The Kuwaiti economy has seen many successes over the years, with the massive expansion of the energy sector, the diversification of the country’s economic base and the moves to become a financial hub in the Middle East. However, one story that does not rank highly among the list of achievements is Kuwait’s privatization program. Even before Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, there were draft plans to privatize some public holdings, though these were put on the backburner after the war as the state struggled to put the country and its economy, especially the crucial energy sector, back in working order. This was followed by initial moves in the mid-1990s to launch a privatization program. In 2004, the government approved a privatization program, based on previous plans, that took in major sell offs in the telecommunications, energy, postal, shipping interests, ports and utilities sectors. However, few of these ambitious proposals
