KUWAIT: The Municipal Council has approved four locations for commercial investment in Jaber Causeway. They are the southern bank, southern island, northern island and northern bank (in Subbiya). The Cabinet had issued a circular recently about the project to invest in Jaber Causeway sites; two islands and two banks, that would be offered to investors through the finance ministry. The investment period must be for 35 years, and the municipality should approve the land use and area usage percentages.

The project advisor explained the conditions that must be met, including habilitation, private, technical and financial conditions. The bidder must be a Kuwaiti company listed on the bourse or owned by the government with a stake of at least 50 percent. It can be a foreign firm, but must sign an agreement with a Kuwaiti company that meets the financial qualification standards.

Kuwait Municipality Director Ahmad Al-Manfouhi had sent the technical report and municipal approval for bidding for the four sites to the Municipal Council for final approval, which was done during an extraordinary session yesterday after Manfouhi made a presentation on the project's benefits, which include generating income to the state's budget.

Meanwhile, Minister of Public Works and Acting Minister of Municipality Affairs Dr Rana Al-Fares expressed her appreciation to the council for their efforts in backing the project. Fares, who is also the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology and Minister of State for Housing Affairs, valued the cooperation during the extraordinary session in which the members agreed on developing those locations. - KUNA