The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) has issued a new public-private partnership (PPP) projects guidebook as it seeks to get the country’s ambitious PPP programme back on track.

The PPP Project Guidebook has been put together to provide a comprehensive document on the legislative system and procedural framework for developing PPPs following the revision and enactment of the country’s PPP law, Law No.116, in 2014, and the implementation of the supporting Executive Regulations in 2015.

The World Bank assisted KAPP with the guidebook, which includes general instructions and framework for project tendering in accordance with the 2014 PPP Law and the 2015 Executive Regulations.

The 2014 PPP Law was introduced to replace the original 2008 PPP Law following the tendering and award of the country’s first PPP project, the Al-Zour North 1 independent water and power project (IWPP). The 2014 law restructured the PPP programme and codified some of the methods used in the procurement of the Al-Zour North IWPP to provide a comprehensive structure for procuring major projects.

Potential investors will hope that the guidebook will help kickstart Kuwait’s PPP programme, under which only the Al-Zour North 1 IWPP project has been awarded executed since the programme was launched in 2008.

Kuwait’s PPP programme suffered a number of setbacks in 2017, culminating with the cancellation of the tender for the planned Al-Zour North 2 independent water and power project (IWPP) in August, 14 months after bids were submitted.

However, on 3 May KAPP announced that the Council of Ministers had approved the recommendation for the contract awards for the planned Umm al-Hayman wastewater and Kabd Solid Waste PPP projects, both of which had been under evaluation for a number of months.

A UAE-based source at one potential participant in Kuwait’s PPP programme hopes that the approval of these projects and the launch of the guidebook can lead to progress with the much-delayed pipeline of projects.

“Hopefully, this can give momentum to the PPP projects, but we need to see more contracts signed and projects under execution before Kuwait regains the trust of investors.”