Category Archives: Economy

Public Servants Should Use Court Action if the KRG Keeps Delaying Their Salaries

 By Abdul-Qahar Mustafa: Salary delays are a breach of employment contract and illegal. All governments are obliged by law to pay their public service employees on time and accurately. The government is responsible if public servants suffer pay delay. No excuse can justify a government not paying public service workers for the work they do,…

You Should Not Abuse Democracy in Kurdistan

By Abdul-Qahar Mustafa: In democracy, every individual has a single vote but in a country where decision-making is controlled by a group of rich men who came together in the form of a political party, people have very little say in the actions and decisions of government. The rich privileged families, who receive special education…

If You Are a Patriotic Kurd, Bring Money Back to Get Kurdistan Out of Recession

By Abdul-Qahar Mustafa: The economies of both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have been suffering from low oil prices and the expenses of the war with the Islamic State (ISIS) for more than two years. There are no signs that the situation will improve unless the oil prices go up again and the ISIS war…

5 Steps to Reduce KRG Unemployment Now

By Razbar Sulaiman: On the sidelines of the First Economic Forum of Erbil’s Middle East Research Institute (MERI) Frank Gunter, professor of economics at (Lehigh University) in the United States said: “My own research shows that, between residents and refugees settled here, there are 620,000 unemployed. That is a destabilizing influence. Young men want jobs,…

Oil Curse Symptoms in the Kurdistan Region

By Shwan Sharey: The production and export of oil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) shows signs of the oil curse that exists across the region. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a sub-state actor, like the Gulf and African states exhibits signs of this oil curse. These include a lack of transparency in energy…

Russia’s Gas Diplomacy

By Rozhin Salah, Linda Rashid, Deya Aso, Arez Osman, Ahmed Yousef: On 1 January, 2006, Russia cut off gas supplies to Europe because of a dispute over gas prices with the transit country Ukraine; this conflict was summarized on a cover of ‘The Economist’ in which Putin, instead of a gun, holds the pump in…

KRG Pursues Fake Reform Project

By Mohammed Hussein: Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are clear examples of oil-dependent states and governments that recently got shaken by the current oil-price fall. Iraq is still struggling with the implications of the problem, but the KRG showed its dysfunctionality in the early months of the crisis. Driven by public sector employees’…

‘Animal Farm’ and Our Society

By Twana A. Xeyat: George Orwell wrote a wonderful novel called ‘Animal Farm’ in 1945. His thoughts were ignited when he happened to see a village boy whipping a cart-horse. At that moment, Orwell received the inspiration he needed to formulate his ideas into ‘Animal Farm’. He later wrote: “It struck me that if only…

Questioning the Drastic Failures of the Nichirvan Barzani and Ashti Hawrami Model

Mufid Abdulla

By Arian Mufid: Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) prime minister Nichirvan Barzani is no doubt aware that the general perception people hold of his role in the south of Kurdistan is that his efforts have been exclusively focused on his plans to change the south of Kurdistan into another Dubai. Of course Nirchirvan Barzani speaks from…

The Economic Turbulence in the South of Kurdistan

Mufid Abdulla

By Arian Mufid: For the last ten years Kurdish politics has suffered great corruption in the hands of the Kurdistam Regional Government (KRG) leadership. Here we are today with yet more evidence of the results of the mismanagement of our leaders, with the wages and salaries of Kurdish civil servants not being paid for the…

Is it Time Just Yet For a Kurdish Currency?

By Yara Kamaran Ismael: As we all know, unfortunately, Kurdistan is going through a huge economic crisis. The war with ISIS, refugees, and problems with the central government of Iraq are making it impossible for the Kurds to maintain a flourishing economy. The recent fall in the Iraqi Dinar and the rise of the Dollar in…

Domestic Workers in South Kurdistan

Biryar Bahhaalddin

By Biryar Bahhaalddin: There are many different views about the domestic workers in Kurdistan. Are they workers or slaves? Is it process of hiring or of purchasing like commodities? Is it an ordinary matter or like going back to the slavery era of the Roman Empire? Some people claim that bringing domestic workers into Kurdistan…

Genel Energy Demands $375 Million From KRG

By Aland Mahwy: Ten days after the London court ruling against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in its long standing dispute with Dana Gas, the Anglo-Turkish exploration and production company, Genel Energy, is demanding the KRG pays it, within one month, $375 million. On 13 July 2015, Genel Energy’s chairman, Tony Hayward, said his company…

The Disputes Between Dana Gas and the KRG

By Harem Karem & Aland Mahwy: In a letter to the Abu Dhabi Bourse on 22 October 2013 (as required under the freedom of information law), Hamid Jafar, of Dana Gas and a former advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), revealed that he had filed a court case in London demanding $430 million from the…

Kurdistan’s Youth Are Migrating

By Meer Ako Ali: To migrate or not to migrate? This is the question more and more of the youth of the Kurdistan Region are asking themselves. Every month 3,000 people migrate illegally from the Kurdistan Region – mostly to Europe through Turkey – according to Iraqi federal estimates. Last week 12 young Kurds died…