Kuwait awards $4bn port contract to Chinese company

Kuwait has given a Chinese company a contract to build Mina Mubarak Al-Kabeer port, as the Gulf state seeks a greater share in world trade.

The engineering, supply and construction contract for the port located on Boubyan island in Kuwait went to the China Company for Communications and Construction, Kuwaiti state-run news agency Kuna reported.

The deal is valued at $4 billion, according to local media.

The port will act as a strategic base for the economic development of Kuwait, enhancing the country’s share in the regional and global supply-chain network, the agency quoted the prime minister, Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, as saying.

The deal constitutes Kuwaiti participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, according to Chinese acting charge d’affaires Lie Xiang.

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The infrastructure project will also help Kuwait diversify its dependence on oil, which accounts for 90 percent of the country’s fiscal revenues and more than half of its gross domestic product.

The Kuwait Vision 2035 development plan seeks to transform the country into a financial and trade hub through private-sector participation.

The International Monetary Fund expects Kuwait’s GDP to gain 3.8 percent in 2026, driven by an unwinding of oil production cuts and robust non-oil growth.