SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — With a bloated public sector, young potential entrepreneurs in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq face barriers entering into the private sector. One initiative aims to provide innovators with the tools to start businesses and to navigate bureaucratic, cultural, and other hurdles.

"In Kurdistan, there was a very big economic shift and after this the economic bubble is decreasing and the level of employment is decreasing. It is a challenge,” said Zhinya Yousif, a first year medical student at University of Sulaimani.

She was pitching her business idea to potential investors, mentors, local and international consultants during a session at Five One Labs in Sulaimani on Sunday.

Her three-minute presentation focused on a solution to streamline medical care and eliminate duplication in medical processes.

"In Iraq there is chaos when it comes to the health system. So as a freshman medical student, we see the chaos...” explained Yousif, not wanting to reveal the details of her proposed solution, as the protection for business ideas and intellectual property rights are not present.

The expansive two-story lab launched in 2018 and has held several events aiming to build and aid the entrepreneurial spirit for people in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. Approximately 200 people attended the lab's grand opening on October 11.

"The problem was I could not get — because my background is in medicine, I do not have business background or a marketing background or all the other things that you need as knowledge when it comes to entrepreneurship and starting a business. If it wasn't for this place, I would have to go and do research on my own and read books and try to learn on my own,” added Yousif.

To help with practical aspects of business Five One has in-house trainers. Ravin Burhan, who has worked for UNDP in Iraq, gives advice on business in the community, while Astara Maiure manages training and business development.

"For instance, the other day a lot of entrepreneurs were asking: 'How do we register our business? What should we do?' So we said OK, let's take a look at this. I'm not an expert in law on Kurdistan, so we used our network and we found a lawyer to come in and answer their questions," explained Maiure.

Other NGOs and UN organs in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region often have economic empowerment programs. Some target IDPs, refugees, or the local population. Five One has connections with many of those organizations.

"We have a three-phase approach. A lot of people just focus on training or quantity of people. We really look for scalable and innovative entrepreneurs — people who are really passionate about what they are doing — and we take them in and focus on training, hard business skills, leadership and also design thinking, the creativity element of it," Maiure explained.

The only requirements for participants are they speak English and are passionate about their feasible ideas. Pitches are done in English, but organizers say they are open to developing initiatives and programs in Arabic and Kurdish.

"These mentors are from around the world — business consultants, people who really experts in their fields. We have people from Google, from Facebook. So they really get quality one-on-time with experts in the field," Maiure added.

Some participants have university degrees, others are still enrolled, and others did not complete secondary education. Hawkar Hussein is from Sulaimani and earned a degree in civil engineering at university in Turkey. He discovered the lab on social media and has completed his first of three pitches that focuses on a livestock farm in Sulaimani that would be the first of its kind in Iraq.

"Before I had this idea, but I couldn't work on it because I had other work. So later on, I just started working on this full-time so I would have more time focusing on my project labs," said Hussein.

He speaks Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish, English and some Hindi, but still faces challenges entering the local business landscape as a young person.

"It is not easy to enter a market in Kurdistan, Iraq, and especially in the Middle East," he said. Now we face many challenges. But we are here trying to solve these problems.

"There are many entrepreneurs, but unfortunately they do not have suitable ties or a suitable place to develop themselves. Now this gives us a good chance and we can help other young people."

The project is the creation of co-founders Alice Bosley and Patricia Letayf.

"We have managed to create a really incredible community of innovators and entrepreneurs who use the space as their working space and community space. And building up that community over the next year is something that I am so excited about and will really change the way that young people in Sulaimani can work and interact with each other," said Bosley who serves as executive director.

For now they will focus their efforts in Sulaimani, but they have plans to continue running activities for Erbil and hope to start running shorter training sessions in Duhok.

"It's been inspiring to see how excited young people are for entrepreneurship, and they get more and more excited as time goes by," said Letayf, the director of operations.

They've had participants from Mosul and all different parts of Kurdistan. Because they are so new and selective, the lab had seven participants in its first cohort. That was increased to 15 in its second representing 13 businesses.

"They are not only helping to build the ecosystem in Kurdistan, but across other parts of Iraq as well," said Letayf, speaking of program participants.

Five One Labs is located on Salim Street across from Faruk Office. It will hold a two-month course starting on November 11.

Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), headquartered in Germany, has provided financing for the organization.

"GIZ has been incredibly generous in its support to Five One Labs and specifically in building up the lab in Suli, the co-working space, hence the community surrounding the lab. The goal is really that this space will be a hub for all technology and innovation things happening in Sulaimani," said Letayf.

The Kurdistan Region has a population estimated to be around 5.5 million. Around 60 percent of the population is under the age of 32.

Amid a recent financial crisis, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has made several steps including privatizing the energy sector that accounts for about 98 percent of the Region's revenues.

Ministerial-level efforts have been undertaken to support youth in business, increase tourism, and stabilize public services to provide a more suitable and reliable environment for prospective businesses.

Photos: Sartip Othman | Rudaw