ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - China’s consul general to Erbil on Wednesday said that his country and the Kurdistan Region are “complementary” and expressed his determination to improve Beijing-Erbil business and trade relations.
“China and this Region are highly complementary to each other. So we can do a lot for the infrastructure, agriculture, communications [fields], and many more. I am determined to improve the business-trade relation between China and this [Kurdistan] Region,” Liu Jun, Beijing’s consul general in Erbil, told Rudaw’s Dilnya Rahman.
Jun voiced his surprise at Erbil’s liveliness and vitality, noting that the numerous ongoing construction projects reflect that “this region is undergoing tremendous change.”
The diplomat underlined that China does not figure among the top 10 investors in the Kurdistan Region, stating that this was “not enough,” and stressing his determination to improve and promote Chinese investments in the Region, including by forging agreements between cities and establishing provincial relations between China and Kurdistan Region.
Jun also announced a plan to offer visa application services at China’s consulate in Erbil in order to facilitate the visa application process for the people of the Region.
China opened its consulate in Erbil in 2014 and has become one of Iraq’s largest trade partners in the region. In a 2021 interview with Rudaw, former Chinese Commercial Consul to Erbil Li Qingsheng said that Iraq was China’s “third largest trading partner in West Asia and North Africa with a bilateral trade volume of $30.1 billion”, adding that China has imported more than 60 million tons of crude oil from Iraq the previous year.
Trade between China and Iraq reached $16 billion in the first six months of 2021 Beijing is also the biggest importer of Iraqi oil.
