Shafaq News- Erbil (Updated at 14:14)

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has begun implementing a new package of infrastructure and public service projects in Erbil worth nearly one billion Iraqi dinars (about $760,000), funded by the capital’s municipal revenues, Municipalities and Tourism Minister Sasan Awni said on Wednesday.

The projects will be carried out in four phases and include road construction and paving, rainwater drainage and sewage networks, and the demarcation of residential plots in neighborhoods where land had previously been distributed without clearly defined boundaries.

Awni said the Kurdistan Region is facing a financial crisis and declining local revenues. He added that it has not received allocations from Iraq’s provincial development funds since 2014 despite repeated requests to successive Baghdad governments.

According to Awni, the KRG currently relies on 15% of the local revenues of Erbil Municipality and other municipalities to finance such projects under cabinet instructions. Many projects included in government plans cannot currently proceed because of the funding shortfall.