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Economists: Involvement of private sector in development plan "necessity"

KUWAIT, Jan 18 (KUNA) -- A number of economists have stressed the need to involve the private sector in Government's development plan, stressing that it would revive the economy in the country in general if it was in accordance with the legitimate and legal frameworks.
Chief Executive Officer of Kuwait Finance House Mohammad Al-Omar told KUNA on the sidelines of the forum dubbed (Development Projects...Kuwait's Future Gateway) currently being convened here that the private sector has sufficient experience to complete large development projects such as those contained in the current development plan, stressing that the private and public sectors are partners in success.
He recalled numerous vital projects, which the private sector had succeeded in executing without any glitch such as the (EQUATE) Petrochemical company's project and the wastewater treatment project, adding that there is unjustifiable concern over the involvement of the private sector in such projects.
He said that the sound infrastructure for financing development projects by local banks are already present and "we do not want any new structure," but there must be confidence in such banks to bear the costs of those projects.
For the Proposal to establish an independent government bank to be tasked with financing the development plan, Al-Omar stressed that he does not support such a proposal because the current local banks have sufficient capacity to finance large projects, "especially as we are talking about more than a dozen banks, including foreign ones in Kuwait." For his part, professor at the College of Administrative Sciences at Kuwait University Dr. Turki Al-Shammari told KUNA that the development plan is the first of its kind in Kuwait's history for what it includes in respect to plans put forward by the largest developing countries in East Asia.
Al-Shammari said he had seen for himself the development plans approved by some (Asian Tigers countries) such as South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia, Kuwait's development plan, once compared with theirs, remains the best in all economic aspects.
He said the big challenge is to find human resources with expertise in making the Kuwait's development plan a success. (end) smr.tg KUNA 181819 Jan 11NNNN