Ghareeb noted that there were also efforts underway to amend the investment law that, should they be successful, would abolish the gifting of land while also increasing the attractiveness of the state to investors.
In a program of ongoing reforms aimed at combating corruption and increasing transparency in the way that Iraqi Kurdistan was governed, the president of the region, Massoud Barzani, announced in mid-June that one of the reforms included closer examination of the way that land was being allocated. New allocations of land were temporarily suspended and additionally 118 contracts were terminated; the result was the return of about 1025 dunums (around 2 and a half million square meters) of land to the state.
However, as observers pointed out, this is only a tiny fraction of the total land being distributed by the state. And in fact, the ownership of much of the land that had been allocated previously had by now been permanently transferred to the investors themselves.
“These steps have come way too late,” MP Mohammed said.
“If the authorities continue to deal with the region’s resources in this way, then future generations will have major problems,” Salih concluded. “[Iraqi] Kurdistan’s land is slowly coming to be owned by the region’s rulers. But it belongs to all the generations who will live here.”
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