Unofficial estimates place the unemployment rate in Iraqi Kurdistan right around a daunting 50%, where most people would conclude that the glass is half empty. Highlighting more economic weakness, the U.S. Department of State’s latest Human Rights Report on Iraq cited that the national minimum wage in Iraq is under 10,500 dinars per day for skilled workers and under 5,250 dinars per day for unskilled workers. At the time of the 2008 report, this translated to roughly $7.00 and $3.50 per day, respectively, with the average worker earning a meager salary of approximately 1.875 million dinars ($1,250) a year.
The notion that Iraqi Kurdistan is, at the moment, economically weak is not in dispute, but the policies being suggested to fix this problem are. Some say that the government should do more to help the working class earn a wage that provides a reasonable standard of living, while others say that government action would only deepen the structural instability. But there is too much talk over what the government can do and not enough talk over what the market can do.
To the Kurdistan Regional Government’s credit, they have done a lot to motivate and pave the way for businesses to create branches in the region, but they have ignored a principal component of a country’s economic machine: entrepreneurship. It is not enough to promote policies that encourage already established businesses to expand their operations into Iraqi Kurdistan when there is an abundance of innovation and ingenuity within the region’s own borders that goes largely ignored and unutilized. The developed world has learned the hard way that one of the most effective methods of increasing employment is to allow people to employ themselves to do work in areas where they have the market-determined ability, and Iraqi Kurdistan has all of the ingredients for this recipe. The government has the responsibility of ensuring that the right economic policies are put in place to help these individuals get the most important thing they need to start their businesses: capital.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Kurdish Herald - The Independent Gateway to Kurdish News and Analyses
Author: Aryan Pedawi
