Kurdistan can be 'important commercial center' in Iraq, Middle East: PM
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Regional Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Thursday said that the autonomous region can become an "important commercial center" in both Iraq and the greater Middle East.
The statement was made while he supervised a cabinet meeting that heard from the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) High Economic Council in Erbil. It was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani and a number of other relevant ministers and officials.
“Although the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, and the world are facing a difficult economic situation, the ninth cabinet continues its work aimed at developing and reviving the economy in order to establish a solid and effective economic structure,” Prime Minister Barzani said according to a statement released afterward.
“The Kurdistan Region,” he continued, “has an opportunity to become an important commercial center in Iraq and the region in order to attract foreign investments to implement strategic projects.”
On Tuesday, Barzani told David Copley, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iraq Affairs in the US Department of State’s Near Eastern Affairs bureau, and US Consul General in Erbil Rob Waller that diversifying sources of revenue and facilitating foreign investments are among the KRG's top priorities.
Read More: KRG prioritizes economic diversification, foreign investment: PM Barzani tells US envoy
Cabinet Secretary Amanj Rahim also presented a report authored by a special committee charged with assessing the quality of gasoline and other imported fuels to the cabinet, which approved a plan to unify and update technical, health, and environmental safety standards for fuels used throughout the region.
During the meeting, ministers agreed to organize and develop central laboratories for checking fuel quality. The Ministry of Interior and commercial control teams are to keep an eye on imported fuels at borders, fuel depots, and fuel stations to prevent money-saving but environmentally unsound and often unsafe shortcuts or additives from being used to illegally increase profits.
“The Council of Ministers authorized the concerned authorities to take the most severe legal measures against violators who not only endanger citizens health but the environment of the Kurdistan Region as well as its negative consequences for the economy,” the statement added.
The Council of Ministers also stressed that taxes should be collected from the profits of companies importing fuel, provided that these measures do not unduly contribute to increased fuel for consumers.
In another segment of the meeting, Rahim presented the outlines of the draft law on intellectual property protection, which aims to protect rights in all artistic, literary, scientific, commercial, and industrial fields in order to spur creative efforts and to protect the rights of workers.
The meeting was concluded by the cabinet deciding that its Legal Committee expedite the review of the draft law for approval at a future session before being referred to the regional parliament.
Editing by John J. Catherine