Trade & Investment

Like most GCC economies, Kuwait is well known for its buy-side investment activity – a result of its historic ability to transform oil revenues into global investments aimed at securing future economic sustainability. However, as the nation enters a third year of lower oil prices, Kuwait’s attractiveness as a destination for inward investment has come under increasing scrutiny. The government is eyeing global capital flows to support its bold development strategy, and recent years have seen a number of innovations aimed at attracting foreign investment to the country. Challenges remain, however, and Kuwait still has progress to make on international ease of doing business indicators. In the meantime, falling oil revenues have highlighted the nation’s dependence on a single export category, and therefore diversifying its export base and removing barriers to trade have also emerged as central priorities.