PM Barzani lays foundation stone for Food Industrial Zone in Duhok

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Monday laid the foundation for the Food Industrial Zone in Duhok province, making it the third strategic project to be announced in less than 10 days.  

The ceremony took place in Duhok province and was attended by Prime Minister Barzani along with relevant ministers and local authorities, including the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Industry, Head of Investment Board, and Duhok province’s governor.

Besides being an industrial hub for agricultural and food products, the strategic project provides thousands of job opportunities in the province.

“We want people’s livelihood to be in their hands,” Prime Minister Barzani said during the ceremony, as a way to reduce the burden of employment on the public sector, as it “undoubtedly becomes a source of power and energy for Kurdistan.”

“We promised at the beginning of the new cabinet [ninth cabinet] to develop other economic sectors and not rely on a single source [of economy],” Barzani added, as he mentioned “developing industrial and agricultural sectors was one of the pledges of our cabinet program.” 

The project, hosting over 270 food-factories, is a public-private partnership that is planned to be built on 1,423 acres in Duhok province’s Simele district and will be executed on a phase-based manner.

Besides that, the project also contains hotels, motels, and several restaurants.

The project “would have a profound impact on the agriculture sector and provide job opportunities,” Ali Tatar, the governor of Duhok province, stated as he highlighted that the project’s benefits would further extend to the Kurdistan Region and Iraq as a whole.

“The products and benefits of this project are for all of Kurdistan,” Prime Minister Barzani added. He also mentioned that despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis the Kurdistan Region has faced due to falling oil prices, the KRG has continued to serve its citizens.  

The Zone also hosts nearly 230 storages, including freezers, that will occupy 338 acres, and preserves the quality of agricultural and food products. The lack of frozen storages is usually an issue for farmers in the Kurdistan Region who cannot conserve their products for a long time.

This is the third strategic project which Prime Minister Barzani has inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for. In early July, Barzani laid the foundation for the strategic 100-meter highway in Sulaimani province. Later that month, the Kurdish leader inaugurated the new Khabat steam power station in Erbil province.

“Certainly, it is not going to be the last project,” Barzani continued. “In the future, strategic projects throughout the Kurdistan Region will be executed equally.”

During his speech at the inauguration ceremony, Kamal Muslim, the KRG Minister of trade and industry, announced that his ministry, and the Board of Investment, “have plans” to build “five food industrial zones” in the Kurdistan Region.

As Kurdistan 24 previously reported, the KRG Investment Board and Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources have developed plans for over 100 new projects across the Kurdistan Region. 

Read More: Kurdistan Region planning over 100 new projects to develop agriculture

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany