Kuwait closely following up World Bank 2016 report: Al-Ali

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KUWAIT CITY, Oct 31, (KUNA): Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr Yousif Al-Ali has said that they are closely following up the results of recently issued World Bank Group report on Doing Business for 2016. Kuwait registered a relative increase in the distance to frontier (DTF) according to the report from 59.77 in 2015 to 60.17 in 2016. Despite the relative enhancement in this component, the World Bank Group registered a slight decrease in Kuwait’s overall ranking from 100 in 2015 to 101 in 2016 report.

In a statement on Saturday, the Minister stressed the necessity of coordinating efforts by all the ministry’s bodies and affiliated institutions and authorities to carry on with steps to streamline measures and reduce the duration of procedure to boost the investment environment in Kuwait.

Despite signals by the report on slow procedures for founding companies, actual practice has revealed that efforts led by the ministry and the Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA) to attract more investments have been fruitful, the minister said. For instance, KDIPA has issued licences for a number of leading world companies that have already embarked on business in Kuwait, which entails creating new jobs and training opportunities for Kuwaitis as well as varying sources of income, Al-Ali noted. He cited a report by the US State Department on improvement of business and investment environment in Kuwait.

Earlier this year, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-Inter-governmental body developing and promoting policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financingnoted that Kuwait, had made significant progress in improving its system in both fields and “will therefore no longer be subject to the FATF’s monitoring process.” Al-Ali underlined the role by the KDIPA to achieve goals of law 116/2013, namely encouraging direct investments, in a bid to turn Kuwait into a regional financial and trade hub.

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