Dilshad Shahab

Position: Municipalities and tourism minister, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)

Biography: Dilshad Dhahab was sworn in as municipalities and tourism minister in April 2012. He took over from Samir Abdullah Mustafa, who had held the post since 2009. In his current role, Shahab will oversee the KRG’s ambitious drive to attract 4 million tourists a year by 2015, from 2.2 million in 2012.

The ministry has strategic goals to raise the number of hotel rooms and increase annual tourism income to $1.5m. The KRG will attempt to draw support and investment from the private sector, as well as setting up finance initiatives, providing land and establishing tax incentives.

The KRG is currently finalising a masterplan for 65 tourism projects and has identified as many as 400 more for further investment. Shahab will be oversee this plan and steer $1.9bn-worth of investment in Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah to hit the 2015 targets.

Contact Tel: (+964) 6 6223 5500