Kuwait plan to cost $187bn

Kuwait is preparing a bill for a 50 billion dinar ($186.9 billion) five-year plan aimed at boosting foreign investment and developing the financial sector, a paper reported yesterday, citing the information minister.

The oil producer wants to diversify its economy away from crude by becoming a regional financial hub and attracting tourists as neighbouring Dubai and Bahrain have done, the state's 2009-2014 policy strategy plan showed in April.

It will cost Dh686bn to achieve the plan, of which Kuwait's government will invest KWD22bn and the private sector KWD28bn, Awan newspaper cited Sheikh Sabah Al Khaled Al Sabah as saying.

The draft law for the plan will be presented to parliament in October for approval. Under the plan, prepared by the country's top planning council, Kuwait wants to boost its non-oil economy, which currently accounts for less than 10 per cent of state revenues.

It also seeks to ease land ownership rules by giving the private sector more access to land, as well as controlling spending as inflation rises.

More than 90 per cent of land in Kuwait is owned by the government.

The Ministry of Information will also build a media city in which 24 per cent will be owned by the government, 26 per cent by listed companies on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, and the rest sold to the public, the report said.

"We have reached an advanced stage to build this media city... and we are waiting for the view of the Kuwait Investment Authority," the minister told the newspaper.