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SULAIMANIYAH,
Iraq (Reuters) - Scattered around his paper-strewn
office, Iraqi entrepreneur and telecoms tycoon Faruk
Mustafa Rasool has half a dozen sketches of his
latest big project -- a futuristic 28-storey, 5-star
hotel.
It may seem the last thing Iraq needs right now --
there are no tourists and any new building has more
chance of being blown up than completed -- but this
is not typical Iraq. This is Kurdistan where
business is slowly starting to thrive.
Rasool's hilltop hotel will have a revolving
restaurant on top and be linked to downtown by a
cable car. He is also building cement factories and
steel plants, hoping to cash in on a construction
wave in the semi-autonomous northern region.
Rasool wants to turn Sulaimaniya, a city of around
700,000 people set in the mountains of northeastern
Iraq, into a hub of business and industry -- first
for the Kurdish region and eventually for the rest
of Iraq as well.
"Sulaimaniya is going to become one of the most
developed cities in the Middle East within a few
years," Rasool said confidently as he talked a
visitor through his investment plans.
"I wouldn't compare it to Beirut or Dubai because
it's not a straight comparison, but I anticipate it
developing on a very large scale with widespread
links to the rest of the world."
Rasool's vision might seem far-fetched but investors
agree and are pumping money into the region on a
huge scale.
Sulaimaniya alone has benefited from almost $2
billion of private and government investment in the
past 2 years.
BUILDING BOOM
Cranes tower over the once low-rise city. Apartment
complexes, hotels, a hospital, a new university
campus, ring- roads, a flyover, tunnels and
factories are all in the works.
While no one can guarantee the city will not be
targeted by guerrillas, so far it has been safe and
is well defended.
A new airport was recently completed, providing
links to Baghdad, Amman, Beirut and Istanbul. Routes
to the United Arab Emirates, Cairo and parts of
Europe are also planned.
Construction is also luring workers from across
Iraq, Iran and Turkey. Doctors, teachers and
engineers have also arrived.
The Kurdish regional government in Sulaimaniya
oversees the Reconstruction and Development Agency,
an office which has drawn up a long list of
infrastructure needs and is now matching them with
local government and international donor funds.
Muhamed Abdula Salih, an adviser to the agency, says
$700 million worth of projects have started in the
past year, with a South Korean contractor building
the hospital, and Iranian and Chinese groups
contracted to work on tunnels, roads and bridges.
"In five years' time, Sulaimaniya will look very
different," he said, ticking off a long list of
plans. "But this is not just for us, this is part of
the development of all Iraq."
Alongside the agency, there is a private sector
group, also linked to the regional government, which
is lining up foreign investors for projects such as
hotels and malls.
A Dubai-based group has a $200 million proposal to
build a housing development with a high-rise
business centre, shopping mall, banks, mosque and
schools all on one site.
"The Kurdish regional government wants to make
Sulaimaniya into another Dubai -- it's one of the
reasons we're talking to many Gulf companies," said
Sheelan Kanaka, an official working with the local
government to pull in private investment.
Some, including Rasool, are sceptical of the "New
Dubai" label, but they are sure they can turn the
city into a base for investors and make it a jumping
off point for the rest of Iraq.
"DREAM CITY"
Northwest of Sulaimaniya, across the mountains, is
Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish region and another
city on the rise.
Arbil is determined to catch up with Sulaimaniya and
next month will host the "Ultimate Rebuilding Iraq
Expo and Conference" a three-day event expected to
attract companies from across the region, the United
States, Asia and Europe.
"Arbil has a lot to offer and there's plenty of
interest in investing," says Harry Schute, the
director of a U.S. consulting company who also works
for the Kurdish regional government.
One of the largest projects underway in Arbil is
"Dream City", a housing development for the upwardly
mobile. To handle flights from further afield, a new
airport is being built.
While a business boom would appear on the cards,
some warn that competition between Sulaimaniya and
Arbil could hinder Kurdistan's ambitions, with
political rivalries between the cities leading to
wasteful overlap as they bid for investors.
Each city is home to one of the region's two
political parties -- the Kurdistan Democratic Party
in Arbil and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in
Sulaimaniya. The parties fought a low-level civil
war during the 1990s.
The mobile phone network in Sulaimaniya, called
Asiacell, is blocked from working in Arbil, and
vice-versa, seemingly for political reasons. There
is little cooperation between authorities on
coordinating business plans.
"The success of our region depends on the honesty of
the two administrations and how they behave," says
entrepreneur Rasool, the chairman of Asiacell,
referring to the political parties.
"If they are not honest with one another, then it
will hinder the development process. Neither can do
it alone."
Reuters
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