IRBIL, Iraq, Sept. 19, 2006 — It was just an ordinary trade show - booths papered with colorful displays and overflowing with brochures. It was the hum of business, the sound of sales pitches and the slap of handshakes.
Except this trade show was in Iraq.

The city of Irbil hosted “Rebuild Iraq 2006” Sept. 14-17. More than 800 companies from 27 countries were represented inside a makeshift convention center in the capital of the Kurdistan region. Raid Rahmani, an engineer and chairman of the Iraqi Economic Development Corporation, had just two months to put the event together, but said he had little trouble filling the hall.

“People see that now is the time to come together and do business in Iraq,” he said.

Visiting Irbil to kick off the expo, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad hailed the show as an opportunity for the province of Kurdistan to show off its successes.

“The image that people have of Iraq around the world is violence in the city of Baghdad. But all of Iraq is not that,” he said during a tour of the city.

“Kurdistan is an area where there is security, where there is economic activity, where there is prosperity,” Khalilzad said. “To the businesspeople around the world, I say, come and satisfy the market in Kurdistan.”

U.S. firms GM, Ford, Motorola, FedEx, air-conditioning giant Carrier, generator maker Cummins, and Secure Global Engineering all had booths. French firm Electrolux was there. Volkswagen sold cars inside; Daimler-Chrysler preferred the outdoor lot. Local companies hawked licensed services ranging from Western Union money transfers and Hitachi washing machines to Showtime television. The Trade Bank of Iraq was trumpeting a new deal with Visa that allowed Iraqis traveling abroad to have their statement recorded in Iraqi dinars when they returned home – a boost for the local currency and a convenience most of the developed world takes for granted.

One row of booths was filled entirely with businesses from Iran and Syria.

“We are all businessmen. We don’t interfere in politics,” Rahmani said. “If any company would like to add something to our country, they are most welcome.”

A contingent of U.S. military was also there – but only to shop.

“We’re looking for firms to work with us in Mosul,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr Larry Kelley, economic and agricultural section leader for the Ninewa Provincial Reconstruction Team, as he talked with representatives from KAR, a Kurdistan construction and oil services firm.

“There’s a great business environment up here, and we want to help it spread,” Kelley said.

In 1992, Rahmani was in Jordan when his businessman father was kidnapped and later killed because he refused to do business with Saddam. He returned to Baghdad after the U.S.-led Coalition toppled Hussein’s regime in 2003, and said he is trying to bring his international contacts to bear in Iraq.

“We have rights now in this country, and we also now have duties to do for our country,” Rahmani said. “One of our duties is to work in this difficult situation…to rebuild the new Iraq.”

Irbil, a city of about 600,000 nestled among fertile wheat fields and set off by rolling mountain ranges to the north and east, certainly appears to be the place to start. City streets are lined with the construction sites of commercial and residential complexes with names like “Dream City” and “Empire World.” Within view of the airport, a dozen brand new 11-story condominiums rise out of the flat, dusty ground. The units have all been pre-sold.

The Kurdistan Regional Government, envisioning the city and region as “the gateway to the rest of Iraq” is bankrolling a $250 million expansion of Irbil International Airport, with a new international terminal, first-class lounges and enlarged runways capacious enough for Boeing and Airbus’ latest behemoths.

A half-hour outside the city, on the banks of the Great Zab River, the KRG is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the Ifriz Water Treatment Plant to triple the plant’s capacity by the end of the year.


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