June 10, 2010Kurdistan Prime Minister Leads Trade and Investment Conference in London
The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan region of Iraq will play host to delegates from around the world when he visits London next week to lead a conference to promote international trade and investment.
Prime Minister Barham Salih will speak at the conference, organised by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and supported by UK Trade and Investment, which takes place on June 15-16.
Five other members of the Kurdistan Cabinet will address the conference, including Ministers for Natural Resources, Trade and Industry, Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Interior, and Agriculture and Water Resources. They will be joined by Kurdistan’s Head of the Investment Board and Head of Foreign Relations, as well as the KRG’s Representative to the US.
Delegates representing British and multinational companies, foreign governments, international economists and industry analysts will be offered unparalleled access to Kurdistan’s political leadership, as well as the opportunity to meet with major firms and chambers of commerce from the Kurdistan Region.
In anticipation of the conference, KRG Prime Minister Salih said: “We welcome international companies to come and do business in Kurdistan. Private sector investment has been helping the economy of the Kurdistan Region, making it a hub for economic and construction activity and a gateway to the rest of Iraq. The Kurdistan Regional Government is committed to improving our business environment and making it more conducive to investment by the day.”
Ms Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, High Representative to the UK, will be chairing the conference. She said: “Kurdistan is already home to many international brands, from Coca Cola and Pepsi to Lafarge and Mercedes Benz. These companies and many others are already doing business successfully in Kurdistan. The London conference will give the opportunity to British and international business people to find out why and how they too can make the most of Kurdistan's potential as the gateway to Iraq.”
About Kurdistan Region:
· Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region in federal Iraq. It borders Syria to the west, Iran to the East and Turkey to the north
· With a population of currently 4.7 million and rapidly increasing, the three governorates of Duhok, Erbil and Suleimaniah cover approximately 40,000 square kilometres - four times the area of Lebanon and larger than that of the Netherlands
· Since March 2003 not a single coalition soldier has died nor a single foreigner been kidnapped in the areas administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)
· The capital and seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government is Erbil, a city known locally as Hawler. The Citadel in Erbil is said to be the longest continually inhabited place in the world
· The Kurdistan Regional Government exercises executive power according to the Kurdistan Region’s laws as enacted by the democratically elected Kurdistan Parliament
· Iraq’s Constitution recognises the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Kurdistan Parliament and the Peshmerga guard as the legitimate regional forces
· The current coalition government consists of several political parties that reflect the diversity of the Region’s people, who are Chaldeans, Assyrians, Turkmen, Yazidis and Kurds living together in harmony and tolerance
· Since the Anfal genocide campaign by Saddam Hussein’s Regime in the 1980s, more than 65% of the razed villages have been rebuilt by the Regional Administration. The Region is geographically diverse, from hot plains to cooler mountainous areas with natural springs
· The Kurdish language is distinct and is in the family of Iranian languages, such as Persian and Pashto. There are two main dialects, Sorani and Kurmanji
· The Kurdistan Region has seven universities, including the English-language University of Kurdistan-Hawler and the American University of Iraq in Suleimaniah, opened in 2006/07
· A liberal foreign investment law was ratified in 2006, with incentives for foreign investors such as the possibility of owning land, up to 10-year tax breaks and repatriation of profits
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