Governors' New Year resolution: Finish projects, build better roads

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- The governors of Kurdistan Region’s four provinces hope that the new year sees a resumption of all public projects, mainly road-building, that stalled due to threes of war with ISIS and a severe economic crisis.

Erbil governor Nawzad Hadi told Rudaw his office’s main focus is to pick up and finish all suspended projects.

The main one being a fourth pipeline to carry clean drinking water to the capital Erbil, the governor revealed.

The governor of Duhok Farhad Atroushi said that his province has not drawn any concrete plans for major projects since they don’t know the size of this year’s budget yet.

But investment in the health sector would be a priority, Atroushi said.

The governor said that five hospital-building projects that were due to be finished years ago are yet to be completed.

Atroushi said that he also plans to connect Duhok with all its districts through better roads.

Azad Tofiq, the governor of Halabja said that he has plans for the first 100 days of the year, but he needed direct help from the KRG, the government of Iraq and the international community.

Tofiq echoed the other governors’ concerns that roads connecting the cities were in a miserable state and needed to be repaired and two-lane roads replaced with freeways.

"Roads are a main problem in the Halabja province," he said.

Sulaimani governor Haval Abubakir suggested that the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in building roads could be the best answer the region’s roads and infrastructure problem.

He claimed that Dutch, German, Turkish, Iranian and French companies have showed willingness for such a partnership.

Duhok governor agreed given that contracts are given to local companies in order to keep the capital at home.