Kurdistan Region could be ‘crucial’ commercial hub in Iraq, region: PM
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Sunday that the autonomous region of Iraq over which he presides has the potential to become a crucial commercial hub for Iraq and the region.
His remarks came during a meeting that day in Erbil with Indian Ambassador to Iraq, Shri Birender Singh Yadav, according to a press release from Barzani’s office.
The area's strategic position could be the perfect location for an important “commercial hub,” the prime minister told Ambassador Yadav as the two discussed economic ties between the two representatives' countries, as well as ways to develop them further.
The agenda of the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) ninth cabinet has focused on developing business, particularly providing necessary facilitation for “domestic and foreign” investments.
In early October, Barzani reiterated that the top priorities of his administration are “economic diversification, giving more importance to the agricultural sector and protection of local products as well as facilitating foreign and local investments,” in a meeting with 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.
Read More: KRG prioritizes economic diversification, foreign investment: PM Barzani tells US envoy
In June, the Kurdistan Region’s Board of Investment decided to establish three new investment directorates in three different areas to increase and supervise investment opportunities as well as to reduce wasteful bureaucracy..
The Indian envoy, for his part, expressed his country’s willingness to further develop its relationship with the Kurdistan Region, specifically in the sectors of energy, agriculture, and information technology, according to the release.
India has maintained a consulate general in the Kurdistan Region's capital of Erbil since 2017.
Editing by John J. Catherine