Baisaran Naqshbandy, a businessman from the Kurdistan region, noted that an important social goal is to raise awareness and identify weaknesses. From there, it is possible to suggest solutions based on research, and neutral professional opinions. In Kurdistan, people need to have a feeling of belonging to the land in order to want to make change, […]

Date: 26th October 2016 MERI Forum 2016 Salim Al-Jobouri, Speaker of Iraqi Parliament Ammar Al-Hakim, Head of Islamic Supreme Council, Iraq Barham Salih, Former Prime Minister of KRG Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, President of MERI (Chair) This is a summary of the panel discussion, please find the full video of the debates and Q&A below. The defeat […]

Matthias Mitman, U.S. Consul General of Erbil, believes the KRG can reform and reduce the size of the public sector through the management of expenditure amount and efficiency. He suggested the government incentivise private sector hiring of public sector employees in order to strengthen the private sector and reduce the public. The Consul General highlighted […]

Herish Muharam, former Chairman of KRG’s Investment Board,  discusses his view of the commercial electricity cuts in the context of review and regulation of subsidies to the private sector. He also points to the critical need for Kurdistan to develop its financial sector and banking system, while noting constitutional constraints preventing more action in this […]

Date: 26th October 2016 MERI Forum 2016 In this panel: Rafe Al-Esawi, Former Deputy Prime Minister, Iraq Atheel Al-Nujaifi, Former Governor of Mosul Kenneth Gross, US Consul General in Erbil Michael Knights, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, USA Dylan O’Driscoll, Middle East Research Institute (Chair) This is a summary of the panel discussion, please […]

Bilal Wahab, Director of Center for Development and Natural Resources at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani is optimistic about the KRG’s potential to facilitate a diversified economy given the recent addition of oil to the region’s economy, and the presence of other sectors in which the KRG can invest. He named agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, and […]

Date: 25th October 2016 MERI Forum 2016 In this Panel Ibrahim Alizada, Iranian Communist Party (Komal) Khalid Azizi, Kurdistan Democratic Party (Iran) Mustafa Hijri, Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan Omar Ilkhanizadeh Iranian Komala Party of Kurdistan Abdulla Mohtadi, Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, President of MERI (Chair) This is a summary of the […]

Date: 25th October 2016 MERI Forum 2016 In this Panel Mahdi Hafiz, Member of Parliament, Former Minister of Planning Muzhir Mohammed Salih, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Iraq Ashti Hawrami, Minister of Natural Resources, KRG Patrick Simmonet, Ambassador/Head, EU Delegation to Iraq (Chair) This is a summary of the panel discussion, please see the full […]

Elisabeth Decrey Warner, Executive President and Co-Founder of Geneva Call, accompanied by Ann-Kristin Sjöberg, Program Director of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, and Jabar Yawar, Secretary General of the Ministry of Peshmerga, discuss compliance of armed forces with international humanitarian law (IHL) in the context of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG). To date the KRG […]

Tanya Gilly, Vice President of Seed Kurdistan Foundation and former MP in the Iraqi Parliament, discusses why civil society has an important role, not just in times of crisis, and how MERI is fulfilling that role. She recounts that since 1991 there has been a boom in Kurdish civil society, but that there is a need […]