He is one of the wealthiest men in Kurdistan, if not the whole of Iraq, and he has a mission: to open the country to business.
Faruk Mustafa Rasool, the chairman of mobile phone company Asiacell, the fastest growing of Iraq's three main operators, comes across as a modest man with a modest head office in Sulaimaniya. But, there is nothing modest about his ambitions.
Besides the phone company, into which he and partners such as Kuwaiti telecoms group Wataniya have ploughed $300 million since 1999, he has deals for two cement factories, a steel plant and a 28-storey five-star hotel in this booming city.
He is also thinking about cultural projects, apartment complexes, satellite broadcasting, wireless technology and computer training centres - the sorts of things that no one associates with the violence tearing Iraq apart.
However, if it can happen anywhere in Iraq right now, it can happen in Sulaimaniya, a city of about 700,000 inhabitants set in the mountains of the autonomous, northern Kurdish region.
"Investment goes hand-in-hand with security and political stability, and here in Sulaimaniya we have both," said Rasool at his Asiacell headquarters. "Sulaimaniya is going to become one of the most developed cities in the Middle East within a few years - it will be Iraq's link to the outside world," he says with quiet confidence, a thick gold watch on his wrist.
The Kurdish region, which has enjoyed autonomy from Baghdad since US intervention after the 1991 Gulf War, has also seen almost none of the insecurity and violence that has bedevilled the rest of Iraq since Saddam Hussein's overthrow in 2003.
For the past two years, it has been carefully laying the foundations for growth - including the local government in Sulaimaniya changing the law to make all investment tax-free - and now it is starting to take huge strides forward.
Capital from the Gulf, Turkey, Lebanon and China is flooding in, while the Kurdish regional government, local investors and international donors have also injected funds.
The total is in billions of dollars, according to Sulaimaniya's investment projects office, and it takes only a quick trip around the city to believe it, with huge construction sites buzzing with activity in every direction.
At the heart of much of the business is Rasool. Spotting the vast demand there is going to be for construction equipment, most of which is imported now, he says he is investing $200 million in two cement factories that ultimately will produce six million tonnes of cement a year. More will be pumped into iron and steel plants, he says.
"It's about creating the infrastructure, providing the right basis, for Sulaimaniya to become a leader in Iraq's economy, and for the rest of Iraq to follow when the time is right," he says, although he dismisses comparisons with Dubai or Beirut, two other Middle Eastern cities that have seen vast growth.
"Most of the projects are not oriented towards profit only," he says, but concedes he has to make money to stay in business. "I want my name remembered for laying the foundations."
He might also end up being remembered for another of his projects - a $60 million plan to build a towering five-star hotel on a hill in central Sulaimaniya, linked to the city centre by a cable car and with a revolving restaurant on top.
It's a big task load for the diminutive executive, who started out running a left-wing magazine before drifting into business. However, he is certain that the future is bright. "In three or four years time, you will see. Sulaimaniya will do great things, and when it is ready, so will Iraq."
© 7Days 2005
