Author: Buban Pendi

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Saturday acknowledged that lack of public trust in banks, caused in part by economic instability, is an obstacle in his government’s efforts to digitize the banking sector.“One of the main problems and obstacles to having a strong and advanced banking system in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region is the lack of public trust in banks, which is due to many reasons, especially the instability of the political and economic situation,” he said at an economic forum in Erbil.The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) “will provide all assistance to the banks in order to build…

Italian Ambassador to Iraq Maurizio Greganti on Tuesday said that it is “very important” for the Kurdistan Region to be allowed to resume its oil exports months after the process was suspended due to an arbitration case between Ankara and Baghdad.  He said that it is “very important” to allow the resumption of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s oil export, “it is a very important source of income for the KRG and for Iraq as well,” the top Italian diplomat told Rudaw’s Payam Sarbast. “It is the question of political agreement among the parties concerned and I think in this regard…

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced the launch of the “My Account” initiative aimed at providing citizens with an inclusive financial program and modernizing the banking sector, in line with its digitalization campaign.  Last year, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani announced the KRG’s Digital Transformation Strategy aimed at transforming government services into being more “citizen-centric.” The “My Account” initiative will provide will provide public sector employees, pensioners, and security forces with safe, transparent, and convenient access to their salaries,” according to a statement released by the KRG on Tuesday. “We want to achieve what takes other countries 30 years to accomplish…

The administration of United States President Joe Biden is getting closer to providing Ukraine with ATACMS missiles, which Kyiv has long requested. The decision to transfer the missiles could be made as early as this fall. Biden has not yet approved the missile transfer. However, administration officials said they are again considering delivery of the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) this fall to bolster Ukraine’s counteroffensive. The Pentagon has long been reluctant to provide the system, which can be launched from a HIMARS launcher provided by the US last year, arguing that the US military has a limited supply of the weapon.…

Striking teachers in Sulaimani province say they will not go back to the classrooms until the government pays their overdue salaries. “We are not ready to go to work until we receive our salaries,” Ata Ahmed, deputy head of the Sulaimani branch of the Kurdistan Teachers’ Union, told Rudaw on Friday. The new academic year began on Wednesday, but many teachers in Sulaimani province refused to go to work, especially those without contracts, until they receive their paycheques. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has not paid public sector salaries for July, August, and September due to a nearly decade-long financial…

The residents of a village in Sulaimani province have replaced their generators with solar panels to keep their lights on when the public electricity goes out.  The government provides around 12 hours of electricity to the residents of Hazar Merd village, located 13 kilometres southwest of Sulaimani city. Most of the villagers depended on small generators to fill the gap but this did not work well. Therefore, they started turning to solar power four years ago. Most of the houses have solar power and those who do not rely on their neighbours. “The public electricity would go out at 4…

Turkish air forces bombarded several areas in Sulaimani province in the early hours of Friday morning, damaging the orchards and farms of villagers, a local official said. Ankara claimed it only targeted alleged positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and was careful not to harm civilian property.  Turkish warplanes and drones bombarded the vicinity of Galala village ten times, Kamaran Hassan, mayor of Mawat district, which includes the village in northern Sulaimani province, told Rudaw. The attack damaged farms and orchards and sparked a fire that burned from midnight to 10 o’clock the next morning. “A number of other…

The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Council of Ministers on Wednesday called on Baghdad to pay Erbil’s financial entitlements according to figures previously agreed upon in order for salaries to be paid uninterrupted.  Meetings between delegations from the KRG and the Iraqi federal government have been ongoing over the past months, aimed at resolving lingering disputes over the Region’s share in the federal budget. On Wednesday, Iraq’s finance ministry announced it will sign a “loan agreement” with the KRG to pay the salaries of its employees, saying that Erbil will receive its dues once it complies with its obligations within the…

Turkish warplanes have heavily targeted alleged positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Duhok’s Amedi district over the past week, spreading worry and concern among residents who have been subjected to great psychological and material damage. The bombardments have caused a fire in the forests of Mount Gara, burning hundreds of dunams of land. Ibrahim Hassan, a farmer from a nearby village, claims to have lost 10 dunams of farmland due to the ongoing Turkey-PKK clashes in recent years. “We do not dare visit our old village. It is as cool and beautiful as a resort,” Hassan told…

Following a satisfactory experience with exporting potatoes to the United Arab Emirates in recent weeks, several other Gulf states are now lining up to buy the starchy vegetable produced from the farms of the Kurdistan Region, according to a statement from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Luqman Hajji, head of sales at the Kurdistan-Holland company for agricultural investments, told Rudaw on Wednesday that they had recently exported 300 tons of potatoes produced by Kurdish farmers to the UAE following a visit from the Emirati consul to the company’s storages. “They [UAE] have now requested an additional 3,000 tons, which we…