Oh leadership … Do you want industry and agriculture? This is not how it’s done

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DO we have a productive and development-seeking government, or a government of complication and “brushing off” of investors – citizens and expatriates? Does this government want to revitalize the sectors of industry and agriculture, or close down factories and desert farms? We ask with great bitterness about where the country is heading to, as for three decades, it has been afflicted with governments that seek to thwart any individual initiative and prevent the development of any project. It deliberately prolongs the documentary cycle at times, and at other times, it imposes measures that reach the point of impossibility on the investor.

Irrespective of who he is, he must either bear these frustrations if he wants to continue, or go to another country. When the state distributes industrial plots to citizens, they build on these plots, import equipment, and bring in manpower. But if they end up incurring huge losses, the government or the Public Authority for Industry, Environment Public Authority, or the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources suddenly issues a decision that increases costs on them, or increases the rents. This is definitely a death sentence on the facility or farm.

Hence, we beg to ask – What kind of food security are we talking about? Which national industry? How will the economic cycle be activated? Is there a government in the world that has a large company with a good international reputation in its field, and which has worked for many years to build warehouses, bring equipment, and seek the help of national and foreign labor, but suddenly the government says it will withdraw the plots from it, and give it to another investor, or hyke rents on all plots? Isn’t this an unproductive measure aimed at smuggling local and foreign investors out of the country? O leadership, building any industrial and agricultural base requires stability, as the investor cannot remain in constant concern about renewing licenses every year. This is not applicable in any country.

In addition to that, if what is required is that we work for the future, then it is very important to reduce the harsh measures that have no justification except for harassing and frustrating people. It is also necessary to reduce the documentary cycle, and not to abuse the complex judicial seizure. We wonder if it is reasonable to have different seizures – one for the environment, another for industry, a third for agriculture, and a fourth for employment? In all countries of the world, there are free trade zone areas to encourage national investments, and bring in foreign ones as well.

Many facilities and privileges are provided there to the entrepreneurs. On the other hand, our government seeks, through recent measures, to slowly kill the sectors of agriculture and industry, and push investors to flee abroad. At the same time, it talks about initiatives, which reality has proven to be just slogans that neither nourish nor avail against hunger. If the government seeks to increase revenues, there are many ways such as granting investors more facilities, reducing the documentary cycle and collecting more returns, as is the case in Brazil where the president, as we mentioned in a previous article, had raised taxes on the rich, or as in the rest of the countries that provide all facilities to investors.

This is due to the fact that it seeks to revive national industries and competition in this field, as it works on self-sufficiency in food security. This is not the case in Kuwait, where it seems that the government wants to even cut off the air for investors, and paralyze economic and investment activities. O leadership, if someone abused the industrial and agricultural plots, let him alone be held accountable, instead of the government taking retaliatory measures against everyone.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Arab Times

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This news has been read 30220 times!