Kuwait Times, Thursday, Sep 17, 2020 | Muharram 29, 1442
Kuwait eyes 135 projects during 2019-2020 development plan
Kuwait:
Secretary General of the
Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD) Dr Khaled Mahdi said the
total number of projects included in the annual 2019-2020 development plan
amounted to 135, as opposed to 132 ventures in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Mahdi
mentioned that in a speech he delivered on the sidelines of a press conference
the General Secretariat of SCPD held on Tuesday, to announce results of the
annual plan follow-up report of 2019-2020 that ended on March 31, 2020.
He added that the continuous annual
plan projects from previous plans amounted to 119, as well as 16 new ones,
noting that the percentage of projects in the implementation phase for this year
reached 50 percent. The completed rate of ventures are in the following; 10
projects with seven percent done, three projects with two percent, 67 others at
50 percent, 51 ventures with 38 percent, in addition to four projects at three
percent, he explained.
Main challenges
The number of challenges facing execution of projects reached 660, including 248
administrative challenges, 190 technical challenges, 103 of financial natures,
91 challenges for supervisory authorities and 28 legislative ones, he said,
adding that 492 others were solved, accounting for 75 percent of the total
hurdles that emerged in projects’ execution. The completion rate of projects are
in the following; the Clean Fuels project amounted to 98.8 percent, Al-Zour
Refinery project at 95.4 percent, Shagaya Renewable Energy Park project reached
95.2 percent and Al-Mutlaa City project with 58 percent, he said.
He explained the completion rate for
the following projects: Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port project amounted to 52.7 percent,
Kuwait International Airport Terminal 2 project reached 35.1 percent, Sabah
Al-Salem University City project at 54.8 percent and Al-Sabah Hospital project
was 73 percent. He indicated that 40 percent of the projects are in line with
the schedule, 2 percent of the projects are ahead of schedule, while 58 percent
are late.
Strategic projects
Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary General for Planning and Follow-up Nadia Al-Hamlan
said in a similar speech that the number of strategic projects in the
development plan amounted to 22 projects. The total funds in the 2018-2019
development plan amounted to KD 3.8 billion (about $12.4 billion), as opposed to
about KD 3.2 billion ($10.4 billion) in the 2019-2020 development plan.
The percentage of spending on
projects decreased from 71 percent to 67.4 percent compared to last year, Hamlan
added. She emphasized that the annual report monitors what was done during the
2019-2020 development plan, pointing out that the results are based on data that
the participants from the plan include in the automated follow-up system, in
addition to field visits to projects to learn about the operational position of
each project, monitoring the obstacles they face.