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Postcard from Erbil, Kurdistan
22.2.2007
Black & Veatch Newsletter - Jim Wilson, Technical
Director |
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February 22, 2007
Jim Wilson, Technical Director
Dear Colleagues,
I’ve recently returned from Erbil, the
administrative centre for Kurdistan, Northern Iraq
where I was a member of the first 4British trade
mission to the region. I wanted to share with you
some of my impressions about this trip.
The objective of the mission was to assess the
potential of carrying out projects in the water,
power, infrastructure, natural resources, capacity
building, health and poverty reduction sectors.
This really is “the other Iraq”, and certainly
nothing like the war torn images that you see every
night on your television from news correspondents
based in Baghdad. Kurdistan has its own militia (sic
*), the Peshmerga, who look after security very
effectively. By and large the region is secure and
it is safe but as a foreigner it is advisable to
take precautions.
During my visit we did have close security
protection and travelled in armoured vehicles but as
it turned out, there was never a hint of aggression
or obvious risk. There is no militia (sic *) on the
streets except those guarding government buildings,
which is a common sight in many parts of the world.
The streets are clean, the traffic lights work and
the traffic obey them without any of the usual
hooting associated with many parts of the Middle
East.
Toyota and Nissan have their showrooms, new cars are
arriving every day and business is booming. Private
sector investment was apparent by the amount of
office and shopping infrastructure being constructed
and I even attended the opening of HSBC Banks’ first
branch office in the region.
There is obvious civic pride and priority is being
given to new roads, drainage and housing but not
forgetting the creation of immaculate public parks
were fountains play and children splash around on
pedalos on the ornamental lake. Historic buildings
are now being restored in the Citadel, which claims
to be one of the older continuously inhabited sites
in the world (more than 8,000 years!) and hopefully
tourists will one day return.
The Mission stayed at the Erbil International Hotel
formerly known as the Sheraton, and I’m pleased to
say that the hotel continues to be run to Sheraton
standards. The security precautions surrounding the
hotel would put many an airport security system to
shame.
The importance of this Mission was underlined by the
fact that the Regional Government’s High
Representative to the UK helped to arrange the visit
and accompanied us to our meetings. The majority of
these meetings were at ministerial level with all
the key ministers, who we found to be very open and
knowledgeable of their portfolios. Much information
was obtained and a comprehensive picture of the
region’s achievements and ambitions established.
The meetings culminated with an audience with
President Masoud Barzani. He was particularly
interested to know that Black & Veatch was
responsible for the design and supervision of the
Dokan Dam and the repair of the Derbendikahn Dam,
both of which are within the Kurdish Region and are
of great economic importance to the region. His
knowledge of various environmental issues related to
the siting of new dams and in particular their
impact on available land use surprised me but gave a
good insight to his priorities.
Our four-day mission was soon over, and very early
on the fifth day we flew out of Erbil and “the Other
Iraq” but leaving with great impressions of the
potential of the region and the determination of its
Government and people to succeed.
* Editor’s note: The Peshmerga forces are the
constitutionally recognised armed forces of the
Kurdistan Region. They are not a militia, as
mistakenly described in the article.
krg org
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