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With major new development projects under way across all transport sectors, Kuwait is pouring billions of dinars into transforming its roads, ports and airports. The country’s medium-term objective is to capitalise on its strategic location in order to become the northern nexus of the Gulf, facilitating and profiting from flows of international trade across the region for decades to come. In the shorter term, Kuwait faces challenges in tackling delays and congestion that slow the flow of goods and people around the country and across its borders. This chapter contains an interview with Sheikh Yousef Al Abdullah Al Sabah Al Nasser Al Sabah, Director-General, Kuwait Ports Authority.

In 2017 and early 2018 Kuwait’s insurance sector enjoyed growth on the strength of steadily rising premium, regulatory tweaks and forays by individual underwriters into a number of new market segments. Nonetheless, according to many stakeholders, the obsolescence of the country’s insurance law remains a major hurdle to the sector’s future growth. Various iterations of a new insurance law have been circulating among government bodies since at least 2012. The central amendment proposed by these drafts is the establishment of an independent body charged with oversight and enforcement responsibilities, which many local insurers believe is needed to ensure the sector’s stability profitability over the long term.

Over the course of 2017-18 Kuwait’s Islamic financial services (IFS) industry saw continued growth and ongoing development, shoring up the country’s long-standing reputation as a global centre for sharia-compliant banking, insurance and investment activities. Global IFS assets topped $2trn for the first time in 2017, with Kuwait accounting for 6% of these assets, having an estimated value of $123bn. A key area of potential growth is the sukuk (Islamic bond) market, which is widely expected to benefit from rising demand for sharia-compliant debt from the government and private entities. In addition, takaful (Islamic insurance) providers are also gaining a larger share of the Kuwaiti market. This chapter contains an interview with Mazin Saad Alnahedh, Group CEO, Kuwait Finance House.

The Kuwait stock market is undergoing a series of changes, which have the potential to trigger transformations in the market’s daily operations and long-term prospects. This commenced in 2016, with private operator Boursa Kuwait taking over operations of the publicly owned bourse, then known as the Kuwait Stock Exchange. In mid-February 2018 the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) announced it had expanded the team of companies overseeing the exchange’s privatisation, and in April the CMA launched a bidding process for an equity stake in Boursa Kuwait capital stocks of between 26% and 44%, with the initial public offering of the stake set to be launched in early 2019. The offering is expected to enable the implementation of further upgrades and reforms in the future, including new trading and settlement systems and, eventually, the launch of derivatives. This chapter contains an interview with Khaled Abdulrazzaq Al Khaled, CEO, Boursa Kuwait.

Underpinned by rising commodity prices and, consequently, increased domestic spending, Kuwait’s banking sector performed well in the 18 months to mid-2018. The industry posted net profit growth of 8.9% and total asset growth of 5.9% to $251.9bn in 2017, even as local banks moved to adhere to a raft of new provisioning rules. With the price of crude more than doubling from $28 per barrel in January 2016 to $76 in September 2018, the state has expressed confidence in its ability to move forward with $112.5bn in planned capital expenditure under the National Development Plan 2015-20. This will have positive knock-on effects for the banking sector, which has long been a beneficiary of state spending in the form of government deposits and financing opportunities. This chapter contains an interview with Mohammad Y Al Hashel, Governor, Central Bank of Kuwait; and Fatah Adour, General Manager, Citibank Kuwait.

As a founding member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as well as the site of approximately 7% of the world’s crude oil reserves, Kuwait has long been a major energy exporter. In 2017 the nation’s oil sector generated more than 90% of government revenues, and oil exports were equal to some 42% of GDP, the highest figure among member states, according to OPEC data. Like other countries in the GCC, Kuwait has taken advantage of these revenues both to build a deep portfolio of global investments, thereby ensuring long-term returns, and to invest in economic diversification projects at home, with an eye towards developing new industries and attracting foreign direct investment in strategic areas.