Zakho To Open 10 New Factories
An official says the new plants include what he calls the largest household appliance factory and an aluminum recycling plant, but gave no investment value, jobs or opening dates
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Zakho Independent Administration is preparing to open 10 new factories in different sectors, including what an official calls the largest household electrical appliance factory and a plant that recycles old aluminum, Abdulrahman Adib, director of industrial development for the administration, told Kurdistan 24.
He said:
The factories will open in the near future and serve people across the Kurdistan Region.
Adib said one of the new plants will be the first of its kind in both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region:
The largest factory for making water coolers and refrigerators.
It was established by a Turkish company in partnership with a Zakho businessman, he said. A second plant will be the largest factory for household electrical appliances, making items such as vacuum cleaners, hair dryers and ovens. A third will melt down old aluminum so it can be recycled and reused. The remaining plants will operate in other industrial fields, Adib said, without naming them or the Turkish company.
He added Zakho already has more than 170 factories in its area and that the number grows by the day.
Gohdar Shekho, the administration’s supervisor, said on October 25 that nearly 140 factories have opened in Zakho in the past five years and that six more licenses had recently been issued.
The announcement continues a drive that began in earnest in 2023.
Prime Minister Masrour Barzani laid the foundation stones for the Zakho industrial zone and a waste recycling plant on November 19, 2023.
Zakho opened 40 new factories in 2025 and drew nearly $400 million in investment that year, and approved 50 more factories in July, according to Kurdistan 24 reports.
Adib told Kurdistan 24 in September that nine other factories worth 1.5 trillion dinars would open, including plants for electrical appliances and aluminum products. It was not clear whether the 10 factories announced now include those. On October 25, Barzani opened a $20.155 million Nissan distribution and training hub and the $15 million Motor Plex complex in Zakho and witnessed an agreement with Chinese automaker Jetour to assemble vehicles there, a project officials described as the first of its kind in the Region. Jetour has not disclosed a capacity, investment value or start-up date.
Iraqi media have reported that locally made goods struggle to compete with cheaper imports, because production costs in Iraq are well above those in Türkiye, Iran or China.