The Permanent Committee for Streamlining Business Environment & Enhancing Competitiveness in the State of Kuwait (PCK) held a meeting in the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA) premises on August 14, 2017. KDIPA’s Director General Sheikh Dr. Meshaal Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who chairs the PCK, opened the meeting welcoming the members particularly the new members from the Public Authority for Civil Information, Kuwait Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Kuwait Economics Society, and Kuwait national Competitiveness Committee, who recently joined other members representing Ministries of Commerce & Industry, Justice, Electricity & Water, Finance, as well as the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait Municipality, the General Directorate for Customs, the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning & Development, and the Public Authority for Manpower.
The Chairman of PCK explained the correlation between improving business environment and enhancing competitiveness, and KDIPA’s role in coordinating, documenting, and communicating national efforts to achieve this goal as mandated by its establishing Law No. 116 of 2013. He also provided an overview of PCK’s achievements during the previous period in accordance with the assigned tasks stemming from the relevant Council of Ministers Decisions, especially Decision No. 1551/2013 and No. 177/2017.
Mrs. Reem M. Al Banwa, Director of Planning & Competitiveness Department, Rapporteur of PCK, provided an overview of the main achievements carried out by PCK since its establishment till end of June 2017 being the designated focal point with the World Bank responsible for coordinating national efforts with PCK members and their assigned follow up teams in filing World Bank reform templates, preparing national official reform reports, conducting series of open dialogue between private and public sectors, carrying field visits to the participants in World Bank questionnaires, preparing obstacle and proposals reports, developing the National Agenda for Streamlining Business Environment in Kuwait “Tahseen Program”, and following up its implementation through “Tahseen Portal” on KDIPA’s website.
In her turn, Mrs. Mona S. Bseiso, Economic Consultant, member of PCK, provided an overview of Kuwait position in Ease of Doing Business Indices from DB2004 to DB2017 reports, showing best practices in this regard.
As per the joint agreement signed between KDIPA and the World Bank on March 2016, Ms. Dalal MAarefi, Project Analyst, part of the technical support team of the World Bank, shared insights on milestones leading to the articulation of the National Agenda for Streamlining Business Environment in the State of Kuwait, for short and medium terms covering initially six topics while the remaining four topics will be completed by December 2017. She also showed other activities conducted under technical support including workshops and Washington D. C. visit to the Headquarters of Doing Business team.
In a relevant manner, Dr. Siddiq Saleh, Lead Consultant, from the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), with the presence of Dr. Mohammed El Enezi, Director of Techno-economics Department, and Dr. Husam Omeira, Consultant, showed the deliverables of first study phase of KDIPA’s project contracted with KISR for “Enhancing Kuwait Competitiveness in International Indices”, listed under the second medium term Development Plan, and its relevance with improved business environment. He explained the upcoming step which will include developing an actionable “National Agenda for Enhancing Kuwait’s Competitiveness” by October 2017 benefiting from lessons learnt to ensure that Kuwait to make the leap forward in its development path towards innovation based sustainable growth, leading to the second implementation phase by year end.
PCK members deliberated on some issues and expressed their opinion on other relevant matters. KDIPA Director General, head of PCK, concluded the meeting by highlighting the upcoming PCK Roadmap till end of 2017, reiterating his appreciation for their concern, and calling upon the members to support KDIPA in its efforts to enhance national coordination to advance the status of Kuwait in international indices, and promote its reputation as a favorable investment location.
