ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Two hundred companies are taking part in a joint four-day construction and oil and gas fair in Erbil to promote investment in the Kurdistan Region and other parts of Iraq. 

The 11th Erbil International Building - Construction, Municipal Equipment & Machinery Exhibition and the Fifth Erbil Oil & Gas International Exhibition were held simultaneously under the supervision of the KRG Reconstruction and Housing Ministry and Oil and Natural Resources Ministry. 

Foreign firms are attending from 15 countries – including regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. 

The fair was opened by Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani and attended by officials from the KRG and the Iraqi government. 

Erol Guler, export manager of Turkish firm Aydin Boru, told Rudaw English they are “keen to work in the Kurdistan Region as it is rapidly developing especially in the field of gas and oil.”

The firm sells oil pipes and related materials.

He described the fair “an opportunity” to sign contracts with the Region and firms working in the sector.

Aydin Boru operates in 20 European and Middle Eastern countries. 

“This is the first time for us to have come to the Kurdistan Region,” he said. 

Iranian firms also attended the fair – many of them looking to invest in the Region for the first time. 

“We have plans to operate across Iraq including Mosul,” Babak Ziaie, manager of Iranian firm Tanha Pouland, told Rudaw English.

Tanha Poulad works in construction selling building materials. According to the company’s manager, they operate across Iran and hope to expand into Azerbaijan and Russia. 

Russia’s Rus Construct, which has been operating in the Kurdistan Region since 2015, building a number of trade and residential towers in Erbil, is taking a keen interest in the reconstruction of war-torn Mosul.

“Our objective is to work in other parts of Iraq and particularly Mosul if the security situation there allows,” Saman Soro, senior coordination officer at Rus Construct, told Rudaw English.

However, the dominant party at this year’s Erbil International Fair is Saudi Arabia.   

“This is the first time that 22 Saudi companies have taken part. They are giant Saudi companies,” Abu Bangin, head of the Erbil International Fair, told Rudaw. 

“The Saudis want to bring their assets to the Kurdistan Region and start investment here,” he said.

The fair comes “as the economic crisis is ending, Daesh has been eliminated, [and] airports have reopened,” Bangin said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (ISIS).

After the Kurdistan independence referendum in the fall of 2017, Baghdad took punitive measures, including an embargo of the Region’s two international airports in Sulaimani and Erbil. Both reopened in 2018. 

This is the first fair of its kind since 2015. 

Bangin said “the stability of the Region” had made this year’s fair such a success. 

Photos by Zhelwan Z. Wali