The Entertainment City project will be implemented through a partnership between the government and the private sector, the private sector as the developer and operator with the support and partnership of the state.
Reliable sources told a local Arabic daily that the study on the implementation of the project that the Ministry of Finance reviewed with the Council of Ministers recently concluded of the necessity of adopting the project on the partnership model, as this would overcome the problem of financial feasibility and the offers will attract international companies specialized in this field with experience of more than 30 years to meet the aspirations of the Kuwaiti people.
The sources indicated the reason behind the city project in cooperation with the private sector is due to its economic feasibility especially since most often the government entertainment cities around the world are built in cooperation with the private sectors. This is because of its investment nature as it requires investing huge capital on a regular basis to finance its operations, in addition to the fact that the financial returns may be unrewarding, but the economic and social returns of the project are high.
According to the proposed model for the development of the project in Kuwait, the government will provide the capital and infrastructure for the entertainment city, which may reach, according to studies, about 75 million dinars.
The study identified a number of procedures required to implement the project, including:
1 – Determining the project land and working on the issuance of the allotment contract, the cadastral plan and all the necessary documents
2 – Transfer of land ownership to the State Property Department in the Ministry of Finance
3 – The project will be offered to the private sector under the State Property Regulation Law, Article 17 of which stipulates the following:
— It is permissible to lease the state’s private real estate or movable property for a nominal fee or less than the same wage to a legal or natural person with the intention of achieving a purpose of public benefit, and the lease is based on the proposal of the Minister or the head of the competent authority or institution and the approval of the Council of Ministers.
— In this case, the lease term may not exceed twenty years, and it may be renewed for other periods for the same legal or natural person with the approval of the Council of Ministers.
— The leased property must remain designated for the purposes for which it was leased for throughout the lease term. If the property is not allocated for the aforementioned purposes or its allocation has changed, the lease contracts shall be considered rescinded on their own without the need for a court ruling, warning or warning, and these properties are vacated by the administrative way.
— The provision of the previous paragraph applies to projects approved in the build-operate-transfer system to the state or the build-own-operate-transfer-of-ownership-to-state system or any other similar system established on state real estate properties.
4 – Adapting the project requirements to match the perception of neighboring projects (Sulaibikhat Beach).
5 – Starting to set the terms and conditions of submission and setting up a comparison mechanism between the different offers in cooperation with the consulting companies.
6 – Coordination with the private sector to study and inventory the current obstacles and to survey the opinion of experts in this type of project.
The sources said that the study concluded that 5 criteria should be met by the government’s strategic partner for the implementation of the entertainment city project, which are as follows:
— It should be a foreign company and listed in the country of origin.
– Must have at least 30 years of experience in the development and management of international recreational facilities.
– Must have set a precedent in establishing a recreational facility outside the country of origin.
— Must have worked on similar projects with an area of not less than two square kilometers.
— And the purposes of establishing and operating the company include the completion of the works referred to in this project.
The sources said that the Council of Ministers stressed the need to speed up the implementation of this vital project because of its social and economic effects, as the Minister of Finance was assigned in coordination with the Fatwa and Legislation Department, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Electricity and Water, the Kuwait Municipality and the Tourist Projects Company to take the necessary measures to ensure the implementation of the project as soon as possible.
The main criteria for selecting the operator:
— Must be a foreign company listed in the country of origin
— 30 years of experience in developing world-class entertainment facilities
— Has a history of establishing an entertainment facility outside the country of origin
— Must have worked on similar projects with an area of two square kilometers
