Politics

Kurdistan PM approves new housing, health, infrastructure projects in Zakho

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani visited Duhok province's northern district of Zakho on Tuesday to meet with local officials and approve several new service projects to modernize and build up the area, located along the border with Turkey.

Mustafa Shilani 2020/07/21 17:41

kurdistan Kurdistan KRG Zakho Duhok

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani visited Duhok province's northern district of Zakho on Tuesday to meet with local officials and approve several new service projects to modernize and build up the area, located along the border with Turkey.

“The city of Zakho, like any part of Kurdistan, deserves the best of services. We are prepared to do all we can to serve this city.”

After holding several meetings, Barzani lauded the historical value of the city and the sacrifices its people have made in their significant role in the historical movement to liberate Kurdistan. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), he said, was working to accelerate steps required to transform the district into its own independent administration.

“The Prime Minister approved 50 billion IQD ($41.6 million) in service projects, which will include a Zakho-Ibrahim Khalil highway to link the district to the international border crossing with Turkey, the Batifa water project, and several others that will benefit the district,” said Duhok Governor Ali Tatar in a press conference.

Tatar explained that dozens of projects in the fields of electricity, road construction, water, health, education, and housing have been approved by Prime Minister Barzani within the region's budget in efforts to better serve the district of Zakho.

Barzani also met with the families of martyrs from the city of Zakho and its surroundings, pointing out that the government's work program is focused on serving all areas of the Kurdistan Region including the consolidation of its economic structure, diversification of income sources, and carrying out wide-ranging administrative and economic reform.

He also stressed that another key priority of the government is to serve and develop agricultural capacity by supporting the farmers of Kurdistan in a way that transforms the autonomous region from a consumer to a producing society.

Earlier in the week, the KRG's Investment Board and Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources announced that they have been developing plans for over 100 new projects to bolster across the Kurdistan Region.k.

Aside from the obvious economic advantages of boosting local agriculture, it also is a key prerequisite to becoming as “food independent” as possible, an issue that has emerged in the minds of many after seeing the effects of both the coronavirus and previous shortages that resulted from embargoes Baghdad imposed on the Kurdistan Region after its independence referendum of late 2017.

Editing by John J. Catherine