ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The war against ISIS and the financial crisis have not completely halted the flow of major foreign investment to the war-torn region of Iraqi Kurdistan as a $375 million financing package from the International Finance Cooperation (IFC) and Lebanese Audi Bank was provided to the region’s energy sector in a deal signed on Thursday. “The sentiment is this is a risky period but we are also acknowledging that the Kurdistan Region is trying to do the right thing,” IFC Manager of Infrastructure Department, Erik Becker, told Rudaw English on the sidelines of the event in the Kurdistan Region’s capital city of Erbil. The contact, which was signed by IFC, Mass Global Energy Sulimaniya, and Audi bank, will provide a $375 million debt and equity package to be used by Mass Global Energy Sulimanya, a private company based in the Kurdistan Region, to add 500 megawatts of capacity to a 1000 megawatt power plant in the city of Sulimaniya. This is not IFC’s first and only project in the fragile and conflict-affected region of Kurdistan, according to the institution’s officials. Mouayed Makhlouf, IFC’s Regional Director for the Middle East & North Africa, said their institution’s previous investments focused on other sectors including manufacturing and tourism. Becker also confirmed that the company’s “own investment [in the Kurdistan Region] has increased by five times over the last five years.” “So we started and now we are five times as large as we were five years ago in the Kurdistan region,” he explained. The IFC’s latest project, according to Mass Global Energy Sulimaniya, is expected to provide electricity to three million people, boosting the region’s power infrastructure, which has been strained by the migrant crisis. More than two million refugees and Internally Displace People (IDPs) are living in the Kurdistan Region, the majority of them in camps that suffer from electricity shortages. Despite the financial, migrant, and security crises, Becker explained that the Kurdistan Regional Government “is trying to continue to support private businesses.” “It is our role to also support government even in difficult times and maybe especially in difficult times to help them on their way to build the private sector and continue developing their country.” Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirwan Barzani told the reporter that the priorities for the Kurdish government are currently the “war against ISIS” and “resolving financial problems.” Barzani defined the IFC’s decision to invest in Kurdistan, especially in such a difficult time, as a sign that trust is regenerating in the region. He said that steps are being taken to encourage other foreign investors to come back to Kurdistan—many of whom halted their business after ISIS took control of parts of Iraq in August 2014. IFC is a member of the World Bank Group and the largest global development organization working in emerging markets in the private sector. “When such a top international organization gives a loan and also becomes a partner with a private company in Kurdistan means political, economic, and moral support for us,” the Prime Minister said in his speech. Barzani also revealed that the government will continue to support private business and help foreign investors by all means to build up their businesses in Kurdistan. “We feel that if you pay attention, you choose your partners carefully, and you work closely with the government and try to understand the constraints, we think you can do good business here and you can be rewarded for the risks you take,” Becker advised the foreign investors.
