Kuwait needs diverse sources of income and vital economic reform programs to overcome the financial crisis, First Constituency candidate Mohammed Hamad Al-Rasheed said Monday. Asserting the current financial crisis is a clear indication that it is now time to wean Kuwait off its total dependence on oil, Al-Rasheed stressed the need to take serious steps to find alternative sources of income and introduce vital economic programs for the country to rise above the crisis with very minimal losses.
On the positive aspect of the crisis, Al-Rasheed contended “we can consider this crisis a golden opportunity to review Kuwait’s economic system, particularly its total dependence on oil, which constitutes more than 90 percent of the national income.” He pointed out the rising prices of oil in the global market over the last three years had negatively affected the local economy as the interim government merely focused on oil as the main and only source of national income, without taking into consideration the possibility of investing the huge budgetary surplus or using it to finance the implementation of development projects. He added many studies have been conducted on the need to find alternative sources of income and what remains to be done is to implement all the recommendations presented in these studies.
