ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Greek consul general to Erbil said last week that he hopes that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) diversifies the source of its revenue rather than mainly relying on oil income to boost its economy, bringing his country’s recent recovery from a deep financial turmoil as an example. Kurdistan Region has suffered from a financial crisis in recent years, related to the emergence of the Islamic State (ISIS), Baghdad’s suspension of the Region’s federal budget, dramatic drop in oil prices and the Coronavirus pandemic. This prevented the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from paying its civil servants in full and on time. However, the recent surge in oil prices has helped the KRG’s economy to slightly recover. The Greek Consul General to Erbil Stavros Kyrimis told Rudaw’s Nma Nabaz last week that when his country suffered from a hard financial turmoil more than a decade ago, agriculture and tourism helped Greece recover from the crisis. Agriculture and tourism were the “driving force for the Greek economy to recover in the last decade. It is also my hope that these two driving forces will also be the ideas to go ahead and to diversify the economy of the Region and not to be oil or gas oriented,” he said. KRG’s income heavily relies on its oil sales which have been suspended for weeks following an arbitration case between Turkey and Iraq over the Region’s oil. The Region’s tourism sector mostly relies on tourists coming from Iraq’s central and southern provinces. The Greek diplomat said that his country could become a trade hub between the Kurdistan Region and Europe, calling Europeans to visit the Region. “Kurdistan is something magical,” he said.
