Kurdistan’s Investment Law: One of the Best Investment Laws in the Middle East

Chairman of the Kurdistan Board of Investment Herish Muharam explains the intricacies of the progressive investment law Kurdistan has adopted in 2006 and its amendments that are due in 2013.

Mr. Muharam discusses how the law revolutionized business climate in Kurdistan – a transformation from the socialist to free market economy slowly unleashed the power of the private sector.

He explains: “Since 2006 we have started to think about drawing out very long term partnerships and strategic agreements with the private sector; to support the private sector in taking over some of the government responsibilities and to be a part of the decision-making process. This all came in a time when investment was a new concept to this area, and we have given everything that we could; we have not denied any kind of rights to the investors. So we arrived at the point where we are now, the size of our licensed investments as a part of oil and gas is almost US $20 billion.”

The new amendments to the law will give greater space to the sustainable sectors like education, health, industry, agriculture, tourism and real estate. Moreover, the new law should be more transparent as the law went through a thorough review process incorporating comments from all stakeholders as well as international consultants. Commenting on the process of reviewing the law Mr. Muharam adds: “We have tried very hard to overcome the gaps identified not only by us as government but by the private sector, media channels, the opposition, reporters, economists and university faculties in order to have a comprehensive point of view that can provide solutions to all the issues that arose from the implementation of this law over 6 years.”