Kuwait has plenty of capital, but it still needs foreign investments to diversify the economy, create job opportunities, and enhance security, according to a study.
“More than one billion dollars in offset money await opportunities to be invested in Kuwait, in addition to the capital available in the banking sector,” economist Ramadan Al-Sharrah, said in the study that was quoted by the Gulf Daily.
Kuwait introduced the offset program after the 1991 Gulf War.
The program, said the study, obliges foreign companies that sign contracts with the government worth at least 3.25 million dollars to invest 30 percent of the contracts value in Kuwaiti projects.
Al-Sharrah said Kuwait needs foreign investments in industries, especially petrochemical, agriculture and services, so that it doesn’t remain dependent on oil for most of its revenues.
Foreign investors will also bring the latest technologies and employ some of the 10,000 Kuwaitis who enter the work force every year, the study added.
Most Kuwaitis work for the public sector for salaries and benefits that cannot be matched by private companies.
The government has decided to allow foreign investments into upstream operations in oil fields near the border with Iraq, said the Daily – Albawaba.com
