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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – During its two-day annual forum in Erbil this week, the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) highlighted frustration at the slow implementation of reforms promised by local authorities, saying political will and concrete steps were necessary.MERI’s director Dlawer Ala’Aldeen said, “The Kurdish people are losing patience; is the government not caring? There is a gap we need to bridge, in trust and understanding. Policies are not translated into concrete steps, we need political will and honesty of the government.”Financial and institutional reforms were necessitated recently after a severe economic crisis that gripped the Kurdish region as a result of the sharp decline in oil prices, a costly war with the Islamic State (ISIS) and the huge influx of refugees and Iraqis fleeing into the region.The main focus of the MERI gathering was how to find ways to overcome the crisis and set reforms in motion and give people the feeling that the process has started.The forum showed that some steps have been taken such as cutting government costs and some taxes imposed, but in the meantime time slowed down because since last October the regional Parliament has been inactive to pass the necessary laws and regulations.“The economic crisis is linked to the political one, and one cannot be solved without the other,” said head of the European Liaison Office in Erbil, Patrick Geysen.Yet the economic crisis itself was pointed out as one reason for the slow process as it dried up the necessary funds for reform.In the power sector, for instance, KRG Deputy Minister for Electricity Hogir Shali said that it would be possible to provide 24 hours of electricity a day, but that the power lines were not fit and upgrading needs money that doesn’t exist.Economic and banking experts from the Kurdistan Region, Iraq and elsewhere exchanged views with politicians on the need for structural change in the economic system that has both socialist elements, inherited from the former Iraqi regime, and capitalist ones, introduced more recently.This mixed-up system even differs from one ministry to another, said one of the speakers, mentioning subsidies on electricity and fuel, and the lack of a taxing system that are in use in more capitalist countries.Another issue that needed serious attention, as pointed out by Dara Khailany, an advisor to the Kurdish government, was conflicting and confusing data all caused by lack of statistics and information management.“As we don’t have an IT-infrastructure, data does not get collected and gets lost. We badly need information management,” he said.Kurdish MP Sherko Jawdat agreed that conflicting data makes reform impossible.“If there is no control of that, then there is no rule of law and however hard you try, no reform will be possible.”“It is important to listen to the experts,”Jawdat added. “But for two years I have been shouting at the government and nobody was listening.”There was an open talk of the problems of corruption and repeated calls for audits and transparency, as well as the need to get rid of ghost workers who are on government payroll without working and thus eating away into the national budget.Since the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani’s personal call for action against corruption, this has become a major topic in the region, and the MERI conference followed that trend.MERI president Dlawer Ala’Aldeen opened the second day of the forum by saying that in other countries paying taxes guarantees people a voice in the government whereas “In Kurdistan there are high expectations towards the government; it should give everything, but not ask for taxes.”This call for taxes as a way to get out of the crisis was echoed by many, but not James Parks, a former World Bank economist and an adviser to the Kurdistan government, who believed that taxation didn’t come first.“Most important is to move towards a diversified economy,” he said, pointing to a policy that could make the Kurdistan Region less dependent on oil and gas sales and more on agricultural and tourism sectors as well as private enterprise.“Once you have diversified, you can talk about taxes. If you do it the other way round, it’s like flying without an airplane. Because what will you tax?”