia - and
Sulaymaniyah's airport is to open this spring.
Sulaymaniyah, a city believed to have more than half
a million people, has big plans for a free-trade
zone with offices, hotels and motels for foreign
investors.
The advantage for Iraq's three Kurdish provinces is
their 13 years of semi-autonomy under Western
protection, during which time they have gained
political and diplomatic savvy, economic knowhow and
a semblance of democracy.
The two main Kurdish groups - the Kurdistan
Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan - ran their territories under their own
governments under a joint parliament.
The Kurds, allies in the U.S.-led invasion that
toppled Saddam Hussein, won enormous influence in
postwar Baghdad and received the second-biggest vote
total in the Jan. 30 election. Their two parties
also have decided to merge into one power-sharing
administration based in Irbil.
"For Kurds, it's only been getting better," Kurdish
columnist Hiwa Osman said.
The PUK administration in Sulaymaniyah offers free
land leases for big projects and the right to take
all profits out of the country.
Its Board for Promoting Investment, set up 10 months
ago to provide investors with security and guide
them through red tape, has overseen the signing of
59 projects worth $500 million, Karim said.
Thirty of those projects are in the service sector,
eight in industry, six in agriculture and four in
housing construction. More than 2,000 apartment and
office building projects are being undertaken by
investors from the United Arab Emirates, Karim said.
Land prices have quadrupled, and most factories have
been rented to foreigners, including British and
Dutch companies, said Shilan Khaneqa, the board's
head of public relations.
Kurds are returning from exile, and Arabs are moving
in from the rest of Iraq, many of them professionals
seeking escape from being targeted for kidnapping
and murder.
The result: "We have a housing crisis," Khaneqa
said.
The industrial projects include a cement factory
managed by Lebanon's GRD company and financed by
European banks, with a production capacity of 4,000
tons a day.
American investors are building an electricity
generator that will boost output in northern Iraq by
two-thirds of the current amount.
To the west, Turkey is the gateway for Kurdistani
exports to Europe. To reach the rest of Iraq,
traders turn east, shipping goods such as marble and
fruit through Iran to bypass the insurgency areas.
"Because of the security situation, business in
Baghdad is dead, so we provide them with goods,"
Karim said.
The Kurdish provinces still have a long way to go.
Despite the present boom, roads and basic services
are poor, and corruption pervades senior levels of
government.
But to the laborers waiting for prospective
employers at Misgowtif Gawra Square, a job in
Kurdistan is better than staying home.
"There's no work in Baghdad because the situation is
no good there," said Dhafar Qassem, 26.
AP
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