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US business lags in Kurdistan, 'the other Iraq'
12.2.2008
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February 12, 2008
WASHINGTON, -- Opportunities are rich in oil,
agriculture and other sectors in Iraq's Kurdistan
region, U.S. and Kurdish officials said on Monday,
but U.S. investment is still paltry in what
promoters bill as "the other Iraq."
U.S. business and government officials, seeking to
encourage investment and ease fears about doing
business in war-torn Iraq, called the autonomous
Kurdistan region a "shining example" of what the
entire country might one day become.
Boosters point to rich natural resources, a
favorable investment climate and greater security.
The region, with its own government and parliament,
has boasted a lower level of violence than the rest
of Iraq,www.ekurd.net
which is now cautiously
embracing security improvements in Baghdad and
elsewhere almost five years after the U.S.-led
liberation. |
Qubad Talabani is representative of the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) to the United States |
The Iraqi government is hoping to rebuild an
economy, and public infrastructure, battered by
years of sanctions and war, which plunged many
Iraqis into poverty and joblessness.
But the employment outlook is far brighter in
Kurdistan, and median incomes are up to 25 percent
higher than in the rest of Iraq, the regional
government says.
Even so, Qubad Jalal Talabani, the Kurdistan
Regional Government's representative to the United
States and son of the Iraqi president, said U.S.
business accounts only for 1 percent of total
investment in Kurdistan. "The United States lags
behind most other countries," he said.
Turkey is a major investor in Kurdistan's bridges,
banks and oil sector, Talabani said, despite
longstanding tension with Ankara over the Kurdish
rebels who have launched attacks from their mountain
enclaves.
While opportunities may abound, evidence is hard to
find that investors are willing to put aside
concerns about general security in Iraq,www.ekurd.net
along with doubts about
the country's political stability, and come to
Kurdistan in droves.
Neither Kurdish nor U.S. officials were immediately
able to provide figures for U.S. investment in the
region.
Oil is certainly a lure. The Kurdish government has
clashed with Baghdad over petroleum deals it has
signed with foreign oil firms, which the central
government deems illegal.
Talabani, speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
in Washington, insisted the Kurdish government's oil
contracts would benefit the entire country.
Kurdish officials are also hoping that agribusiness
will become another driver for foreign investment in
Kurdistan, a traditional wheat producer.
The region's acreage of field crops, mostly wheat
and barley, was about 2.3 million acres in 2007,
according to the Kurdish Regional Government.
Processing and export facilities are needed to
invigorate those sectors, along with tobacco, fruits
and nuts, maybe even wine, Talabani said.
"The right investments will turn Kurdistan into the
breadbasket of the region," he added.
Reuters
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