ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Japan is keen to assist Iraq develop its “weak” private sector by cooperating with Iraqi and Kurdish companies despite the window of opportunity being scarce, the Japanese ambassador to Iraq said last week. “Compared to Japan or other industrialized countries, the growth of private sector is very weak here [in Iraq], so Japanese companies want to make a partnership with reliable, trusted Iraqi or Kurdish companies, but it is difficult for them to find,” Futoshi Matsumoto, the Japanese Ambassador to Iraq, told Rudaw’s Hawraz Gulpi. Matsumoto further expressed interest in assisting the growth of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region’s private sector “so that Iraqi and Kurdish companies can make a partnership with Japan.” The state is by far the biggest employer in Iraq, a country with an estimated population of 42 million people of which four out of 10 young people are unemployed. Iraqis typically view public sector jobs as a safe haven against economic instability that sends the country’s private sector into a rollercoaster of boom and drought, as oil production, which accounts for 90 percent of national revenues, continues to place heavy demand on jobs in the public sector. According to Matsumoto, the challenges facing Japanese companies seeking to invest in Iraq revolve around a lack of guaranteed stability, with the ambassador explaining that such firms face greater challenges in Iraq than elsewhere. “But at the same time, there is a strong interest on the part of Japanese private sector to enter into the Iraqi market,” he affirmed.
.png&w=3840&q=75)
