KUWAIT CITY, Sept 29, (RTRS): Kuwait plans to sell stakes of up to 44 percent in the Al-Zour and Khiran power projects to investors in the middle of 2020 and early 2021 respectively, a senior official said on Sunday.

“We are in the process of appointing the consultant (for the two projects in cooperation) with the Central Agency for Public Tenders,” Mutlaq Al-Sanei, who heads the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects, told Reuters in an interview.

Kuwait plans to sell at least 26 percent stakes in each project and not more than 44 percent, he said. Public-private partnership projects are a growing trend in the Gulf Arab states as governments want to save money in an era of low oil prices.

The government has not said how it will sell the stakes in the two power projects or whether they will be initial public offerings. Al-Sanei also confirmed at a press conference on Sunday that Kuwait plans to begin the first phase of an initial public offering of shares in another power project, the Az-Zour North Independent Water & Power Project, on Tuesday.