(With photos) KUWAIT, July 9 (KUNA) -- The head of the Kuwaiti Investment Office (KIO) in London, Eid Al-Reshidi, on Monday lauded the diplomatic-like immunity, business privacy and tax exemption British authorities gave to his office.
"These advantages followed the signing of the 1953 agreement between the UK government and the late Amir, Sheikh Abdallah Al-Salem Al-Sabah," Al-Reshidi told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
According to that agreement, investment funds handled by KIO should be answerable only to the British Central Bank and should not be subject to profit or loss considerations giving the office semi-permanent status like that of embassies.
The role of he office has focused, in addition to investment development in the UK, on contributing to the growth of the UK economy and on deepening political bilateral relations between Kuwait and the UK.
He stressed that the office was "one of the most important real estate investment centers." He recalled how the visit of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to London in February this year received wide praise from the UK political and financial circles in view of the KIO's reputation in London and among prominent political leaders like Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Al-Reshidi cited the significant facilities given to the KIO during the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 through allowing the Kuwaiti Investment Public Authority, Finance Ministry and Central Bank to operate freely and normally through the London-based KIO.
The head of the KIO recalled how the office in London bore the "entire expenses of Kuwait's liberation and reconstruction as well as the payment of salaries to Kuwaiti civil servants during the invasion period." Al-Reshidi said the office has taken all risk management precautions by keeping all data in safe places in case of similar circumstances in future. This way work continuity is ensured without problems or impediments.
He pointed out that one of the most important contributions of the investment office was to launch and manage investment portfolios. He added that the London office handled and managed the Future Generations Reserve Fund.
The London office trained three or four new Kuwaiti university graduates sent by the Public Authority for Investment to train on the office's tasks and that the rate of Kuwaiti to non-Kuwaiti workers there "could reach 16 percent." He explained the infrastructure of the office, which included the company stock sector, the bond sector, the direct investment sector, the treasury sector, the associate jobs sector, the central sector and the administrative affairs sector.
For his part, the head of the office's Treasury sector Marwan Al-Saleh said the transfers handled by the office were "hundreds of millions per single day" and included the own funds of the investment office itself. He added that the funds were "directly managed by the Treasury sector." He pointed out that the Treasury sector in the London office worked closely with the Kuwait-based Public Authority for Investment and with a selected few private banks as advised by the head of the London office and a special delegate of the Kuwait Public Authority.
He said the London office managed two portfolios including the Future Generations one and another one by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Finance.
Meanwhile, the London Office's Deputy-Executive Manager for Stock Management Prash Vithlani said the office has started, two weeks ago, to place large investments in emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil and small investments in such countries as Russia, Thailand and Malaysia. He said Kuwaiti investments "are distributed throughout the world." He said the office invested most of its funds in such reliable multi-national companies as Colgate, Procter and Gamble and Toyota Motors because "investing in such companies is easy and the risk rate is small." (end) tms.eh KUNA 092105 Jul 07NNNN