The Official Website of the
Kurdistan board of investment

How to submit a proposal to the BOI:

I. Submission of request
The investor submits a written request to the Chairman of the BoI, including the following:

1. Project name and name of the project owner (company or person).

2. Nature of the project (industrial, commercial, service, etc).

3. A brief on the project, its components, size of allocated land and total budget to be invested in the project. In addition, the investor should attach a site plan for the land. The investor should also list in the request type and nature of the projects implemented before by him detailing his experience and qualification in implementing projects.  

II. Board of investment committee
The Board Committee, consisting of Director Generals, shall review the request and take action accordingly. If the committee rejects the request, the investor shall be informed in either written or verbal with the reasons.

III. Project proposal requirements
The project requirements are divided into two parts:

1. Technical Requirements:
This relates to preparing all the designs and drawings of project components with the bill of quantities and project proposal. Each of these will be referred to the concerned sections for checking and review as per the below template adopted by the BOI. The investor shall be provided with this template when applying for investment. This template is titled 'Project Preliminary Requirements Review', pre-land allocation and post

a. Requirements pre-land allocation:

- Site plan detailing the dimensions, project units and activities.
- Architectural plans of the project.
- Narrative description of the project with all the major components:

• Size of the building(s)
• Construction system
• Project estimated budget
• Project duration
• Cooling and heating system
• Identifying water and electricity units amount and distribution
• Bill of quantities for the civil, electrical and mechanical works
• Human resources
• Project front view
• Logo and project description on CD
• Any other information the investor may provide
  
  

  - Original plans printed on A3 paper. These plans must be prepared by an architectural bureau or architect having membership in Kurdistan Engineers’ Union with working license.

  b. Requirements post land allocation:

- Topographic survey
- Copy of land registration and boundaries identification document
- Project economic feasibility study
- Project environment impact 

2.Legal Requirements:
Relates to the identification cards of the investor such as civil identification card, living address, phone number, email and other related documents if the investor is national, and valid passport if the investor is foreigner. If the investor is a company, certified company establishment and other identification documents of the company owner and executive manager shall be required.

IV. Approaching the concerned government directorates
At this stage, concerned ministries shall be approached and approvals obtained. In this connection, approval from Ministry of Municipalities, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Electricity is required for all projects regardless of their nature. Approval form other ministries and government departments shall be granted according to the nature of each project. For instance, approval from Ministry of Industry is required for an industry project, approval from Ministry of Rehabilitation and Housing for a settlement project and so on.

V. Estimation committees
After completing the aforementioned steps, the project proposal shall be sent to the following Estimation Committees:

1. Estimation Committee of land price (squire meter): this committee consists of following members:

- BOI
- MInistry of Finance
- Ministry of Municipalities
- Ministry of Justice

The reason for estimating the squire meter of the land is to determine the total estimated price of the land allocated for setting up the investment project and comparing the same with the project capital. This will give an idea if the proposed project and its budget are proportionate with the land price and location. 

2. Budget Estimation Committee:
This committee consists of engineers (architecture, electrical, mechanical, civil) and administrators working at the BOI office. A General Director is heading this committee and its task is to estimate the project budget through plans, drawings and project bill of quantities. The committee also reviews the economic feasibility study and compares the same with the capital allocated for the project by the investor.

VI. Project license
After completing all the requirements mentioned above, a final review shall be carried out to ensure that there is no un-met requirement in the project proposal file. The file will be then referred to the Director General of Legal office and Director General of Promotion, Assessment and Licensing of Projects for approval and signature on the project licensing document which will then be signed finally by the Chairman of the Board.

The investor shall then coordinate with the Legal Department in the BOI to complete the procedure for land allocation (owning or hiring).

Note: The strategic projects will be passing through all the above mentioned stages; however, the approval of the Supreme Council of Investment (SCoI) shall be required followed then by all the other procedures mentioned above. In some cases, after implementing the project, the investor may require to submit a request to the BoI to consider his project as strategic for which the request will be reviewed to find out if this meets the special criteria of strategic projects. Once verified by BoI, the request will be referred to the SCoI for approval.

Board of Investment (BOI) brief
The political, industrial and social transitions the Kurdistan Region witnessed post 1991 with the economical and political stabilization and freedom of decision making in the development of infrastructure in all vital economical sectors showed to the political leaders in the Kurdistan Region Government top necessity to attract investment. Prior to 2005, when there were two different administrations in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, many attempts were made by some Ministries such as Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Tourism to issue instructions for encouraging investment. In 2004, a board for encouraging investment in Sulaymaniyah and an economic development office in Erbil were formed. However, all this was still under the ambition. After merging the two administrations in the region, an 'Investment Law No.4' was issued in 2004 by which Supreme Council for Investment and Board of Investment established.

1. Supreme Council for Investment
Article 14 of Section II of the Investment Law has stated: Formation of  Supreme Council for Investment consisting of region’s Prime Minister (President), Deputy Prime Minister (Vice President) and membership of Ministers of Finance and Economy, Trade, Municipalities, Planning, Agriculture and Industry and Chairman of the board of Investment.

2. Board of Investment (BOI)
Para 1, article 10 under section 1 of chapter three has stated:
A board shall be set up under the name of “Kurdistan Region’s Board of Investment”. It shall be separate, having financial and administrational independency. It can undertake all the legal actions necessary for implementing the provisions of this law.

Administrative Units of the Board
The board consists of the following administrative units:

The Board shall have a Chairman with all the rights and responsibilities as a Minister. The Chairman will be responsible on providing overall guidance to the Board and supervising and monitoring its activities and all those related to the Board tasks. The following departments shall be under his responsibility:

• Department of Studies and Information
• Department of Promotion, Assessment and Licensing of Projects
• Department of Legal, Administrative and Financial Affairs
• Department of Cities and Industrial Zones
• Directorate General of Investment - Sulaymaniah
• Directorate General of Investment - Duhok

Mission of the Board
The goal of the Board is to create an encouraging environment for investment in the Iraqi Kurdistan region and eliminate legal obstacles and allows for investing national or foreign capitals (individual or group) in the investment projects in a way that contributes actively in the economic development. The Board also aims at providing facilities and encouraged incentives and taxation exemptions for investing capitals through a specialized investment board that organizes all the different fields related to the investment operation in the region.