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A media city costing $ 400 million in Kurdistan A media city costing $ 400 million in Kurdistan
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Translated by IRAQdirecotry.com - [5/4/2007]
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Officials said that Kurdistan government in northern Iraq and a company from Dubai are planning to establish a media city in Erbil costing $ 400 million.
They added that international television networks would come to the region which is relatively stable because the bad security conditions prevented them from opening offices in Baghdad.
According to the agreement of establishing the company of Irbil city media, the regional government will have 60% of the shares, while the Voice of Dubai Company for cinematic and television production will get 40%.
The project will start with a capital of $ 40 million. The company, which will supervise the production of a compound for television studios, hotels, shops and houses, will be opened to shareholders.
Anwar Al-Yasiri, an Iraqi running the Voice of Dubai Company, said that his company and a British company will build the compound in a suburb north of Irbil in two years.
George Mansour, Minister of civil society affairs, said that "the philosophy of the government in supporting such projects is to create jobs for people in the region and support the development of tourism and media sectors". Mansour contributed in establishing the Iraqi Media Network after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The project will include television broadcast stations and a re-broadcasting center at the capacity of about 120 stations.
Al-Yasiri said, "This project will lay Kurdistan region on the international map when the television stations start broadcasting from the region".
The cost of business in the Kurdish region is much lower than in the neighboring centers such as Dubai, especially after the government had approved laws that liberate foreign investment last year.
Al-Yasiri said, "Even if we were unable initially to provide services to not more than 60 television station, it would be sufficient to make profits, but we expect much greater volume of work".
Currently, there are six space television stations broadcasting from Iraq's Kurdistan, which includes hundreds of foreign companies, including 400 Turkish companies.
Al-Yasiri said that the compound is the first phase of a project that will include Internet and information cities where international universities, technical colleges and training centers will be established.
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