KRG makes new reform initiative

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is planning on launching a reform plan to shrink the government and support the private sector.

Based on the latest KRG plan for reform in the government, the economy sector will be restructured and the KRG will create more transparency in all sectors and especially in the oil sector.

The KRG’s plan will be announced soon and will last for three years during which the Council of Ministers via this reform project will work on reducing the number of employees in the public sector and instead increase the revenue.

Zagors Fatah, Director General of Planning at the KRG Ministry of Planning, confirmed the government's reform plans to Kurdistan24 and said “What have been indicated in the plan is that the number of employees will be reduced and restructured in a new mechanism to make private sector a machine that moves the economic growth in the Region.”

“The government is working on shrinking the number of ministries and merging some directorates and departments and encouraging government employees to seek employment in the private sector,” Fatah said.

Sabah Khoshnaw, a university professor and economic expert, told Kurdistan24 that the reform should be a radical change in terms of diversifying the resources through developing other important sectors such as agriculture, industry, tourism and oil. “These sectors should equally contribute to the development of the economy,” he added.

Qubad Talabani, the KRG Deputy Prime Minister, said on Tuesday that “a long-term reform package will be announced in the beginning of the next month in coordination with the World Bank to draw a general roadmap for making reform.”

Talabani ensured people of Kurdistan that there is a serious reform underway. “The reform package will include efforts to reduce expenditure, increase revenue, reshape administration and shrink government ministries and directorate,” he said.

In January 2016, KRG launched a roadmap for “reform and modernization” to overcome economic and financial crises in the Kurdistan Region. Meanwhile, in February, Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani announced several reforms in KRG to review the size of the KRG’s administration and to decrease the number of superfluous departments and redundant employees to fit its actual need.

Reporting by Baxtiyar Goran
Editing by Ava Homa