WARSAW, Poland—At a Warsaw university hall in late October around 40 Kurdish investors living in Europe held their first economic forum which was also attended by the Polish deputy economy minister and a number of other Polish and European businessmen.
They all came to the forum with big objectives. “Businessmen from all four parts of Kurdistan should come together. This is just an initial step,” Kamil Yavus, one of the Kurdish businessmen in Poland, said.
In the forum, ways to build joint business projects, and coordination between Kurdish and European businessmen were discussed.
It was a good opportunity for the Kurdish business owners of all four parts of Kurdistan now living in Europe to find ways that could bring them closer to one another.
“We can build an economic bridge between Europe and the Kurdistan Region,” Saed Dogan, head of the Kurdish Workers’ Association in Europe said.
Bringing together Kurdish businessmen in diaspora is not difficult, Saed believed. We can use this forum to meet, he said, and then visit the Kurdistan Region to see “how we could assist its reconstruction, and develop its economic and production sectors,”
What could the Kurdish diaspora investors do to help the Kurdistan Region recover from this economic crisis?
Dogan said he was concerned about the economic crisis in Kurdistan, and argued that all should join hands to help the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG): “The KRG should give us a chance and talk to us,” adding, “Certain mistakes have to be rectified, and then we have to come up with a roadmap for transferring this economy to Kurdistan.”
The Kurdish Workers’ Association in Europe was formed in 2013 and embraces businessmen and investors from all four parts of Kurdistan.
“Our association has more than 300 members, some of whom are millionaires with big companies and projects,” Dogan Said.
The US-based Cobani Yoghurt mogul Hamdi Ulukaya and some other multimillionaires like him have not joined the Association yet, Dogan said, but have been approached.
This association has been able to forge good relations between Kurdish and German investors in three German counties.
“We have formed a committee to encourage a number of companies to go to Kurdistan. They want to go to Erbil, Sulaimani, and Mardin for investment,” he said.
KRG Representative to Poland Zyad Rauf encouraged the Polish deputy economy minister, polish and Kurdish investors in diaspora to build good trade and business relations with the Kurdistan Region.
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