BACKGROUND ON CAREER OF TOP BUSINESS LEADER IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 000696

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/24/2017
TAGS: PGOV PINR ECON IZ
SUBJECT: BACKGROUND ON CAREER OF TOP BUSINESS LEADER IN
SULAIMANIYAH PROVINCE OF IRAQI KURDISTAN

REF: BAGHDAD XXXXXX

Classified By: RRT Erbil Leader James Yellin, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

This is an Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Reconstruction Team (RRT)
cable.


1. (U) As reported in reftel, RRT Off met on February 10
with Faruk Mustafa Rassool, the most prominent businessman in
Sulaimaniyah Province. This telegram reports on Rasool,s
career background.

MODEST BEGINNING THEN EXPANSION AND DIVERSIFICATION


2. (SBU) Faruk Mustafa Rassool began his career in 1975 by
investing 3,000 dollars in a stone crusher factory. He then
started a small cement block factory after raising 40,000
dollars. By 1986, he managed to buy a poultry slaughter
house ) the biggest factory in Sulaimaniyah Province.


3. (SBU) Since the 1990s, Rassool has expanded his focus
from big construction to big property development, iron and
steel plants, cultural projects, luxury apartment complexes,
satellite broadcasting, computer training centers, and
wireless technology.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS


3. (SBU) Rassool is well-known for establishing in 1999
Asia-Cell as the first and oldest GSM Company in Iraq
(reftel). In 2003, Asia-Cell was granted a license by the
Iraqi Ministry of Telecommunications and operates as a
consortium in Northern Iraq. The company is based in
Sulaimaniyah Province and provides voice, SMS, voice-mail,
and also has an international gateway.


4. (SBU) Rassool told RRT Off he reinvested all of Asia-Cell
profits and expanded the network beyond Sulaimaniyah Province
to the cities of Kirkuk, Mosul, Tikrit, Baghdad and Basra.
The company that started out with 70,000 subscribers and two
million dollars in capital claims to have a current customer
base of 3,200,000 and assets of $500 million (up from $65
million in 2003). Rassool noted that the Iraqi
telecommunications market has great potential.

REAL ESTATE


5. (SBU) Rassools,s current real estate investment projects
include a 14-story office and apartment complex in his name
near Sulaimaniyah City, a 130 luxury apartment complex in
Sulaimaniyah Province, and an ultramodern 28-story, 5-star
hilltop hotel that will have a revolving restaurant on top
and will be linked to downtown Sulaimaniyah City by a cable
car.

STATE-0WNED ENTERPRISE (SOE)


6. (C) Rassool is part of the Orascum Construction
Industries (OCI) consortium that was awarded in 2004 a
12-year lease contract for the Tasluja cement plant. The OCI
consortium took over rehabilitation, operation and
maintenance of Tasluja and has the right of first refusal on
any potential privatization of the plant. The plant
previously produced 4,000 tons of cement per day, Rassool
noted, but NOW generates 6,000 tons of cement per day.
Rassool plans to return the company to the Iraqi government
at the end of the lease as a revamped and profitable business.

MANAGEMENT APPROACH


7. (SBU) Rassool told RRT Off his projects are successful
because of his management approach which is to take
international capital and expertise and combine it with
community development and commercial feasibility studies. An
Iraqi Kurd entrepreneur speaking little English, Rassool
invests locally with partners from the U.S., Canada, Germany,
the Gulf States, Turkey, Lebanon and China.

KHALILZAD