Toward forming lasting US-Kuwaiti partnerships
Marmore: Education, healthcare, energy, knowledge economy & capacity building to enhance competitiveness
KUWAIT CITY, Aug 29: Marmore MENA Intelligence, a subsidiary of Kuwait Financial Centre ‘Markaz’, recently released a report titled ‘Kuwait-US: Opportunities for Further Leverage’. The report covers the topical theme of how both sides can jointly adopt a strategic agenda for cooperation, thereby reinforcing shared aims in the areas of trade, sustainable progress, social development (healthcare, education, etc), innovation or knowledge economy, and people-to-people exchanges.
A Kuwait-US strategic partnership seeking to further galvanise efforts to reinforce the mutual research base can strengthen the competitive position of the Kuwaiti economy within a sophisticated and integrated global market system. Leveraging respective competencies, the Kuwait-US partnership can contribute to investing in world-class state-ofthe-art research and innovation, furthering the development of a knowledge-based economic interchange.
Innovation can arise in terms of understanding interactions among and between social, economic and environmental ecosystems in the two countries, unearthing knowledge and tools for informed decision making and social engagement in the process. Forward-looking and insightful scenarios for a resilient and transparent policy architecture can be put in place, including activities on strategic communications and public engagement.
From the perspective of Kuwait, the objective is to transform Kuwait into an innovation and financial hub in the Middle Eastern region and beyond. In the process, Kuwait will have to combine being an attractive host for innovative R&D-oriented multinational companies, while also being a sought after incubation ecosystem for the best entrepreneurs in the world. This will form a crucial part of the economic diversification roadmap for the next phase of the development of the Kuwaiti economy. Kuwait is committed to improving national competitiveness across multiple areas, in which the US can play an invaluable partnership role.
Kuwait and the US have developed a robust economic and security partnership over the years. America is Kuwait’s largest supplier of goods and services, after China, accounting for 12 percent of Kuwaiti imports. Kuwait exports mineral fuel and oil related products to US and imports motor vehicles and parts from the US While U.S exports to Kuwait account for less than 1 percent of the total US exports as of 2016, it is the fifth largest export destination for Kuwaiti products. Over 90 percent of the exports to US comprises of crude petroleum.
In 2013, the US and Kuwait initiated discussions toward a potential bilateral investment treaty. The US ranks second in terms of FDI flowing into Kuwait, investing close to $2.5bn over the Jan’03 through May’15 period. Around 41 US companies have invested in Kuwait across 45 projects. On the other hand, the US embassy in Kuwait estimates that the Kuwaiti Government and individuals together have invested about $500bn-$1tn in US assets across different types of securities, SMEs and real estate projects.
Regular exchange of high-level state visits over the years, has provided sustained momentum to bilateral cooperation between Kuwait and the US The wide-ranging and expanding dialog framework should lead to broad-based and multithematic endeavours covering not only trade and investment, but cooperation in education, healthcare, energy and the knowledge economy spheres too. Covering these critical areas will mean that Kuwait and the US can give further impetus to their strategic partnership and reinvigorate bilateral economic arrangements by harnessing the synergies between the two economies. Under these socially vital areas for deepening Kuwait-US partnership, bilateral science & Technology cooperation can lead to meaningful MoUs and people exchanges (students, faculty, etc), allowing free flow of research and knowledge in the process.