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The Investor 19

Interview by Jamie Etheridge

Kuwait’s

Economic Future

A conversation with HE Minister of Finance Anas Al-Saleh

he Investor interviewed His Excellency the Deputy Premier
Tand Finance Minister Anas Al-Saleh about the future of

the Kuwait economy, government efforts to reform spending
and subsidies and the projects and investment opportunities

created by the Kuwait Vision 2035 plan.

THE INVESTOR: What are the policies/ center lists all laws, rules and procedures in
regulations set by the government in order question, such as the companies law, law 1
to promote investment in Kuwait (such as for 2016 and its by-law, commercial stores
the new companies law, the FDI law, etc.) licensing law, small and medium businesses
and what are the effects or changes so far? care national fund, direct investment law
which encourages foreign investment, law
MINISTER ANAS AL-SALEH: The 116 for year 2013 and related laws and
government is keen, as shown by the measures.
medium-term development plans, fiscal
reform policies and its annual working Meanwhile, the board of directors of the
programs, to support the private sector to National Fund for Small and Medium
lead economic activity. There is a serious Enterprise Development aims to speed up
will to remove all obstacles and difficulties and ease the establishment of private sector
that obstruct the local business environment, enterprises.
encourage fair competition and attract
capital, be it local or foreign. As for the results, it is worth mentioning
that 755 companies were established in just
To this end, the Kuwait Business Center one month (May 2017), and 554 practice
was established under the umbrella of licenses were issued. These are record
the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. numbers for a small economy like Kuwait.
This center, through its website, gives the Besides, the time span for establishing a
opportunity to establish a new company new enterprise was shortened, from around
by one visit to the center. Moreover, the two months to just a few days.

October 2017 Issue 1