(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) News report
KUWAIT, Oct 2 (KUNA) -- Government spending on development ventures by end of the first quarter of the annual development plan (2025-2026) reached the highest level since five years ago, compared to the corresponding periods of previous schemes.
The state expenditures on development reflected the government increasing approaches toward executing projects at this level.
The development expenditures, by the end of the first quarter of the current year, rose by 11 percent above the KD 117.9 million (USD 386.5 million) spending in the years 2020-2021.
Total spending by the end of the current year's Q1 amounted to KD 132.4 million (USD 433.4 million) against KD 54.5 million (USD 178.6 million) in the year 2024-2025, KD 22.7 million (USD 74.4 million) in the 2023-2024 period, KD 31.7 million (USD 101.4 million) in the 2022-2023 duration and KD 98.8 million (USD 323.9 million) in the 2022-2021 period.
A report following up on the annual Q1 plan (2025-2026), issued by the Secretariat General of the Supreme Council of Planning and Development, showed that spending proportion on its ventures was at 10 percent, 5.1 percent higher compared to the previous year.
The report also showed that spending proportion on ventures for construction of a solid infrastructure was the highest among the plan programs, reaching 11 percent by Q1 end, followed by the programs for establishing environmentally coherent living regions, 5.5 percent.
The plan ventures reached 141, with nine programs, including 124 ongoing projects, 17 new ones, while the bulk of the projects centered in the sixth program, building a solid infrastructure, with 38 ventures.
The annual development scheme, execution of which involves 42 government departments as a package of initiatives, is reviewed annually, with possible amendments depending on the initiatives' performance or presenting news ones.
Compared with the previous annual plans, the current scheme is based on more specific criteria in selecting the development initiatives and specifying legislative requirements for moving development forward.
A governance system has been set up for each program to ensure attaining results and serving state's policies, where all this aims at improving the State of Kuwait's rating in all international indices and placing it among the top 35 states by onset of 2035.
Moreover, the capital expenditures in the budget of the 2025-2026 fiscal year ensures listing 69 new projects for the ministries, in addition to 373 continuing and under-execution ventures, namely expansion of Umm Al-Haiman station and complementary tasks during 2025, in addition to completing construction of the new passenger terminal T-2 at Kuwait International Airport by 2027 as well as finishing the first phase of Mubarak Al-Kabeer Mina (port) in 2028.
The continuing projects in the 2025-2026 budget covers ventures for overhauling the infrastructure for developing transportation and the ports, where such tasks would boost competitive ability of the national economy, enhance commerce and create new jobs.
Regarding projects of the independent institutions, up to 18 projects were listed with the earmarking of KD 250 million (USD 819.6 million), focusing on building developed towns in collaboration with the private sector according to a sustainable urban planning, with the securing of a modern living environment through the new infrastructural projects for the new towns in South Sabah Al-Ahmad, Al-Metlaa and South Abdullah Al-Mubarak.
The acting minister of finance had issued a statement regarding the economic, financial and monetary conditions envisaged in the financial year 2025-2026, affirming priority of the health, educational and housing projects and following up on the treaties and memoranda of understanding for attaining strategic partnerships.
His statement emphasized the priority of achieving all tracks of the sustainable development, marked with efficiency, quality, boosting economic diversification, financial stability, in the shadow of an environment based on diverse income resources, minimizing dependence on oil and involving the local and international private sectors in the state projects.
Government committees have recently held a chain of meetings to discuss advancing development projects, hiking expenditures' efficiency, diversifying income resources, in addition to boosting cooperation among the various state departments to speed up pace of the achievements.
In this vein, the cabinet utility commission has recently examined procedural developments in a number of vital projects, namely executive plans of the ventures that are largely of technical and service nature, examined proposals and recommendations from the concerned authorities and discussed them in details.
The cabinet commission of economic affairs broached, in the middle of the past month, a number of topics designed to increase non-oil proceeds, amid government affirmation that the expenditures' efficiency would be lifted, while subsidies would be rationalized to ensure sustainability for the next generations.
Furthermore, the commission tasked with following up on the treaties and MoUs, signed between the State of Kuwait Government and its Chinese counterpart, pursued holding meetings aimed at advancing the economic development, speeding up coordination and consultations with China, along with tackling obstacles facing the projects, working out the plans and priorities, supporting the ministries and government apparatuses involved in the execution of the MoUs.
The cabinet, during the past week's session, affirmed success of the state policy for economic openness, backing up the approach to render Kuwait a financial and commercial hub, along with creating sustainable jobs for the coming generations.
Minister of Electricity, Water, Renewable Energy, the Acting Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Economic Affairs and Investment, Dr. Sabeeh Al-Mukhaizeem, presented during the meeting broad lines of the financial balance program, the underway economic and financial reforms to boost financial stability and diversify income resources.
Al-Mukhaizeem clarified that the non-oil proceeds would noticeably grow during the financial year (2025-2026), buoyed by financial reforms that in turn would pave the way for building a more sustainable and competitive economy in the medium and long terms.
The Domestic minimum top-up tax (DMTT), enforced in Kuwait on January 1, was a strategic step to boost non-oil returns.
Meanwhile, Kuwait has maintained its sovereign rating at robust levels, with a stable outlook, according to the international rating agencies, buoyed by solid financial and economic bases, namely the state possession of robust assets and reserves that back up the national economy. (end)
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