KUWAIT: Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD) Dr Khaled Mahdi said the total number of projects included in the annual 2019-2020 development plan amounted to 135, as opposed to 132 ventures in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Mahdi mentioned that in a speech he delivered on the sidelines of a press conference the General Secretariat of SCPD held on Tuesday, to announce results of the annual plan follow-up report of 2019-2020 that ended on March 31, 2020.

He added that the continuous annual plan projects from previous plans amounted to 119, as well as 16 new ones, noting that the percentage of projects in the implementation phase for this year reached 50 percent. The completed rate of ventures are in the following; 10 projects with seven percent done, three projects with two percent, 67 others at 50 percent, 51 ventures with 38 percent, in addition to four projects at three percent, he explained.

Main challenges
The number of challenges facing execution of projects reached 660, including 248 administrative challenges, 190 technical challenges, 103 of financial natures, 91 challenges for supervisory authorities and 28 legislative ones, he said, adding that 492 others were solved, accounting for 75 percent of the total hurdles that emerged in projects' execution. The completion rate of projects are in the following; the Clean Fuels project amounted to 98.8 percent, Al-Zour Refinery project at 95.4 percent, Shagaya Renewable Energy Park project reached 95.2 percent and Al-Mutlaa City project with 58 percent, he said.

He explained the completion rate for the following projects: Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port project amounted to 52.7 percent, Kuwait International Airport Terminal 2 project reached 35.1 percent, Sabah Al-Salem University City project at 54.8 percent and Al-Sabah Hospital project was 73 percent. He indicated that 40 percent of the projects are in line with the schedule, 2 percent of the projects are ahead of schedule, while 58 percent are late.

Strategic projects
Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary General for Planning and Follow-up Nadia Al-Hamlan said in a similar speech that the number of strategic projects in the development plan amounted to 22 projects. The total funds in the 2018-2019 development plan amounted to KD 3.8 billion (about $12.4 billion), as opposed to about KD 3.2 billion ($10.4 billion) in the 2019-2020 development plan.

The percentage of spending on projects decreased from 71 percent to 67.4 percent compared to last year, Hamlan added. She emphasized that the annual report monitors what was done during the 2019-2020 development plan, pointing out that the results are based on data that the participants from the plan include in the automated follow-up system, in addition to field visits to projects to learn about the operational position of each project, monitoring the obstacles they face. - KUNA