Erbil sets stage as engine of Kurdistan economy

The capital of Iraq’s autonomous region is reaching out to entrepreneurs and major companies alike. The policy to make business easier for them is starting to pay significant dividends as opportunities grow.

An aerial view of new housing estates in Erbil. Sami Abdul Rahman Park. Jane Sweeney / JAI / Corbis

At the car showroom on Gulan Street, Erbil, Sadar Trading has sold on average one Land Rover every day since it opened in 2010 – with little or no option for car finance in Iraqi Kurdistan, the majority of those sales have been cash.

It is statistics such as this that have earned Erbil, the capital of the semi-independent Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), its boom-town image, as well as its less popular (with both locals and foreigners) reputation as “the new Dubai”.

With a population of just over five million, Iraqi Kurdistan is indeed seeing rapid growth. GDP growth is expected to hit 8 per cent this year, and bolstered by an estimated 45 billion barrels of oil reserves, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is in a solid financial position for the future.

In terms of security, the KRI has been able to boast a largely unblemished record. The recent terrorist attack on the Kurdish security services in September was the first for more than five years and contrasts with the almost daily attacks in the south. Since September, security has been beefed up even further, with multiple checkpoints lining the roads between Erbil and Baghdad.

Critics point out that behind the headline figures, Kurdistan wrestles with some serious issues, not least a stifling bureaucracy and rampant corruption. But for both its immediate neighbours – Turkey and Iran – and for the West, barriers to doing business present in some other Middle East markets are refreshingly absent.

Foreigners are granted 15-day business visas on arrival, and the 2006 investment law exempts foreign firms from taxes on imports and profits during their first decade of doing business in the KRI. As of June there were more than 2,300 foreign companies registered in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as 15,000 local firms.

“There may not be many more virgin territory onshore conventional oil and gas producing regions in the world and there are few countries with the economic, population and surplus income growth rates that the Kurdistan Region can boast of,” says Paul Bailey, the managing director of local firm Definitus.

Mr Bailey is one of thousands who have made their homes in Iraqi Kurdistan, leaving the Arabian Gulf or the West to throw their hat into the ring in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah or Dohuk, the KRI’s three cities.