Nearly 40,000 companies registered in Kurdistan: Turkiye and Iran lead the foreign presence
Shafaq News/ On Tuesday, the General Directorate of Companies Registration in the Kurdistan Region announced that nearly 40,000 local and foreign companies are currently registered.
Speaking at a press conference in Erbil attended by Shafaq News, General Director, Biland Mohammed, noted a substantial increase in company registrations in 2024 compared to the previous year.
He attributed this surge to reforms in the registration process, which streamlined the procedure from a week-long timeline to just a few hours, along with significant reduction in registration fees from 3 million ($2303.19) Iraqi dinars to 165,000 dinars ($126.68).
Mohammed stated that “2,328 new companies were registered in 2024, including 30 foreign and 66 Iraqi firms, with a total capital of 168 billion Iraqi dinars. Of these, 1,416 are general trading companies, 89 operate in real estate, and the remainder span various other sectors.”
On foreign companies operating in the region, he highlighted that Turkish firms lead with 1,593 companies, followed by Iran with 392, the UAE with 212, Lebanon with 185, the UK with 178, and the United States with 158 companies.
Providing an overview of the region's company statistics, Mohammed mentioned that “the Kurdistan Region currently hosts 38,273 registered companies, including 33,335 local firms, 3,527 foreign companies, and 1,210 Iraqi companies.”
He also noted that 144 companies were dissolved, and 5,578 institutions were registered over the past year.
