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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish government’s minister of planning kicked off a three-year reform plan on Monday to reboot the economy and overcome a severe financial crisis that has gripped the region for more than two years.Planning Minister Ali Sindi said that austerity measures announced earlier this year such as cutting public spending and civil servant salaries will remain in place while the new “three-year strategic plan” will work to boost the private sector.Sindi said that restarting work on close to 4,000 unfinished projects will be a good way to revitalize the economy and the private sector.“The Kurdistan Region spent a lot of money on infrastructure building such as roads, schools, hospitals which at the same time was the driving force behind our economy,” he said at a conference attended by the Kurdish president, prime minister and local and foreign economic experts.“Now 4,000 projects have stopped and to finish them we need $5 billion,” Sindi continued. “Restarting and finishing these projects will revitalize the economy, boost the private sector and create opportunities for many people, including the refugees.”The reform plan, according to the minister, relies on 45 researches and in partnership with the World Bank Group in a joint program titled “Reforming the economy for shared prosperity and protecting the vulnerable.”“The implementation of this plan needs international support and local will,” he said. “We invite the international community to help us.”The Kurdish minister blamed budget cuts from Baghdad, declining oil prices and a costly war with ISIS as reasons for the region’s financial crisis.He called on the international community meanwhile to ensure Erbil gets its share of international loans granted to Iraq as “the Kurdistan Region is not an independent state and cannot borrow money.”“The KRG must benefit from Iraq’s foreign loans and the international community must get serious about this,” he said.European Union foreign ministers in Brussels and G7 leaders in Japan last week pledged 3.6 billion in loans to Iraq, stating that the Kurdistan Region must benefit from these loans.