Bus Company Sulaymaniyah Note: This project has been cancelled, because of the lack of progress and no chances for improving that situation.The regional government of Northern Iraq is setting steps to improve public transport. The applicant, Fijen, to make life easier B.V., is discussing the subject already for some years with the authorities and involved the public transport company of Amsterdam (GVB) in the discussions. This resulted in the idea to set up a pilot for a bus line in Sulaymaniyah. The intended pilot will create a bus line that runs from points at feeder roads of the city and runs for approximately twenty kilometres through the centre of the city. The applicant is active in manufacturing and distribution of safety provisions for roads and vehicles. The local partner is WHAR Group Contracting and General Trading Ltd., a contracting company. GVB will be involved in the implementation, though not as an official partner but as subcontractor. The partners will set up a joint venture for the company. The project will introduce public bus transport on an organised level in the municipality of Sulaymaniyah and in that way will reduce the traffic jams in the city.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)The joint venture will provide safe working conditions for the employees. The joint venture will treat women equally and set up a system to avoid bribery. The depot will have a system for collecting rain water fore washing the busses and recycle the used water. Also, solar electricity will be used at the depot.Impact•	Employment and working conditionsThe joint venture will provide meals and free transport for the workers and their family. The salaries paid will be at market conform levels. There is no minimum wage in Iraq and for the region, no living wages are calculated.The partners have a high number of projected personnel: especially in the sales department the number is high as per selling point they need to place double staff to avoid cheating.•	Innovation/Transfer of knowledgeThe project will introduce organised public transport in the city of Suleymaniyah, while at the moment the “public transport” is served by taxis and minibuses without fixed schedules or routes. Besides this general innovation, the partners are planning to introduce transferia, intelligent, logistic software for information and high speed (fiber optic) internet network along the bus lines. However, these last innovations will have to be financed by the local authorities.•	Chain effectsThe project needs fuel and maintenance services for its operations from local suppliers. Especially the company for maintenance of the busses has already been identified and their staff will also be trained in the project.The future customers are the people that live in Suleymaniyah governorate. The impact for them is considerable as professional public transport will become available for them.•	Impact on the sectorThe joint venture will make arrangements with minibus operators that will operate the feeder lines; however it is not clear how much the introduction of organised public transport will affect the business of the minibus operators as part of it will be taken over by the joint venture. No cooperation opportunities with educational institutions have been identified but the partners are willing to include that in their project.•	EnvironmentBy introducing good public transport the CO2 emissions for transport of people will decrease. The joint venture will introduce solar energy for the electricity consumption of the depot and with that minimise its dependency on electricity generated from diesel (the grid is not yet providing electricity full-time. The partners intend to collect rain water for the bus washing.•	Position of womenA considerable number of women will be employed by the joint venture in medium level jobs.•	Impact on waterSmall impact by collecting rainwater for washing the busses. The goal of the project is to start a bus company (for operating a bus line) for public transport in Sulaymaniyah that will run for 17 hours per day with a bus service every ten minutes on a stretch of approximately twenty kilometres connecting the centre