KDIPA Director General Sheikh Dr. Meshaal Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah announced that KDIPA organized the third meeting with the Doing Business Team at the World Bank Group (WBG) in its premises in Washington D.C. during the period April 22-24, 2019. This task is undertaken as part of KDIPA’s role in presiding over the Permanent Committee for Streamlining Business Environment & Enhancing Competitiveness in the State of Kuwait (PCK) and within the technical support agreement with the World Bank Group. The significance of this visit reflects continuing the reform measures and enhancing current efforts to streamline business environment in Kuwait to attract more investments that will achieve the National Vision 2035, and the goals of the pillars of New Kuwait pertaining to economic diversification and supporting the role of the private sector.
The delegation was headed by KDIPA Director General and Head of PCK and included the following members of PCK: Consultant Jamal Al-Jawli, Director General for the General Administration of Customs; Eng. Ahmad Al-Rasheedi, Assistant Undersecretary for Planning, Training and Information System in the Ministry of Electricity and Water and Dr. Saleh Al-Aqely, Undersecretary for Companies and Commercial Licenses Affairs in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. As well as the work teams for each of the components of the ease of doing business index representing the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, Kuwait Business Center, General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development, the Central Bank of Kuwait, Capital Markets Authority, Kuwait Municipality, Environment Public Authority, Fire Services Directorate, Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Ci-Net Company.
During the three days, Kuwait position in the Doing Business Report 2019 (DB2019) was discussed pertaining to the following components: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, enforcing contracts, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders and resolving insolvency. The work teams provided live demonstrations of e-services and explained in detail the reform procedures undertaken and the resulting impact be it reduction of number of procedures, duration and cost, or amending legislation by either approving new laws like the credit information law or issuing new decisions or circulars that contribute to improve the legal environment according to international best practices.
At the end of the meetings, KDIPA Director General and Head of PCK reiterated to the work teams the importance of submitting all the reforms and the relevant decisions and documents on the DB2020 templates to adequately detect the reforms that have been implemented in Kuwait in order to dully submit to the World Bank by the stated deadline on 31stMay 2019.
Following this visit, a fact-finding mission from the Doing Business team at the World Bank will come to Kuwait to verify the reforms that were mentioned and to ensure that the private sector acknowledges benefiting from them as part of finalizing data collection for DB2020, which will be published by the end of October 2019.
The Permanent Committee for Streamlining Business Environment & Enhancing Competitiveness in the State of Kuwait (PCK) was established by the Council of Ministers Decision No. 1551 of 2013 with membership of 15 competent government entities, as well as representatives from the private sector and the civil society. PCK launched the national agenda for streamlining business environment in Kuwait (Tahseen 1 and Tahseen 2) as well as Tahseen portal.
KDIPA was represented by Mrs. Fatima H. Al Sayegh, Director of the Technical Office Dept. and Rapporteur of PCK; Mrs. Mona S. Bseiso, Economic Consultant, member of PCK, Mr. Amre Wageeh, Legal Consultant, Mrs. Lina Adlouni, Legal Consultant, Mr. Faisal Haji, Public Relations, Director General Office Dept.; Mrs. Anan Al Ghurair, Mr. Abdulwahab Al Munifi, Planning and Competitiveness Dept.
