Kuwait needs to reform working visa bureaucracy – Construction expert

A leading construction professional has called on the Kuwaiti Government to reform its “outdated” visa bureaucracy for skilled construction labourers and construction professionals and if it wants to benefit from an anticipated construction boom in 2008.

The deputy head of contracts and chief quantity surveyor with Gulf Consult, Azad Hossain, says that an acute scarcity of skill construction labour and competent construction professionals in Kuwait needs to be addressed before Kuwait can benefit from a number of development initiatives that have earmarked for 2008.

His comments come in the wake of a recently published Al-Mutakhassis Real Estate report that indicates that the establishment of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) common market and lower income tax on foreign firms would spark a development boom in the Gulf region.

The GCC is a common market comprising six Gulf Arab states, which was launched on January 1, 2008. The participating states are Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. The agreement provides citizens of the six states with all the economic rights in each country, including ownership of real estate, stock, capital movement, taxation pensions and social security.

Further to this Kuwait Petroleum Company has released land for the development of 16,000 low-cost homes and a possible US$14bn railway and underground network point to massive development potential in the coming year. But poor access to competent construction professionals and skilled labour could have devastating effects on the success of these initiatives.

Azad Hossain points out: “Kuwait is unlike the United Arab Emirates, as while there is easy access to building materials, labour problems still exist because of visa procedures. The country is also falling behind in contractual procedures and contract practices”. He elaborates that the cumbersome bureaucracy and unfriendly investment laws have proved to be major obstacles facing businesses in the country, particularly in the construction sector. As a result Kuwaiti property developers have been turning to the wider GCC for opportunities.