Erbil: On March 18, 2019, The Erbil Chamber of Commerce and Industry officials met with a commercial delegation from Belgium, Flanders Region Chamber. 

Beside the president of the Erbil Chamber, and a number of Kurdistan businessmen, the governors of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah and the representative of the KRG to European Union attended the meeting. 

The delegation included the representatives of 16 companies, the executive director of Flanders Chamber, and the vice governor of Antwerp. 

The government of Erbil, reiterated in the meeting that the private sector is the pillar of the growth of Economy in Kurdistan. Since 2004, the private sector is in continuous growth, and we are out of the crisis that the Region experienced it during the ISIS war. He added that between 2004-2014, like 10 billion$ have been spent for the development of economic infrastructure, the total production of the private sectors is 24 billion $. 

Regarding Sulaymaniyah, the governor of Sulaymaniyah said that, the city is composing 32% of the total industry in Iraq. There are 7373 local companies, and 142 companies have their branches there. 

The representative of the KRG said that ties with this Region are dating back to 2009, when a delegation of the Region visited Kurdistan Region. 

Dr. Dara Jalil Khayat, the president of Erbil Chamber said that, there strong relation between Erbil Chamber and Antwerp, and there is a joint project named PLATO between the both Chambers. 

And, emphasized that Erbil is a commercial center. It can be dealt as the Iraq hub for trading. 

The head of the visiting delegation also gave information about their Region, said that they have the Second large sea port in Europe and they possess the 84% of the World diamond, they have distinguished factories in the field of petrochemical industries.