|
Iraqi Kurdistan taking care of business
1.11.2007
|
|
|
|
Annual trade show attracts firms from 20 countries
as construction booms while war rages in south
November 1, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- The
fires of civil war continue to rage south of this
rambling, low-rise regional capital, and now
military tensions are mounting to the north as well,
along the Turkey's rebel-infested border between
Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey.
But here in sunny, ancient Erbil, they're having a
trade show – and Hogr Salih Qadir, for one, is
feeling pretty good about it.
Spokesperson for a local cell phone company, Qadir
was presiding yesterday at what was likely the
busiest of 300 or so booths at the third annual
Erbil International Fair, a five-day extravaganza of
luxury automobiles, widescreen TVs, air-conditioning
systems, heavy industrial equipment, computer
supplies, tractors, and non-stop schmoozing.
"We're making a special offer for the fair," said
Qadir.
His company, local firm Obitel, is offering a new
technology, developed in China, that lets customers
sign on to the Internet or make video calls from
their cell phones, and it is marking the occasion by
selling heavily discounted cellphone memory chips –
an excellent deal to judge by the throngs of eager
purchasers all jostling for position around the
booth yesterday afternoon.
"People need a new technology," said Qadir.
No doubt, they do.
Still, what most Iraqis seem to need, far more than
a new technology, is a new ideology – one that
doesn't involve car bombs and kidnappings and
suicide attacks on civilian targets, near-daily
occurrences in Baghdad and other southern cities,
where U.S.-led military forces have been unable to
calm storms of ethnic hatred that erupted here
following the ouster four years ago of dictator
Saddam Hussein. |
Many attending trade fair in Erbil, Kurdistan region
'Iraq', this week adopt Western dress
The 3rd International Trade Fair in Erbil, capital
of the Kurdistan Region. This year’s fair was the
largest in Kurdistan since 1991, attracting 300
companies from 22 countries looking for private
sector economic cooperation. |
Here in Erbil, however,
people seem to have found the answer.
With its new, glass-walled airport terminal, its
plethora of construction cranes, and its general air
of peace, bustle, and purpose, the capital of Iraqi
Kurdistan remains a blessed anomaly in a country at
war with itself and often at deadly odds with a
range of foreign armies.
Contrasts separating northern Iraq from the rest of
the country were typified this week by the trade
fair that began here Monday and winds up tomorrow.
Companies from about 20 different countries –
including Austria, Brazil, the United States,
Lebanon, and Estonia, but not Canada – are
participating in the show, all vying for a slice of
the billions of dollars in business activity either
underway here or just around the corner.
In Erbil, unlike other parts of war-ravaged Iraq,
buildings seem to go up rather than come crashing
down.
So do electrical power lines, telecommunications
facilities, water and sanitation plants, and
agricultural projects – all parts of the ambitious
development schemes plotted for the coming years by
the Kurdistan Regional Government led by President
Massoud Barzani.
The city even has an extensive family amusement park
– the Diana Games City, a Kurdish equivalent of
Paramount Canada's Wonderland, built by a local
contractor, the Darin Company.
"We have many projects under construction," boasted
Maissam Sabah, a spokesperson for the firm, which
had its own booth at the trade fair.
"If it's possible, we would like to do projects in
other countries because we are a very big company."
Severely persecuted under Saddam, the Iraqi Kurds
have slowly united and, especially in the years
since his overthrow, they have won a high degree of
political autonomy and now in some ways operate
almost like an independent state.
The Kurdish flag is far more visible here than the
banner of the Iraqi republic.
Lately, however, the region's political outlook has
been clouded by worsening tensions between the
Turkish government and militant Turkish Kurds
fighting for an independent homeland who stage
cross-border raids from their redoubts in the remote
mountains of Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'.
Clashes are more frequent since the Oct. 21 ambush
carried out by Kurdish rebels that killed 12 Turkish
soldiers, and kidnapped others.
Fears of a possible Turkish ground invasion into
Iraqi territory to uproot rebels in the Kurdistan
Workers' Party continue.
But such worries seemed far away yesterday in the
cavernous, 10,000-square-metre exhibition hall at
Sami Abdel Rahman Park on the outskirts of Erbil,
where local men and women – some in traditional
dress but most in Western clothing –lollygagged
among the booths as loudspeakers blared North
American pop standards.
If anyone was complaining, it wasn't about politics
or war or occupying armies, but about the popularity
of the fair among ordinary folk, not all of whom
enjoy multi-million-dollar investment budgets.
"Ninety per cent of the people in here are just
workers," groused Amar Saad, president of a
Jordanian company that markets South African-made
police equipment. "They are not decision-makers."
Maybe not. But they were peaceful.
thestar com
Since 1991, the Kurds of Iraq achieved self-rule in
part of the country. Today's teenagers are the first
generation to grow up under Kurdish rule. In the new
Iraqi Constitution, it is referred to as Kurdistan
region. Kurdistan region has all the trappings of an
independent state -- its own constitution, its own
parliament, its own flag, its own army, its own
border, its own border patrol, its own national
anthem, its own education system, its own
International airports, even its own stamp inked
into the passports of visitors.
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 