A 3,000 acre industrial town is to be built in the Arbat district of Sulaymaniyah Governorate, according to a report from AKnews.

Sulaymaniyah Investment Commission met with a number of private companies this week to discuss the master plan for “The Industrial Town of Arbat District”, which will involve an initial investment of $3 billion USD (3,500 billion IQD).

Yasin Mahmoud, spokesman for Kurdistan Investors Union, told AKnews the construction of almost 450 factories of various sizes will begin this year because all formal bureaucratic boxes have been ticked.

Mahmoud said that Iran is especially interested in the project because the EU and U.S. are imposing economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic. It hopes the project is launched soon so that it can rescue some of its factories by relocating them to Arbat district, explains Mahmoud.

“It will become a very important project for Sulaymaniyah because it will change the city from a tourist destination to an industrial hub,” he added.

Farman Gharib, Sulaymaniyah investment director told AKnews that after the master plan for the project is approved, the plan will be opened to competing companies to bid for spaces.

(Source: AKnews)

Iraq’s second largest museum in Sulaimaniya is recovering stolen artifacts by paying smugglers to return the treasures, as CNN reports:

(Source: CNN)

Once the farms around the city of Sulaymaniyah provided all of the fruit and vegetables locals needed. Now climate change, pollution and illegal dumping in local waterways are forcing farmers out.

“We can no longer grow vegetables here, that time has come to an end,” lamented farmer Mohammed Aziz. “The water is so dirty that we don’t even dare get near it,” the 55-year-old said, pointing toward the Tanjero River, once a chief source of water for farming here.

Aziz used to grow vegetables and other crops but since major amounts of sewage began being discharged into this small river, he and his fellow farmers can no longer benefit from what they describe as once fertile land. The waters of the Tanjero River, which runs southwest of the city of Sulaymaniyah and flow into the Darbandikhan Lake, are now unsuitable for agricultural use.

“In the past, the water was not clean either,” Aziz admits. “But it was good enough and we used it. At that time, not all sewage went into the river. But now all of the sewage goes into the river and the river has become so polluted that farmers are being forced to leave their land and abandon agriculture.”

This has been confirmed by Nature Iraq, an environmental action group with links to United Nations eco-projects, that has initiated a community awareness project, called the Iraq Upper Tigris Waterkeeper Project. Nature Iraq has tested the waters of Tanjero and Darbandikhan Lake (pictured).

Three more maternity hospitals need to be built in Sulaimaniyah to deal with the fact that a baby is born every 35 minutes in the province, medical officials say.

The Director of Sulaimaniyah’s only maternity hospital, Shler Fayaq Gharib, said the province needs three more maternity hospitals to deal with the increase in births.

AKnews reports that during the first six months of 2011 some 7,458 babies have come into the world in Sulaimaniyah, a 3.5 per cent increase on the same period last year, with a baby being born every 35 minutes.

The current maternity hospital caters for 201 patients, but demand regularly exceeds this figure.

“Sulaimaniyah desperately needs three more hospitals,” Gharib said.

The figures show that miscarriages have increased 21 per cent since last year. There were 876 miscarriages during the first six months of 2010, but the same period this year has seen 1,118 .

These kinds of complications put a greater burden on the already overloaded system.

(Source: AKnews)

Hundreds of protesters inspired by unrest around the Arab world took to the streets of the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya on Sunday and at least 48 people were injured, according to Reuters. Associated Press reports at least one person killed overnight.

A source told Iraq Business News that a massive demonstration is planned for Baghdad on Friday, to protest the lack of jobs, and shortages of electricity, water and food.

A police official in Sulaimaniya said security forces fired in the air when demonstrators chanting against corruption tried to approach the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, where clashes on Thursday killed two people and wounded dozens.

“Hospitals in Sulaimaniya received 48 wounded people including 19 police and security forces,” said a health official who asked not to be named. “There are 11 people wounded by gunshots.”

Gunmen raided and set fire to a television station in the city, shutting down broadcasts of the protests, station and government officials said.

The protesters are seeking better public services, the ouster of local officials and other demands. Similar rallies took place in Falluja and other locations.

In Baghdad, the cabinet decided to have ministers visit demonstrators to soothe anger over corruption, shortages of food and electricity and other issues behind a series of protests that have triggered skirmishes with security forces.

Unlike their regional counterparts, Iraqi protesters generally have not been calling for the removal of their elected government, installed just two months ago after months of tense negotiations between political factions. Dictator Saddam Hussein was swept away by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The raid on NRT satellite channel in Sulaimaniya was carried out by 50 masked gunmen wearing security force uniforms who sprayed the station with gunfire, smashed equipment, wounded a guard and lit fires, Twana Othman, the station’s manager, said.

NRT had aired coverage of violent protests in Sulaimaniya last week.

Bahrouz Mohammed, the local governor, condemned the attack and promised to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“Those saboteurs who attacked the TV station are trying undermine stability in Sulaimaniya,” he said in a statement.

In the western city of Falluja, about 300 protesters demanded the firing of the governor and provincial council members in Anbar province. Dozens of people rallied for jobs in the southern province of Nassiriya, Abdul Hadi Mohan, deputy head of the provincial council, said.

The cabinet decision to reach out to protesters underscored politicians’ concerns over growing unrest.

(Source: Reuters, Associated Press)

Sinoma (Suzhou) Construction Company, a subsidiary of the Chinese Sinoma International Engineering, has signed a $112.5-million deal with Iraq-based investment firm Mass Iraq for the construction of a cement plant.

Both parties will build a cement plant with an annual capacity of 5,300 tons per day in Sulaymaniyah.

The scope of the deal includes the design, procurement, construction, installation, commissioning, trial production and the final examination by standard of the raw material storage to the whole production line.

The project is expected to take two years from the day the contract takes effect.

Sinoma International Engineering is engaged in manufacture and distribution of mechanical equipment, along with engineering and installation of cement production lines. The company operates its businesses in domestic and overseas markets.

(Source: WCN)

AKnews reports that the first direct flight between Sulaimaniya and the Qatari capital, Doha, commenced on Wednesday.

Dana Mohammed, media secretary for Sulaimaniya International Airport, told AKnews on Thursday that the route is being operated by FlyDubai, the UAE-based budget carrier, in conjunction with the local Zozg and Azmar airlines, and will offer two flight per week.

The inaugural flight carried FlyDubai executives to Sulaimaniya, one of the three provinces in the Kurdistan Region, northern Iraq. The new route opened after the airport and the airline executives brokered a deal in October.

Flydubai flight to Sulaimaniyah is the airline’s second destination in Iraq. It already flies to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region.

FlyDubai airline was launched in 2009. The new carrier has expanded rapidly using a fleet of new Boeing 737-800 planes. It currently operates around 20 routes in the Middle East, Gulf region, Asia, Europe and Africa.

(Source: AKnews)

The media secretary at the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry for  Tourism said on Saturday that nearly 37,000 tourists visited Kurdistan during Eid al-Adha.

Kan’an Baha’addin told AKnews during the four days of the Eid 15,000 tourists visited Erbil province, 13,000 Dohuk, and 8,500 Sulaimaniya.

Eid al-Adha is an Islamic celebration that takes place at the end of the Hajj (annual pilgrimage to Mecca), when Muslims traditionally commemorate the trials and sacrifices of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) through the sacrifice of a goat or a sheep. This year the Eid was marked on Nov. 16.

Most of the visitors were Iraqi Arab holidaymakers from south and central Iraq, while others were Iranians, Baha’addin said.

The official stressed their statistics were “accurate”. There were also many people from outside Kurdistan who came only to visit their relatives. Those who stayed with their relatives instead of going to hotels and those who stayed less than 24 hours were not registered as tourists, the official added.

(Source: AKnews)