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Kuwait Special Report: Election fails to deliver consensus
Kuwait’s economy expanded by 5 per cent last year, a strong performance during a period marked by unprecedented regional turmoil and a lingering global financial crisis
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Kuwait Special Report: Setting out a new economic course
Despite an ambitious visionary economic development plan launched in February 2010, Kuwait is being held back by its inability deliver key projects
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Kuwait Special Report: Banks await lending opportunities
Kuwait has missed an opportunity. With the region’s only fully elected parliament, it could have been the model for democracy as countries across the Middle East and North Africa now look for new systems of government
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Kuwait Special Report: Political unrest dampens the country's anniversary year
Kuwait’s year of celebration has begun badly. Rather than reflecting on past achievements, the country’s leadership has been using tear gas and rubber bullets to quell unrest
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Special Report: Kuwait - Infrastructure projects boost economy
There is cautious optimism that Kuwait, while far from overcoming its bureaucratic shortcomings, is finally moving in the right direction
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Special Report: GCC – Euro crisis has lessons for planned GCC currency union
The crisis that has played out across the eurozone in recent months offers a timely lesson for the GCC member states and their proposed single currency
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Special Report: Kuwait - New optimism inspired by parliament
A new optimism can be sensed in Kuwait, following parliament’s approval in February of a $102bn development plan proposed by the governing cabinet. For the first time in years, the legislative and executive bodies are pulling in the same direction.
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Special Report: Kuwait - MPs push for finance reforms
Kuwait’s handling of the financial crisis has been criticised for the limited scale of its intervention to contain the crash, which resulted in several local institutions coming near to collapse
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Special Report: Power & Water - Gulf opts for oil-fired plants
Just seven months ago, in March, the Abu Dhabi government released a report saying that the economic and environmental cost of using oil as a fuel for power plants was too high to be considered
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Special Report: GCC - Power grid raises hopes of regional co-operation
The rulers of the six GCC member states will find little to cheer about when they meet for the council’s annual meeting in December, which this year is being hosted by Kuwait
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Special Report: Construction - State funding fuels regional activity
Gulf developers are slowly adjusting to the idea that the region needs more affordable homes. While there are still enough cash-rich buyers in the market to provide some demand for high-end developments, the cash-poor status of many developers means that building lower-cost houses, for which there is larger, proven demand, makes more business sense.
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Special Report: Kuwait - Political deadlock hits reform
Kuwait’s economy is already feeling the impact of the global downturn, and now its political system is coming under stress, with the cabinet resigning on 16 March and the National Assembly (parliament) being dissolved two days later on 18 March.
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Special Report: Oil & Gas Contractor Survey - Caution slows contract awards
On paper, the number of pending contract awards on oil and gas projects in the Gulf is healthy. There are 55 such projects worth more than $1bn, each in various stages of planning.
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Special Report: Oil and Gas - Upstream plans suffer setbacks
For all the international oil companies’ (IOCs) talk about long-term planning, the current low in oil prices, coupled with the global economic downturn, has affected IOCs as much as any other business sector.
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Special Report: GCC - Leaders prepare for crucial summit
If all goes to plan, next month’s GCC summit in Muscat will give the go-ahead for construction to start in 2010 on the long-discussed GCC regional railway.
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Special Report: Healthcare - GCC states broaden private sector role
The Levant’s pedigree in medical training has benefited the Gulf for a long time.
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Special Report: Kuwait - Policy dispute stunts development
Kuwait’s economic indicators should be a source of envy for central bank governors worldwide. In 2007, the country posted a budget surplus of $43bn, all the more remarkable given the $26bn deficit it amassed immediately after the 1990-91 Gulf war.
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Special Report: Banking - The rise of Islamic finance
Since questions were raised earlier this year over the compliance with sharia law of a common form of sukuk (Islamic bond), doomsayers have warned of the impending demise of Islamic finance.
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Special Report: Aviation & Airports - Soaring fuel costs hit airlines
Few sectors have been hit harder by rising fuel costs than the aviation industry. High oil prices have already driven several airlines out of business and grounded older, less fuel-efficient planes.
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Special Report: Banking - Gulf bank growth accelerates
There is consensus in the banking community that 2008 will be a much better year for the industry than 2007. A stormy 2007 revealed the full impact on banks of the 20-month-long market crash that began in February 2006, which triggered severe falls in advisory fees.
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Special Report: Construction - The move to partnership
Despite much talk over the past few years about the introduction of long-term alliances between construction clients and contractors, partnering agreements remain rare in the region.
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Special report: Kuwait - A fresh political crisis unfolds
Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah’s recent decision to dissolve parliament and hold new elections was his only option in the face of the obvious antagonism between the executive and elected members, which culminated in the resignation of the cabinet in March.
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Special Report: GCC construction sector - Branching Out
Liberalising the property market has boosted the GCC construction sector, but challenges remain for both governments and developers alike.
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Special report: GCC - Increasing global influence
The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) plan to provide enriched uranium to nuclear power plants across the Middle East represents a bold attempt to defuse the international crisis surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme. It also represents the organisation’s first significant step onto the international diplomatic stage.
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Special Report: Kuwait - State of paralysis
There is rarely a dull moment in Kuwaiti politics. But even by the standards of recent years, the events of the past month must have made even the most jaded observer sit up and take notice.
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Special Report: Kuwait - State of Paralysis
The spat between the Kuwaiti government and the parliament over allegations of ministerial irregularities and political manoeuvring is the latest round in a battle for power that is holding back progress in the country.
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