Erbil, Kurdistan Region – In her pursuit to open an upscale daycare center in Erbil, 27-year-old Amanda Chahla said she had greatly benefited from the Kurdish-Lebanese Friendship Association, which has been helping Lebanese entrepreneurs take the Kurdistan Region by storm.
"This is an amazing place to do business, everything is developing and happening so fast, so it's exciting to be here,” said Chahla, recognized as one of the youngest Lebanese to have come for business to Erbil.
“Some people don't realize that you need to put in serious efforts," she said recently at a meeting of the Kurdish-Lebanese Friendship Association at Erbil’s Lebanese-owned Rotana hotel.
The aim of the association is to support incoming Lebanese expats and identify investment possibilities.
Already, Lebanese investors and businesses have a firm grip on the Kurdistan Region’s business landscape: Eight of the largest banks in Lebanon have opened branches, more than 10,000 Lebanese businessmen reside in Kurdistan and over 800 Lebanese companies operate in the autonomous enclave.
In addition, a number of Erbil or Sulaimani luxury hotels and restaurants are owned by former Beirut residents. The Lebanese are also very active in construction, media, and advertising.
The Friendship Association was founded in 2007 by eleven businessmen from Lebanon, as there was nobody to represent the Lebanese in the region, besides a Lebanese embassy in Baghdad. The association’s main goal is to help cooperation between the Kurds and Lebanese in both the Kurdistan Region and Lebanon.
With a background in Education, and experience gained teaching at the Sabis International School in Erbil, Chahla began to plan her own kindergarten. She partnered with another young Lebanese, Romy Salem, in order to secure investment, when she realized there was no "safe, clean daycare in Kurdistan."
Modeled -- like many other businesses in Kurdistan -- after a successful line of businesses in Dubai and the Gulf, the kindergarten is aimed at the region’s wealthy local and foreign residents who do not want to leave their children in the care of a nanny or au-pair when at work.
But setting up the business has not been easy, Chahla said.
“When I arrived, no one was taking me seriously as a woman. It wasn't perfect in Beirut, but in here it was definitely worse. I absolutely love Kurdistan, which is why I want to open a business here, but it certainly was not easy."
According to Chahla, many young Lebanese entrepreneurs come to Kurdistan every year to try their luck, convinced that "they can just grab money everywhere." Soon, however, their dreams of independence fall apart in face of the difficult, competitive market, and they end up accepting jobs at one of the large companies already firmly grounded in the region.
"The most important thing for me was to maintain a perfect image at all times,” Chahla said. “To make sure that people are serious, I am constantly aware of my every move. I never take a meeting in a bar, I never go clubbing and I never go out with the wrong people: That is a price to pay, for sure."
