ERBIL – The post-US invasion of Iraq in 2003 opened the doors for the Kurdistan region to build infrastructure, attract foreign investments and support local ones, which was reflected in giving a different and more positive picture of what the Iraqi provinces are going through, especially the capital Baghdad, which suffers from deep-rooted problems in roads, transportation, the housing sector, the provision of public services, and others.

The architectural, investment and infrastructure leaps in Kurdistan are reflected in the continuation of the regional government in signing dozens of investment contracts and others in the field of oil exploration and extraction, despite the lack of oil production compared to other Iraqi provinces, especially the southern ones.

Although the KRG has been in a difficult economic situation since 2014 following its financial and political disputes with the federal government, the region is one of the safest areas for foreign investment companies in a country torn by political and security tensions.

Among the steps that contributed to promoting and encouraging investment in the region was his government's enactment of the Investment Law in 2006, which granted investors tax exemptions for 10 years, as well as the provision of free land for mega projects with large customs reductions, which contributed to attracting many international companies to the region, as the region was able to keep its cities away from the security chaos that swept Iraq after the US occupation in 2003 and the fall of the regime of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The region consists of 4 governorates, namely the capital Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Dohuk and Halabja, and according to the Statistics Authority of the Ministry of Planning in the regional government, its population in early 2021 reached more than 6.1 million people, while the Federal Ministry of Planning in Baghdad estimated the population of Iraq for the year 2022 at more than 42 million people.

In 20 years, the Kurdistan region has been able to establish dozens of modern cities in various cities and eliminate the housing crisis (Al-Jazeera)

Investment Projects

The head of the Kurdistan Investors Union, Yassin Mahmoud Rashid, estimated – in his interview with Al Jazeera Net – the total received by the region between 2005 and 2014 at about $ 165 billion, by 17% of the total annual budget of Iraq.

Rashid also reveals that there are two types of projects that were worked on in Kurdistan after 2003: the first is investors' projects that were implemented in the form of contracting through investment companies, estimated at about 5,<> projects in different sectors, most notably services of various kinds, roads, building modern cities, universities, institutes, airports, health, education and others.

The second type is investment projects that cost about $ 70 billion in 13 different sectors, such as agriculture, industry, tourism, communications, education, housing, transportation, health and public roads, while it is estimated that Iraq's total annual budgets since 2003 exceeded one trillion US dollars, without having any positive impact on the ground with regard to the lives of citizens in all Iraqi cities outside the region.

Security, security expert and retired Colonel Aqeel Al-Taie – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – believes that security breaches, the spread of organized crime, uncontrolled weapons and the interference of political parties in the selection of incompetent security leaders in most Iraqi cities were offset by a stable security situation in the Kurdistan region, which contributed to achieving the region's desired goals and by a large margin from the rest of the provinces.

Economically, one of the reasons why the region has made this degree of differentiation compared to other provinces, specifically the southern ones, is that it has gained autonomy at the administrative and governmental levels, away from the Iraqi regime in one way or another, according to economic researcher Daoud Al-Halfi.

Al-Hilfi added other reasons, most notably that the region obtained legal privileges during the writing of the constitution by determining the region's percentage in the state budget, which helped it after 2005 to build good relations with foreign investment companies and conclude security and strategic agreements.

Al-Hilfi reveals the points of difference in governance between the region and other Iraqi provinces, that the parties in the region control administratively, economically and authoritarianly, and despite the presence of corruption in the region, he was able to invest oil and sign investment contracts, which seems to be different in the cities of central and southern Iraq, in which the parties are accused of corruption, theft and indifference to the citizen and his rights and demands, which led to misery, poverty and deprivation of the simplest services, as he put it.

Huge funds spent by the Iraqi government without this being reflected in the improvement of the service reality in Baghdad (Al-Jazeera)

Difference and similarity

The reality seems completely different from the point of view of political researcher and media professor at the University of Sulaymaniyah, Adalat Abdullah, as he believes that there is no point in comparing the reality of Kurdistan with Baghdad, adding that "the infrastructure is fragile on both sides, especially economically, because the rentier state naturally depends on a single source of resources, which is subject to many challenges, and the two parties are similar in this matter, as they have no other sources to manage the state and its institutions."

As for the similarities and differences, administratively, the region is somewhat better off in terms of organizing vital institutions and facilities and removing the control of the "deep state" phenomenon as prevalent in the Iraqi experience in Baghdad, while in terms of the legislative authority, the situation in Baghdad is better than in Erbil, according to Abdullah.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, the media professor explains that the Iraqi Council of Representatives is more able to monitor the organs of the executive authority, detect corruption files, legislate laws and monitor officials, while the Kurdistan Parliament cannot carry out its oversight tasks and represent the people and societal classes whose conditions are deteriorating day by day, until the institution of the regional parliament has become almost non-existent and ineffective on the Kurdish arena, as he put it.