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Kuwait’s prospects take positive turn

29 August 2024

Commentary
John Bambridge
Analysis editor

Kuwait took an unexpected political turn in May, when Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah activated a rarely used clause in the constitution that allows him to suspend parliament for up to four years.

This emiri prerogative has been employed twice before, in 1976 and 1986, but Kuwait’s National Assembly, which has rumbled along in business-as-usual mode since 1963, could be forgiven for failing to recollect it. Regardless, lawmakers can now consider themselves duly reminded.

In the GCC’s broader political environment, where no other state has done anything akin to Kuwait’s “democratic experiment”, the emir’s parliamentary checkmate is unremarkable. Emiri decree is the norm. But domestically, the move was highly significant, stripping lawmakers of their oppositional power, and handing direct legislative authority back to the emir and cabinet.

It could also allow for some comparatively rapid decision-making – a prospect that business leaders are hopeful for. Western think tanks and management consultancy firms often fondly and appreciatively call this “agile” government.

The Kuwaiti cabinet now has the opportunity to fast-track the kind of decisions that have been hampered by the parliamentary political process of late. 

One perennial dispute has been the lack of agreement on raising the country’s debt ceiling, which has in turn prevented the government from accessing debt markets – it last did so in 2017 – and limited Kuwait’s financing options even as it has faced weaker oil revenues and fiscal stress.

The annual ensnaring of the country’s budget by parliament has meanwhile created a constant headache for the government and taken a toll on capital investment, weakening the projects market and undermining investment into vital oil infrastructure. Now the cabinet can turn on the taps again for strategic infrastructure delivery, and there are already signs that it is doing just that.

There are tens of billions of formerly stalled, on hold or simply adrift projects now making their way through the pre-execution process once more. In the oil and gas sector, the value of active projects has doubled. In the utilities sector, power outages during the summer have seen billions of dollars-worth of power projects pushed through to the bidding stage. In construction, there are port, airport and other infrastructure projects steadily proceeding to bid, including Kuwait’s planned part of the GCC railway network.

All of this work will need exactly the kind of budget approvals and sign-offs that the Kuwaiti parliament has become so adept at sinking. Several multibillion-dollar projects have been lost in no-man’s land in recent years, bouncing between the design and bid phases. The hope under the emir’s now-agile cabinet is that these uncertainties of the past can be willed away.

 

This month's special report on Kuwait includes: 

> GOVERNMENT: Kuwait navigates unchartered political territory
> ECONOMY: Fiscal deficit pushes Kuwait towards reforms
> BANKING: Kuwaiti banks hunt for growth 
> OIL & GAS: Kuwait oil project activity doubles
> POWER & WATER: Kuwait utilities battle uncertainty
> CONSTRUCTION: Kuwait construction sector turns corner

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John Bambridge

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