HALF OF CURRENT DEVELOPMENT PLAN PROJECTS DELAYED

KUWAIT CITY, July 7, (Agencies): Nine local banks say they expect losses estimated at KD 341.2 million as a result of decision to defer payment of installments on consumer and housing loans and credit card installments for all customers for a period of 6 months, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

Financial statements for the second quarter of this year show the possibility of handling these losses on the capital base according to the instructions of ‘Basel III’ – the Basel III Guidelines are based upon 3 very important aspects which are called 3 pillars of the Basel II which are pillars are Minimum Capital Requirement, Supervisory Review Process and Market Discipline – during a period of 4 years starting from 2021 for the purposes of calculating the capital adequacy ratio according to the instructions of the Central Bank.

The National Bank of Kuwait estimated the deferred payments losses to be in the range of KD 130 million, including that of Boubyan Bank, which belongs to the group about million dinars, while the Commercial Bank of Kuwait expected its losses to reach KD 13 million, Gulf Bank KD 42 million, and “KIB” at KD 7 million, and Burgan KD 9 million, while “Warba Bank” said the delay would lead to lower profits of around KD 11 million.

The report on the followup of the annual development plan for the third quarter of the 2019/2020 fiscal year, which was from April 1, 2019 to Dec 31, 2019, revealed that the percentage of spending on development plan projects by the end of the third quarter reached KD 1.27 billion of the total financial credits of KD 3.3 billion. This means the spending amounted to only 38.3 percent during the period, while the projects in the execution phase reached 54 percent, reports Al-Anba daily.

Revealed
The report revealed that the number of projects included in the plan is 135 projects but only four projects have been completed. The number of projects in the handover stage is three, while about 51 projects are in the preparatory stage, about 73 projects in the execution phase, and four projects have not been started yet. Regarding the classification of projects in terms of their compatibility with the schedule by the end of the third quarter, the report explained that the ongoing advanced projects amounted to 15, and there are only two new projects.

The projects compatible with the ongoing schedule was 42, with about nine new projects. As for the delayed projects, there are 67 such projects, bringing the rate of delayed projects to about 50 percent of the total projects with about 12.6 percent of projects that have advanced and 37.8 percent of the projects that are in line with the schedule.

Also, 54 percent of the projects included in the 2019/2020 development plan are in the execution phase, 38 percent in the preparatory stage, 2 percent in the delivery phase, 3 percent in the completion phase and 3 percent not yet started.

Concerning the executive position of the annual plan projects for 2019/2020 fiscal year at the end of the third quarter, the report explained that effective government administration projects have reached 20.59 percent, and only a single project was completed, nine projects are at the execution stage and two projects in the preparation phase.

And for the projects on diversified and sustainable economy, the completion rate reached 45.95 percent, while 12 projects in the preparation phase, 12 projects in the implementation phase, three projects that have not started, and one project under delivery.

As for advanced infrastructure projects, the completion rate reached 30.28 percent, while the number of projects in the preparation stage reached 14, nine projects in the implementation phase, one project that was delivered, and two projects that were completed. Regarding the sustainable living environment projects, the completion rate has reached 28.58 percent, while the number of projects in the preparatory stage is 11, and 4 projects are in the implementation stage, and one is under delivery.