Jalal Said Karim Garawi
Establishing and operating factories in any country, especially food factories, secures the country’s economic security, signals the continuity of agriculture and farmers’ livelihoods and puts thousands of employees and workers into jobs. Locally produced goods are constantly under the supervision of various health and district committees and are generally of higher quality than imported ones.
We all know that in a country like Iraq (including the Kurdistan Region), because of continuous wars (Iraq–Iran, the invasion of Kuwait, the uprisings, civil war, the fall of the regime and more), the industrial sector suffered greatly and hundreds of factories stopped working, especially in Kurdistan where most belong to the private sector. Those still working continue with steadfastness, without benefiting from many of their rights.
Briefly, some of the problems facing private-sector factory owners and industrialists in the Kurdistan Region today:
1. Working in an environment with a collapsed economic infrastructure left by crises and wars, in a region bordered by neighbours with interests who see Kurdistan merely as a place to sell their goods.
2. Reliance on old technology, slow production processes and higher costs for owners.
3. Weak recycling of capital into private-sector factories, with money heading to trade and flowing abroad to buy other countries’ goods and strengthen their economies and factories.
4. Strong competition from imported goods subsidised by exporting countries and arriving at lower prices (often with no regard for quality).
5. No clear economic and industrial policy and strategy, and non-enforcement of laws protecting local produce.
6. Corruption and poor management of the industrial sector, preventing full support and facilitation for factories (land allocation and industrial zones, customs exemptions, subsidised electricity and fuel, export incentives, etc.).
7. No unified banking policy and lack of access to banking services, especially financing, loans and transfers.
8. Heavy administrative routine in some departments, especially in issuing or renewing factory licences, which has driven several factory owners to leave with their capital and experience.
9. Weak patriotic feeling among citizens (most are not to blame, as unpaid salaries and crises force them to seek cheaper goods), but those with good financial means unfortunately ignore the suffering of factory owners, who have created hundreds and thousands of jobs and protect the economy from collapse, especially in crises and wars when borders are closed and governments and traders are helpless to supply citizens’ needs.
