Kuwait red tape is strangling business

Kuwait aims to be a regional financial hub, but red tape is stifling business growth.

Multinational Kuwaiti companies are being driven abroad by a lack of business-friendly legislation and grindingly slow bureaucracy, business and economic experts have warned.

The decision taken by Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) to relocate outside the country marks a dangerous precedent that the government cannot afford to ignore, they agreed in different statements to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

Flex Development Company chairman Hussein Al-Sayegh said that the government had to seriously look into problems faced by the private sector, noting that the step taken by MTC was a red flag, as many other Kuwaiti companies with expanding international business interests may follow suit because of the bureaucracy they faced here.

Kuwait Cable Vision managing director Abdullah Al-Sabij said authorities were well-aware of problems of the private sector, the most hindering of which was bureaucracy, as well as corruption which he said was rampant in government institutions.

He warned authorities and decision-makers that current business legislation is inadequate and inflexible.

Kuwaiti economist Ali Al-Nimash told KUNA that he felt the government was too focused on social legislation and was not keeping pace with the need of businesses. He said he hoped the government and parliament would place greater emphasis on economy if they truly wanted Kuwait to become a regional commercial and financial centre.

MTC's move will not be the last, and many other companies will do the same, he said, noting that smaller companies had already taken their businesses to Dubai and Bahrain.

Al-Nimash said he did not find it strange that companies would go for such a move because of the difficult circumstances in the Kuwaiti market, underscoring the need for both economic and political stability in order for the capital market to flourish.

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