‘Kurdistan, the commercial gateway to Iraq’ may not sound the most enticing slogan these days. But a group of determined specialists, including Tom Hardie-Forsyth, former head of standards at the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, and ex-stockbroker and corporate financier Nicholas Somerville, is striving to get the message across.

They are directors of the Kurdistan Development Corporation, set up by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and international business figures to promote investment in what they insist is a region crammed with natural resources and human talent. Chaired by Ms Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the KRG’s UK representative, the corporation is hosting a London conference of international business delegates from sectors including energy, resources, insurance and banking.

This meeting follows the Kurdish cabinet’s ratification last week of a liberal new investment law, to attract overseas capital. Among Ms Abdul Rahman’s team, Hardie-Forsyth, a founder of the corporation, has been involved with Iraq/Kurdistan since going there as an army officer in 1991.

Somerville, a former associate of the late Lord Bristol and of resources entrepreneur Phil Edmonds, worked with several broking firms, including Messels and Quilter Hilton Goodison, before going independent.