New Kuwait port to cost $850m

The establishment of a modern mega port on Bubyan, Kuwait's largest island, is expected to cost about $850 million and will be completed in five phases over 16 years, a senior government official has said.

Jasem Al Oun - head of the government agency for implementing agreements in the Neutral Zone (with Saudi Arabia), development of Kuwaiti islands and mega projects - also said that preliminary feasibility studies showed that the country was in dire need of the port.

Replying to a parliamentary question by MP Mohammad Al Mutair, Al Oun said the idea of establishing the port was first floated at the end of March last year, and the Cabinet commissioned the agency the following month to carry out a feasibility study.

The study determined that demand for containers in Kuwait would rise from the current 800,000 annually to 2.4 million in 2020.

It also showed that existing Kuwaiti ports will not be able to cope with the future increase in containers and freight and that some of these ports are facing difficulty in handling imports due to their limited capacity, he added.

Plans to expand Kuwaiti ports will not be sufficient to cope with the expected rise in activity, which strengthens the need for a new port, added the study.

Al Oun added that the expected return on investment from establishing the port was calculated at 15 per cent per year, when other benefits such as generating economic activities and services, creating jobs and strategic benefits for Kuwait were taken into account.

- The writer is an Arab journalist based in Kuwait