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Qubad Talabani: Profits from foreign investment
will be reinvested in the Kurdistan region
16.11.2007
By STEPHANIE CARNES
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Talabani says "If Iraq were to be a stable,
relatively democratic society, then that would be a
help to Kurdistan."
November 16, 2007
Despite decades of authoritarian rule and
humanitarian tragedies Iraqi Kurdistan is touted as
Iraq's success story even while threats to Kurdish
economic viability persist.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) hopes the
recent increase of international tourism and foreign
investment will allow Kurdistan to enter a new phase
of development. "I would call it developing, but not
developed," Denise Natali, professor of political
science at the University of Kurdistan, said.
According to the KRG's representative to the United
States, Qubad Talabani, profits from foreign
investment will be reinvested in the Kurdistan
region. "We are trying to focus our resources and
capital on really building up the infrastructure of
Kurdistan," he said in a phone interview. "We want
to put any profits back into our infrastructure."
Some view the development of Kurdish infrastructure
as a precursor to an independent Kurdistan. "The
underlying motive to get the money is to build the
Kurdish state," Natali said. Although the KRG may be
laying the foundations for self-sufficiency, the
region remains financially dependent on Baghdad. www.ekurd.net
Since 2003, the KRG's budget has increased
dramatically. For the 2007 fiscal year, the KRG will
receive approximately $4.7 billion from Baghdad,
about 95 percent of Kurdistan's total annual budget.
To Natali, this confirms "the highly dependent
nature of the region on Baghdad."
Although the Iraqi national constitution allocates
17 percent of its budget to semi-autonomous
Kurdistan, the KRG has not paid the requisite
customs taxes to Baghdad for the last three years.
"They want to play but do not pay," Natali said. |
Qubad Talabani is representative of the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) to the United States.
Dr. Denise Natali, Exeter University and currently
researching and teaching at the department of
politics and international relations, University of
Kurdistan-Hewler, Erbil, the Kurdistan Region of
Iraq |
With additional financial resources at its disposal,
the KRG hopes to establish the region as a business
hub and agricultural provider for not only Iraq, but
the broader Middle East.
As a leader in Middle East tourism and business,
Dubai might seem a viable economic model. "I think
that everyone really looks to Dubai – it's marvelous
what they've been able to do in terms of attracting
the largest corporations in the world to open their
Middle East headquarters there," Talabani said.
But Dubai enjoys round-the-clock electricity and
water while Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan
and home of the upscale new Dream City residential
complex, has access to approximately seven hours of
electricity a day, according to Natali. "There isn't
one model that can be totally applicable," Talabani
contended. "We have to be creative and take into
consideration our own characteristics and put in
place our own development plan." www.ekurd.net
Talabani agreed that the electrical deficiencies
were holding back the Kurdish community he
represents: "The electrical sector is one in which
we are lagging behind. We are connected to a
national grid in Iraq so every time an insurgent
attacks a power plant, it affects our electricity."
The KRG has now taken matters into its own hands to
remedy the electricity shortages caused by civil
strife in non-Kurdish Iraq. "We have entered into
contractual agreements to build power plants in our
region," Talabani said. "But it takes time." By
developing its own power grid, the KRG seems to be
laying the foundations for an electrically – if not
financially – independent state.
Although measures like these do seem to be logical
precursors to an independent Kurdish state, the KRG
remains publicly committed to its leadership role in
the Iraqi national government. "Obviously, there are
merits to a stable situation in Baghdad," Talabani
said. "If Iraq were to be a stable, relatively
democratic society, then that would be a help to
Kurdistan." www.ekurd.net
While the KRG has established itself as a proponent
of a democratic Iraqi state, the impetus for such a
commitment is largely economic. According to Natali,
the KRG's current financial relationship with
Baghdad is far too lucrative to jeopardize.
"I question the idea of losing the gains they have
made in exchange for independence," she said. "I
don't know if there is any Kurdish leader who is
willing to lose what they have now for their own
state."
Since Kurdistan is plagued by a lack of private
sector jobs, the region relies heavily on support
from the national government to employ a regional
workforce. The KRG has allocated 64 percent of its
annual revenue from Baghdad to paying public sector
salaries, according to Natali.
"After 2003, with the vast expansion of Kurdistan's
regional budgets, the KRG officials have elected to
exponentially expand the government role as a
full-time employer," she said. "It is one means of
co-opting and appeasing local populations."
By guaranteeing nearly all its citizens a job, the
KRG has created an "expansive social welfare
quasi-state" that is "worse than unemployment,
because it breeds dependence and raises the local
population's expectations of what the government
should provide," Natali said. To maximize the
benefits of foreign investment and create a
sustainable economy, the Kurdish people must reduce
their financial dependence on both the KRG and the
Iraqi central government.
Dependence on Baghdad aside, Talabany believes that
Kurdistan has entered a time of economic promise and
potential. The power-sharing government of the
Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK), established by the 2006
Unification Agreement, "has allowed for a very
conducive political and economic climate," he said.
Lena Delchad, a former USAID contractor in Erbil,
agreed: "The Kurds are finally getting what they
wanted. Instead of fighting each other, they are
unifying."
Overcoming the infighting that paralyzed Kurdish
politics in the 1990s is certainly laudable,
especially as a stabilizer in the broader Iraqi
political landscape. But Natali sees this apparent
joining of political forces as little more than a
thin veneer of unity. "It would be naïve to say the
parties are unified – they are two divided parties
that have come together to voice their cause
vis-à-vis Baghdad."
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. www.ekurd.net
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.
Dr. Denise Natali is an honorary research fellow
at the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies,
Exeter University and currently researching and
teaching at the department of politics and
international relations, University of Kurdistan-Hewler,
Erbil, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Over the past
fourteen years she has conducted independent field
research in the Kurdistan regions of Iraq, Turkey,
Iran, and Syria and is the author of numerous
publications on Kurdish nationalism, politics, and
identity, including, The Kurds and the State:
Evolving National Identity in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran
(Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2005), and The
Kurdish Quasi State: development and dependency in
post-Gulf War Iraq (Syracuse: Syracuse University
Press, forthcoming). Her current research, supported
by a fellowship from The American Academic Research
Institute in Iraq (TAARI), focuses on the political
economy of Iraq and the Kurdistan region since 1991,
and the role of external aid in shaping transition
patterns in conflict-prone and post-conflict
societies.
In addition to her expertise on the Kurds and
Kurdistan, Dr. Natali has worked in the field of
disaster relief and humanitarian affairs. She has
held posts as information officer for the U.S.
Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) in
Iraqi Kurdistan, the American Red Cross
International Disaster Relief Services, the Center
for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and
cross-border director for a healthcare NGO in
Peshawar, Pakistan, where she also served as a
liaison to the Afghan Interim Government’s Ministry
of Public Health.
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