TAG: The Middle East
When I wrote three months ago about why the economic changes afoot in the Gulf region have taken on a whole new urgency in “The challenge of change: And why it matters this time”, my analysis was very much framed against a background of anything but business as usual.
The results of OBG’s recent survey of C-suite executives in Kuwait show a largely positive outlook: indeed, the majority have positive expectations of business conditions and plan to make a capital investment within the next year. However, downplaying the role of the state in terms of revenue generation and developing the private sector into a more significant engine of growth is increasingly pressing, and high levels of government spending on infrastructure and reform programmes are working towards these goals.
https://www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com/analysis/new-day-most-recent-ambitious-economic-strategy-aims-deliver-past-promises-and-new-goalsOf all the comparatively wealthy countries in the region, on a per-capita basis, Kuwait is one of the richest. Its oil wealth per capita is much higher than Saudi Arabia’s, for example, and the government has been prudent in saving over the years, building up its sovereign wealth funds to ensure that future generations benefit from the oil bounty.