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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The dynamic private sector, a “propellant of economic development,” prevented the entire collapse of the employment market in the Kurdistan Region and will play an important role developing and advancing the Region’s economy, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Sunday, promising his government’s support.“We will try to give public services to the private sector step-by-step, creating a bigger employment opportunity in this sector,” Nechirvan Barzani pledged in his address to the Erbil conference, the Role of the Private Sector in Kurdistan’s Economic Development.The intention is to reduce the financial burden on the KRG and increase economic and trade development in the region, Barzani explained. The Kurdish government employs more than 12% of the population.“The experience of developed countries has proved that the private sector can play a great role in building, developing and advancing the sectors of industry, agriculture, tourism and other service sectors, and become one of the main sources of a strong economy in any country.”He envisions that the government would play a supervisory role of the private sector, “issuing laws, regulating its performance, and creating an encouraging atmosphere for it to grow.”A collection of factors – the cutting of the region’s budget, the war with Islamic State, hosting more than 1.8 million refugees and displaced persons, and plummeting oil prices – have created a financial crisis and resulted in a halt of “tens of government projects,” resulting in a direct, negative effect on the employment market, both public and sector, Barzani detailed.It was the private sector that prevented a complete collapse of the employment market. “There are still tens of thousands of people, shouldering the lives of thousands of families, who continue their work in the private sector,” he said.Barzani admitted that the government contributed to the crisis through “multi-salaries, excessive appointment of people and other problems related to our system economic administration,” and said the government should take steps to rectify this.“But at the same time, this is a golden opportunity to revise ourselves and improve the KRG’S economic and administrative system. And the KRG is very serious in exploiting this opportunity to reform.”One element of the government’s reform plan, KRG Vision 2020, drafted with assistance from the World Bank, is to “broaden the role of the private sector.”Barzani asked the private sector to specifically focus on the areas of agriculture, industry, and tourism. He added that the government was working to remove obstacles, created through laws, “which have prevented a more convenient and encouraging atmosphere for the private sector, such as the constitutional obstacles regarding the economic, trade, and customs sector.”Barzani said the government was introducing and changing laws based on discussions with the private sector.He added that the government’s policies and practices have encouraged investment in the Kurdistan Region over the past years, detailing that investment in the Region has grown from $4 billion in 2007 to $47 billion currently; private sector employment has increased from 20,000 in 2006 to 340,000 in 2012; and personal income has increased 10-fold.