Over $2.5 billion capital invested in Kurdistan since mid-2019: Investment Board

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Amid a global health and financial crisis, the autonomous Kurdistan Region has attracted over USD 2.5 billion worth of capital for investment since the new regional government cabinet took office in mid-2019, the region’s Board of Investment announced on Wednesday.

In its annual report released on Wednesday, the Board revealed that from July 2019 until Dec. 24, 2020, it had granted permission to a total of 93 investment projects in the Kurdistan Region.

The distribution of the projects in the region’s provinces are as following:

• Erbil province: 34 projects with a total capital of $1.30 billion (making 41 percent of the total investment in the Kurdistan Region)
• Sulaimani province: 34 projects with a total capital of $1.47 billion (42 percent)
• Duhok Province: 25 projects with a total capital of $425 million (17 percent)

Most of the investment projects (91) were carried out by local investors, amounting to total capital of $2.4 billion. The rest of the projects (two) were carried out jointly by local and foreign investors ($17.5 million), according to the Board of Investment’s report.

The report added that 29 projects were canceled for failing to abide by the autonomous region’s rules and regulations.

Classifying the projects based on sectors, most of them have been in the industry (39.1 percent) and housing (29.2 percent) sector followed by education (7.58 percent), agriculture (7.3 percent), trade (6.7 percent), tourism (5.1 percent), health (2.1 percent), sport (2 percent), art (0.37 percent), and other services (0.38 percent).

From Aug. 1, 2006, until Dec. 24, 2020, the Kurdistan Region has attracted a total capital of $52.6 billion for investment, 56 percent of which was in Erbil province, 32 percent in Sulaimani province, and 12 percent in Duhok province, based on the Board of Investment’s report.

The report also mentions that 83 percent of the total investment in the past 14 years was carried out by local investors, nine percent by foreign investors, and eight percent by both foreign and local investors.

“We, in the ninth cabinet of the KRG, have taken the regional investment to a new stage based on a comprehensive plan,” Mohammed Shukri, the head of the Board of Investment, said on Wednesday during a press conference.

Despite a financial and health crisis, the KRG has put all its efforts into strengthening and boosting the autonomous region’s economy by heavily investing in the industry, agriculture, and tourism sector among others, Shukri added.

“All of this is to reach our goal, which is to diversify the income of our region…and change the Kurdistan Region from a consumer region to a producer one.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany