During the seminar, Acting US Deputy Chief of Mission to Kuwait Timothy Lenderking spoke about America’s steady and excellent economic relationship with Kuwait. He mentioned Kuwait’s role as an important gateway to Iraq in regards to Iraq’s reconstruction and also mentioned some high profile visits of US government officials to Kuwait including the recent visit of US President George W. Bush and the presence of US companies in Kuwait like CitiGroup, AT& T, and Boeing.
However after commending Kuwait, Linderking went on and criticized Kuwait for a lack of viable commitments to dealing with problems, especially in connection with intellectual property rights, piracy and privatization. During the seminar, he also announced the confirmation of the new US ambassador to Kuwait, Deborah Jones. "Last week, the US senate confirmed Deborah Jones as our new ambassador to Kuwait, replacing Richard LeBaron. She’ll be in Kuwait by early March," Lenderking announced.
KGL Chairman Ali Al-Dashti presented his company’s profile to ABCK and was proud of their role in strengthening the private sector of Kuwait. He spoke about Kuwait’s eagerness to be the next economic hub in the Middle East, including their plan to improve Kuwait’s public transport system and infrastructure and the privatization of some government owned corporations. Al-Dashti also talked about the government’s plan to set up a Metro Rapid Transit System and a National Railroad System, which he added could
be done through BOT.
Al-Dashti also presented Kuwait’s history to substantiate Kuwait’s dynamic and resilient private sector despite some turbulence and political drama they dealt with from the reign of Sabah I (1899) to independence from British rule (1961), the stock market crash (1976), the Gulf war (1980), to the invasion of Iraq (1990) and Kuwait’s liberation (1991). "I talked about Kuwait’s history because despite all the turbulence we encountered, our private sector has proven our resilience and dynamism," he noted.
Al-Dashti admitted that many of the changes being witnessed today was because of their fixed assets (oil), and also because of their stable political landscape. "We have 45 years of democratic experience and civil law has been very well established. We have a stable financial institution and market and our government has shown interest in enhancing private sector investments," he added.
Al-Dashti took pride in his company’s involvement in the recent construction of the $ 1 billion state of the art trans-shipment facilities project located in the Mediterranean Sea which he noted took place without government support.
