Kurdistan Region PM announces initial results of economic reform
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Wednesday announced a portion of the official results of a current ambitious economic reform plan being carried out across the autonomous federal region of Iraq.
"Parliament has backed this cabinet’s actions to get rid of barriers to new businesses," Prime Minister Barzani said in a tweet.
Parliament has backed this cabinet’s actions to get rid of barriers to new businesses.
— Masrour Barzani پابەندین# (@masrour_barzani) September 8, 2021
We've cut processing from 32 days to 1; visits to govt offices from 50 to 1; and cost by over 90%. We’re paving the way, so our entrepreneurs can build a better future for Kurdistan -mb.
He added that the government has succeeded in reducing the processing time in various projects from 32 days to a single day, while visits to government offices decreased from 50 visits to just one.
The Kurdistan Region, like the federal Iraqi government in Baghdad, has long had the reputation for mind-numbing levels of state bureaucracy needed to accomplish even the simplest of official tasks or obtain approvals one would expect to be done with little problem.
Barzani pointed out that these steps reduced about 90 percent of costs.
"We’re paving the way, so our entrepreneurs can build a better future for Kurdistan."
The KRG’s ninth cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Barzani, has begun a series of financial and administrative reforms across the governmental institutions since it took office in July 2019. The financial reforms are intended to reduce reliance on hydrocarbon sales and maximize diverse sources of revenue for the region.
Since its formation in July 2019, the current Council of Ministers has sought to enact a sweeping reform agenda that includes changes to the public sector, strengthening the Kurdistan Region's official institutions, enhancing security including the Peshmerga forces, and combating corruption with economic transparency and fair trade practices to resolve endemic problems.