China Central Television (CCTV) - Ten years after the fall of Saddam Hussein it is Iraq’s Kurds who have emerged as the biggest winners. In the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, to the north of the country, the capital Erbil has been transformed from a dismal, impoverished place to a cosmopolitan city.

Kurdistan’s safety, compared to the rest of Iraq, means the area is also emerging as popular tourist destination.

It’s not a skyline you’d expect to see in Iraq, but in the northern region of Kurdistan business in booming.

With attractive investment laws and an open door policy, the Kurdish Regional Government has seen 26 billions dollars of investment pumped into the area in the past six years.

With new developments popping up everywhere, the capital Erbil is being tipped as the next Dubai.

Hayder Mustafa Saaid on the Board of Investment for the Kurdish regional government, said, "For investment it is very friendly. It gives the same right and obligations and incentives to foreign direct investors as we are providing to national investors. As an example they have the right, I am talking about FDI, they have the right to use the international money power, to transfer the interest of funds overseas, to tax free for 10 years, custom free for 5 years.

"The three key areas attracting investment in Kurdistan are industry, agriculture and, perhaps most surprisingly, tourism. Tourism is not a word often associated with Iraq but Kurdistan’s relative stability compared to the rest of the country is making it a budding tourist hotspot."

Iraq war veteran, Harry Schute, first arrived here in 2003, struck by how different Kurdistan is to the rest of the country, he decided to stay and now runs a tour company aptly named 'The Other Iraq'.

"There’s a lot to offer here in Kurdistan. Number one, there is a very welcoming population. The people here want to have foreigners. Westerners and far eastern people to come to Kurdistan to visit. There’s a lot of history. We're in the cradle of civilisation here in Kurdistan," retired colonel Harry Schute said.

While the tourism industry is small, it is certainly growing. It’s Kurdistan’s rich history that authorities are hoping to capitalise on.

The regional government is bidding for UNESCO World Heritage status for Erbil’s Citadel and next year the city will be the Arab World’s capital of tourism. All steps, authorities hope, that will put Kurdistan firmly on the map.



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