By NNN-KUNA,
Kuwait : The First China-Kuwait Investment Forum got underway on Sunday with participation of more than 70 Chinese figures representing the Chinese private and public sectors.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Faisal Al-Hajji, in a statement inaugurating the event, affirmed that the holding of the two-day forum in the country was in line of desire of the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah of transforming Kuwait into a financial and commercial hub.
Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah has “always sought to translate the Amiri desire into action through adequate planning and the forum is held as a backup for the Amir’s guidelines of motivating the private sector to reach international markets particularly the Asian markets whose economies are the fastest in terms of growth in the globe, ” Al-Hajji said.
He indicated that the Chinese economy turned among the top growing economies in the world after the government laxed restrictions on foreign investments.
The visit by Sheikh Sabah, while he was serving as prime minister to China in 2004, proved quite effective in pushing forward the bilateral ties, and that was manifested with the execution of ventures as well as figures measuring the volume of the cooperation in the business sectors, Al-Hajji added.
Kuwaiti-Chinese commercial exchanges rose to USD 3.7 billion in 2007. The growth in the trade cooperation coincided with the execution of several joint projects, namely construction of an oil refinery with Kuwaiti contribution, estimated at USD five billion, in China, in addition to projects by Chinese companies in the Gulf country’s infrastructure.