Kurdistan Region launches first Erbil Industrial Development Forum

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Organizers began the first Erbil Industrial Development Forum this week in the Kurdistan Region's capital, under the supervision of the regional Ministry of Trade and Industry.

"We want to provide more job opportunities for Kurdistan's youth by paying attention to the industrial sector so that our youth do not depend exclusively on government jobs and salaries," the event's supervisor, Khoshawy Mohammed, told Kurdistan 24.

The forum, he said, aims to highlight and assess development taking place in the Kurdistan Region, primarily in the fields of industry and the economy.

Mohammed explained that the industrial sector has an important role to play in promoting local products, pointing out that there are multiple new factories in the Kurdistan Region that are now exporting their products to various countries abroad.

According to its organizers, the forum will also discuss the best way forward for tourism in the Kurdistan Region through several additional seminars and with the participation of local leaders in industry.

Among those taking part in such panel discussions will include the regional trade and planning ministers, and the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Investment Authority.

In January, the Iraqi federal government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan Region agreed to form a joint committee to boost industry and trade across the nation and to simplify government bureaucracy in related sectors.  

Read More: Baghdad, Erbil form joint committee to boost Iraqi industry, streamline trade bureaucracy

At the time, Kurdistan Region Trade Minister Kamal Muslim said, "We decided to form a joint committee and that it would start its work tomorrow,” explaining that the body will also focus on providing recommendations to address any problems between the two sides and avoid their recurrence going forward.