Officials assert decline in Turkish companies’ activity in Duhuk

DUHUK / IraqiNews.com: The Turkish companies’ activity in Duhuk significantly decreased in the past four months compared to the past two years due to many reasons, mainly the international economic crisis, the director of the Duhuk chamber of commerce said. “The global financial crisis negatively affected the Turkish companies’ commercial activities which have trade connections with the Kurdistan region, mainly with Duhuk, this year in comparison to the past two years,” Ayad Hassan told IraqiNews.com news agency. “In addition to this, Turkish companies tend to invest and work in Arbil more than Duhuk and have a wide-scale activities in the commercial exchange throughout Kurdistan and in the real estate with a light boom in the tourism sector,” he added. “Another reason is the connection of these companies’ work with the governmental work which also declined as the financial allocation decreased with the delay and the decrease of the 2009 budget,” he explained. “The decrease in oil prices also affected the Turkish companies’ activity because of the work and some governmental construction having ended,” Ayad said, asserting that the facilities presented by the Turkish side, mainly the increase in the number of cars passing toward Kurdistan and Iraq increased the work, but there is also competition from the European and Gulf companies. There are currently 560 Turkish companies in Kurdistan; most of them work in the reconstruction, real estate and commercial exchange sectors, a matter that provided several job opportunities for Turkish workers in the construction and restaurants and elevators sectors, according to the director of the Duhuk Chamber of Commerce. The USAID report on evaluating the economic reality in Kurdistan for December 2008, asserted that the Turkish companies hold 95 percent of the construction work in Kurdistan, with a total of $2.8 billion allocated  for 2008. “There are 634 Turkish construction companies in Kurdistan, including 150 in Duhuk, as well as 51 Turkish members in the Kurdistan’s construction union,” the report said. “The work of the Turkish companies in the investment field in Duhuk is not as big because it’s limited to the commercial exchange and the constriction,” the investment director in Duhuk, Bakhteyar Ameen, told IraqiNews.com news agency. “We can say the activity of the of Turkish companies will decline because of the establishment of several laboratories which produce material which used to be imported from Turkey such as beverages and some consumer goods,” he said. “Despite the decrease in the Turkish companies’ work in Kurdistan they still have the lion’s share in carrying out many projects in different sectors,” he noted. “The work is not like the past three years despite there being so many facilities at the Ibhrahim al-Khaliel crossings,” Mourad Nourtan, who is working in the coordination and the commercial exchange between Turkey and Iraq, told IraqiNews.com news agency, explaining that this comes with the competition of European companies and the opening of European consulates in Arbil. “Working with the rest of Iraq still not easy but it provides job opportunities and despite the financial crisis the commercial move will become bigger,” he underlined. SH (I)/SR 1