Forum calls to support privatization
KUWAIT CITY, April 5, (KUNA): Kuwait Financial Forum concluded on Wednesday with recommendations focusing on necessity to press ahead with economic reforms and support small enterprise and execute privatization programs as well as luring foreign investments.
The forum called for trimming consumer consumption, checking unnecessary spending and expanding role of the private sector in the economy. Moreover, it urged for government participation in broadening the private sector role, adopting the knowledge economy and working out mechanisms for backing small and medium companies.
Abdulmohsen Al-Fares, Chief Executive Officer of the Saudi Al-Inma Bank, said in a statement in the forum final session that Islamic banking “has become an alternative to traditional banking.” Islamic assets nowadays constitute less than two percent of the overall global economy, he has opined. Growth in this sector reached 19 percent last year and would grow further in the coming years, he added.
Meanwhile, the Gulf banking sector is resilient and capable to withstand ramifications resulting from bearish oil prices, thanks to the regional States’ economic reforms, bankers said on Wednesday..
Central banks in the GCC states have played a key role in improving the banking sector in the regional countries since breakout of the global economic crisis in 2008, they said during Kuwait Financial Forum, which kicked off on Tuesday.
Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Kuwait Yousef Al-Obaid affirmed in his statement at the forum keenness on staying abreast of local and international developments noting that the local banking sector enjoys abundant liquidity and capable of absorbing shocks.