A recent government report revealed that the hoped-for progress in the sustainable development plan has not been achieved despite the passage of nearly 12 years since the launch of Vision 2035.

A local Arabic daily noted the current situation suffers from a number of imbalances, most notably:

— Salaries and subsidies consume 75% of the general budget.

— Productivity rates are very low compared to the level of huge expenditures from the state’s general budget.

— Oil revenues constitute 89% of the total state revenues.

— International oil prices are the arbitrator for (deficit or surplus) in the state’s general budget.

— The participation of the private sector is intangible in the national economy.

— Foreign direct investment in Kuwait is weak.

— Kuwait ranked late in many international indicators in 2021, including the Corruption Perceptions Index, as it ranked 73 out of 180 countries, while it ranked 74 out of 178 countries in the index of economic freedom, and ranked 72 out of 132. A country in the global innovation index, and it also declined in some other indicators, including the gender gap, as it ranked 143 out of 156 countries.

The report issued by the planning authority confirmed the inefficiency of government investment spending over the years of the development plan and the failure to achieve a tangible developmental impact until the present time.

Regarding the development of the main indicators of the Kuwaiti economy during the period 2010-2022, the report highlighted a number of points, namely:

— The strategic development projects of the Public Authority for Partnership Projects between the public and private sectors faced several challenges, the most important of which were the financial and administrative challenges, which caused the cancellation and delay of some of the authority’s projects.

— The development plan saw weakness in the performance of state-owned companies and the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises, as their participation is almost non-existent.

— The development plan included one strategic project, which is the Public Warehouses and Border Crossings Company (Abdali), but it faces major obstacles that have not been resolved so far since its introduction into the development plan in 2009, in addition to the lack of commitment of the participating parties in the development plan to complete their projects within the specified time period. as a result of multiple challenges.

— The general budget 2021/2022 witnessed a decrease in capital spending as a result of the delay in government bids and supply chain restrictions resulting from the Corona pandemic, which led to the postponement of many construction, housing and development projects.

— The real capital expenditures for the fiscal year 2020/2021 witnessed savings of 24.6% of the budget appropriation, and the Ministry of Public Works had the largest appropriation in it at 32.1% of the total appropriations, and the savings were concentrated in the Ministry of Electricity, the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Defense, as a result of the non-completion of some capital construction projects and major maintenance operations.

The report mentioned a number of developments in the labor market in recent years, the most important of which were:

— The Kuwaiti labor market still suffers from structural imbalances, despite the government decisions issued regarding canceling all conditions related to the pandemic and fully returning to normal life, in addition to the economic reform policies adopted by the government to meet the challenges of the labor market in the past years.

— The representation of national manpower has witnessed an upward rise in the government and private sectors out of the total labor force in the country in recent years. .

— While the country is still suffering from an acute shortage of professional and domestic workers as a result of the departure of expatriate workers from the country and the cessation of the recruitment of domestic workers during the pandemic, this was reflected in the supply and demand policy and led to a noticeable increase in the prices of providing services.

— Productivity growth rates witnessed a slight increase, as a result of the increase in the disguised unemployment rate during the past years, due to the accumulation of employees within the government sector due to the policy followed by the Civil Service Commission to employ large numbers of graduates annually in the labor market.

In terms of inflation, the report said that Kuwait recorded an upward trend at the beginning of 2022, affected by the accelerating changes that the world is currently witnessing due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, and due to the pandemic, through increasing consumer demand and supply chain disruptions in exchange for labor shortages, and commodity prices depend on market prices.


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