According to official data, Kuwait’s actual spending on development during the past fiscal year 2022/2023 amounted to 665.1 million dinars, spread across 128 different development projects. This amount represented a decrease of 29.5% compared to the previous year, where the spending was 944.4 million dinars in 2021/2022.
In terms of the budgeted spending, the actual spending on development in 2022/2023 accounted for approximately 50.8% of the total financial appropriations for the year, which amounted to 1.3 billion dinars. This was lower than the previous fiscal year’s figure, where the actual spending represented 56.9% of the 1.7 billion dinars approved for 130 projects in 2021/2022, reports Al-Anba daily.
The report revealed that 45% of the development plan’s projects during the 2022/2023 period were in the executive stage, while 42% were in the preparatory stage. Additionally, 6% of the projects had been completed, 4% were in the delivery stage, and 3% had not yet started.
The 128 projects were categorized into 9 programs, with the largest number of projects, 41 in total, falling under the “coherent infrastructure construction” program. Interestingly, the “general privatization” program did not include any projects, including those implemented by the government through partnerships with the private sector.
The report highlighted that the annual plan for 2022/2023 consisted of 112 ongoing projects and 16 new projects. By the end of the year, 8 projects were completed, while 5 projects had not yet commenced. The overall expenditure on these projects accounted for 50.8% of the plan’s total, which was 6.1% less than the previous year and 19% less than two years before.
Regarding the timeliness of project completion, only 27% of the projects in the 2022/2023 plan adhered to the implementation schedule, a slight decrease from the 29% achieved in the previous year and 32% in the year before that. The majority of delayed projects were found in the “coherent infrastructure construction” program.
The development plan encompassed 55 general policies distributed among the nine development programs. Out of these, 33 policies were activated during the 2022/2023 plan, supported by a total of 128 projects. Interestingly, 22 policies did not see any participation from relevant entities in supporting projects.
Despite efforts by the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development, Kuwait’s progress towards its sustainable development plan, Vision 2035, has not been significant over the past 13 years. The report identified seven reasons contributing to this, including the dominance of salaries and subsidies in the state’s budget, low productivity rates relative to expenditures, heavy reliance on oil revenues, limited private sector involvement in the economy, weak foreign direct investments, and unfavorable international rankings.
To address challenges in the labor market, the government implemented economic reform policies, such as the worker’s smart identity to combat labor fraud and increase Kuwaiti employment in various sectors. The report also mentioned the establishment of Google Cloud Services in Kuwait to boost digitization, increase government employee productivity, and create high-skilled job opportunities.
Efforts to increase national employment in both the government and private sectors have been ongoing, with successful results achieved through the replacement application and government policies mandating higher percentages of national employment in various activities.
The follow-up report identified 7 main findings on the performance of the entire fiscal year, as follows:
— The projects of the annual plan 2022/2023 are concentrated in the executive stage, at a rate of 45% by the end of the fourth quarter of the plan year 2022/2023.
— There are 16 new projects in the annual plan 2022/2023, 63% of which are in the preparatory stage at the end of the fourth quarter.
— 27% of the projects comply with the implementation schedule, compared to 29% for the same period in the year 2021/2022 and 32% in the year 2020/2021.
— The percentage of spending on annual plan projects 2022/2023 at the end of the fourth quarter amounted to 50.8%, 6.1% less than in the previous year, and 19% less compared to the plan year 2020/2021.
— The percentage of spending on projects of the Active Participation Program in the Global Community is the highest among the plan’s programmes, reaching 78% by the end of the fourth quarter, followed by projects of the Program for Promoting the Health and Well-being of All at 65%.
— Administrative challenges represent 38% of the total challenges, which is the largest percentage among other classifications. Among the most prominent of these challenges are the delay in the necessary licensing and approval procedures and the multiplicity of donors, the slow documentary cycle of contractual procedures, and the delay in the delivery of utilities – electricity and water to projects.
— 81% of the total project implementation challenges have been overcome.
The report highlighted 6 recommendations, as follows:
— The need for the authorities to expedite the completion of the draft laws in the plan, as there are a number of draft laws that have been with the concerned authorities for a long time, and their number is 13 draft laws, which requires a new impetus to complete the legislative program of the development plan.
— The need for the Council of Ministers, in cooperation with the National Assembly, to expedite the discussion and approval of draft laws listed on the parliament’s agenda, or under study in the parliament’s specific committees, which number 23 drafts of legislation included in the legislative program of the development plan, because the completion of many development programs and projects is linked to them. .
— The need to put an end to stumbling in spending on some projects of the annual development plan 2022/2023 as a result of delayed budgets or approval of disbursement.
— The need to exert more effort to advance the projects stimulating the private sector, as the return on the projects stimulating the private sector still does not meet the ambition, especially the partnership projects between the public and private sectors, and the matter needs to increase the momentum in order to finish the preparatory work for those projects in order to launch them. And start implementation, while defining mechanisms to facilitate the approvals of the regulatory authorities.
— Oblige the executive bodies participating in the plan to quickly complete their planning structures, which allow those bodies to smoothly communicate between them and the preparation and follow-up systems, as the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development is making great efforts in developing systems for preparing and following up development plans, which has greatly affected the Improvement in achievement rates, as a result of solving many obstacles early.
— The need to develop radical solutions to the challenges facing the projects mentioned in the plan, as there are projects that suffer from significant delays in their timetables, although the entity has not recorded any obstacles facing these projects.
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