Drake & Scull Executive Director of Water & Power Tawfik Abu Soud told the MEED Kuwait Energy & Infrastructure Projects 2011 conference this morning that Drake & Scull is seeking to enter the Kuwait public-private partnership (PPP) project market as a developer.

“We are new as developers and we have come to Kuwait in order to start working on these projects in water and wastewater sectors,” Abu Soud said.

Abu Soud said that sponsors of PPP projects need to address the challenges developers face. “The developer accepts the most risk,” Abu Soud said. “We try to mitigate this risk  by going into more smaller projects. We are trying to move into under-developed countries where the need is mandatory and development banks are involved. In India there is a lot of money  for BOT projects but the cost of money is very high.”

The MEED Kuwait Energy & Infrastructure conference has been organised with KPC as supporting partner. NBK is strategic partner. Agility and Gulf Investment Corporation are silver sponsors; bronze sponsors are ABB, Al Tamimi & Company and Gulf Bank. Mashreq, Drake & Scull and Mushrif Trading & Contracting Company are lunch sponsors. The conference sponsor is Ducab. Hill International; Pitchmastic Middle East, Tekneen District Cooling & Utilities and WorleyParsons are exhibitors.