INVESTMENT IN KURDISTAN: Fastest growth on earth?

In five years, Kurdistan will achieve what the Emirates did in 20. You will not be able to recognise it. " Looking down from the top floor of the 23-storey hotel where he works, overlooking a landscape dotted with construction cranes and new housing complexes, Cem Saffari does not conceal his pride when asked why he moved from a comfortable life in London to take up a job in Kurdistan, the autonomous northeastern region of Iraq. "Pioneers always win, " he says. A middle-aged Turk in a dark suit, Saffari is the business development manager of the luxury five-star Divan Hotel in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Divan cost $80 million to build and has 228 rooms, whose prices range from $500 to $15, 000 per night. Its clientele is the ever-growing number of businessmen willing to invest in a region with 45 billion barrels of oil reserves and one of the fastest economic growth rates on earth.