Iraqi tech CEO: Technology holds answers to nation’s challenges

A bold statement for a country dogged for decades by sectarian challenges, post-war economic woes and endless political discord.

“These are not pipe dreams,” says Rashid, seated at his desk, sipping espresso in his dim-lit office in the northern city of Sulaimania. He firmly believes the solution to Iraq’s problems lies not in the (oil) pipes but in the terrestrial fiber infrastructure his firm began laying down in 2005 which has become the backbone of telecommunication in Iraq.

“Twenty years ago, there was no digital landscape in Iraq. The country had suffered over many decades and it’s very easy to forget just how dire the situation was under Saddam,” he says. “Now we’re moving forward. The ‘Silk Route Transit’ is one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the region and aims to future-proof the Iraqi economy and its dependence on fossil fuels.”

iQ’s Silk Route Transit, a multi-layer fiber-optic network, directly links the Middle East to Europe and Asia, bypassing the current underseas cable system which snakes its way from the Mediterranean through the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Persian Gulf. It is a 21^st Century version of the Suez and Panama Canals, and not only reduces the distance for cable traffic by thousands of miles, it also disrupts the vulnerable checkpoint at the intersection of the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal, or what iQ’s techies call “The Red Sea Bottleneck”. The project stands to cement Iraq as a major network hub in the region.

The Silk Route Transit promises a highly reliable, low latency and high-capacity fiber infrastructure for the Middle East, Gulf and Asia to meet the increasing demand for data transfer and internet connectivity. This will extend Europe to the Middle East and let Asian and East African operators with sea cable infrastructure connect to the Middle East landing stations like their European counterparts, enabling the ITC companies to effectively compete with Europe and the US on quality and price.

Good news travels fast, and iQ’s trajectory has drawn interest from major international players such as China’s Tencent, a leading gaming publisher. A recently forged strategic partnership between iQ and Tencent will dramatically improve gaming latency in the region.

Since taking the helm of iQ Group in 2020, Rashid has bulldozed his way to the forefront of Iraq’s tech industry and his vision is enriched by his diverse professional background. In the mid-2000s, Asoz was Iraq’s diplomatic delegate to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva and tasked with Iraq’s accession.

“In the Foreign Service we only talk about Iraq’s problems, especially back then. But I wanted to actually fix the problems,” he says, explaining why he decided to step away from diplomacy in 2010 and focus on his real passion – turning Iraq into a major player on the region’s digital landscape.

The implementation of Rashid’s vision has not been without challenges, since he took the reins of iQ in 2020. When iQ first set about laying the groundwork for its projects back in 2005, “Nobody [in Iraq] really understood the concept of regulatory frameworks – and some still don’t — which is a constant problem for all forward-thinking companies in the world,” he says.

Rashid believes technology can also address some of the cultural and social discord in the country. “Simple things such as different languages that have caused a divide between Kurds and Arabs can also be solved with technology and iQ has worked on that. We have a product- BLA – that does live translation of any language spoken in Iraq, whether Arabic, Kurdish, Aramaic and even Armenian.”

On the sidelines of his core projects, he has also invested in innovative ventures within the entertainment, tech and finance industries, such as iQ Group, Crowd2Fund (a British, fully FCA-regulated FinTech platform) and IQMG (an international independent record label).

As Rashid charges ahead with more pioneering projects, is he poised to become the Narinder Kapany of the Middle East or does he have another hero?

Rashid laughs. “I come from a family of heroes, so it is hard to choose only one but if I had to choose, I’d say Hedy Lamarr… I like the problem solvers and underdogs.” Lamarr, after all, is the famous Hollywood actress and inventor from the 1940’s recognized for her mid-century contributions to the fundamental principles of Bluetooth and GPS.

Can Rashid, a former diplomat, succeed in positioning Iraq as the region’s hub for technological innovation? Time will tell, but it would be worthwhile to watch this space.