Business
Companies Law 1997, the investment law, and two separate licensing regimes
Companies are registered under Law No. 21 of 1997 as amended in 2004. The National Investment Commission licenses projects under the 2006 investment law; the Kurdistan Region licenses separately under its own 2006 law.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Federal and regional, with genuinely separate registration and licensing in the Kurdistan Region.
Governing law
- Companies Law No. 21 of 1997, as amended by CPA Order No. 64 of 2004
- Investment Law No. 13 of 2006, as amended
- Kurdistan Region Investment Law No. 4 of 2006
In practice
The 2004 amendment removed the earlier requirement for Iraqi majority ownership in most sectors, so wholly foreign-owned limited liability companies are now possible outside restricted areas. Investment licences under the 2006 law bring tax holidays and land rights. The federal-regional split matters commercially: a licence from the Kurdistan Board of Investment does not operate federally, and the oil and gas dispute means that upstream contracts signed with the region carry federal legal risk following the 2022 Federal Supreme Court decision. Iraq's 2021 accession to the New York Convention improved arbitral enforcement.