‘GCC countries must exchange expertise to diversify income’ – Total dependence on oil risky: official

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KUWAIT CITY, April 17, (KUNA): A senior official at the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD) has stressed the necessity of exchanging expertise among the GCC countries for diversifying sources of income. The call, made by SCPD Secretary- General Dr. Khaled Mahdi in his address to the 20th meeting of the technical official in charge of planning in the GCC, comes amid unprecedented falls in oil price that hard hit state budgets.

The chief goal of such gatherings is the exchange of expertise in all field, Mahdi told the meeting hosted by the SCPD Secretariat. Today’s meeting opens the door to benefit from the GCC experiences in drawing up development plans, as well as reviewing Kuwait’s scheme.

Development plans in Kuwait goes in line with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s vision to develop the country into a financial and commercial hub, where the private sector plays the locomotive of the economic activities, under an institutionalized state body that reinforces values, preserves social identity and works to realize balanced development, Mahdi noted.

The almost entirely reliance on a sole source of income is a risk all the GCC state can face, for the potential impact on the ability to continue to fulfil peoples’ needs, he said. This makes it inevitable to draw up development plans to diversify sources of income, to carry on with sustainable economic and social welfare, Mahdi added. The GCC meeting includes a workshop that offers a video reviewing Kuwait’s experience in the use of competitive indices in the annual development plan, and another on the relevant automated system.

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