KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait has said it will establish a free economic zone on five islands close to the shorelines of regional heavyweights Iraq and Iran with large investments open to the private sector.

The decision was taken by the Gulf state’s supreme planning council which met late Wednesday, the state-run KUNA news agency reported.

Planning Minister Hind Al-Sabeeh said the project is based on inviting local, regional and international private sectors to finance, execute and operate the zone.

She said the zone will be the economic gateway for the northern Gulf once completed.

The new venture comes amid a sharp fall in oil income which contributes over 90 per cent of Kuwait’s revenues.

Bubiyan, the emirate’s largest island where Kuwait is already building a multi-billion-dollar container harbour, is part of the project.

The first phase of Bubiyan’s state-of-the-art port is due to come on line soon.

The islands spread over an area of several thousand square kilometres and are in proximity to Kuwait’s planned Silk City project in Subbiya.

Work is underway on a 25-kilometre $2.6 billion (Dh9.55 billion) causeway linking the capital with Subbiya.

Kuwait has awarded projects worth a record $30 billion so far this year despite falling oil revenues, according to Middle East Economic Digest (MEED).

MEED said Kuwait, which gave contracts worth $24 billion in 2014, has projects worth more than $251 billion planned or underway.

In February, parliament approved a five-year development plan that envisages spending the equivalent of $112 billion.

Planned projects include a metro system worth $18.5 billion, a railway project as part of the GCC railway link at $6.6 billion and a $8-billion power plant.

Last month, Kuwait awarded contracts worth $13 billion to foreign firms to build a 615,000-barrel per day refinery.

— AFP

[BOX] Kuwait Airways bins New York-London flights after Israeli complaint

It is illegal under US law to refuse to carry an Israeli citizen

AFP

Washington: Kuwait Airways is scrapping flights between New York’s JFK airport and London Heathrow after US authorities threatened legal action over its refusal to sell tickets to Israelis.

The US Department of Transportation (DoT) in September sent a letter to the airline warning it to end what it said amounted to discrimination.

The DoT confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that state-owned Kuwait Airways had a day earlier informed authorities that it would eliminate the route.

Efforts to book a flight with the airline for later this month between the cities produced only an “Error Message.”

It comes after Kuwait Airways’ booking system would not sell a ticket to Israeli citizen Eldad Gatt in 2013.

In response to US authorities, the airline said it was merely obeying Kuwaiti law prohibiting all commercial relations with Israeli entities, residents or nationals.

-AFP