Doha Bank group chief executive officer Dr R Seetharaman delivered a presentation before Kuwait-based economists, major contracting companies, and bankers on “Projects and Contracts Opportunities and Challenges” in Kuwait recently.

Seetharaman gave insights on global economies by citing the International Monetary Fund observations, which said “global growth is projected to strengthen from 3% in 2013 to 3.6% in 2014 and 3.9% in 2015, respectively.”

He said key drivers in advanced economies are a reduction in fiscal tightening, except in Japan, and still highly-accommodative monetary conditions. Emerging economies growth will be helped by stronger external demand from advanced economies, but tighter financial conditions will dampen domestic demand growth, he added.

Highlighting the trends in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) economies, Seetharaman said GCC gross domestic product at current prices is expected to grow by 3.5% in 2014 and touch $1.7tn. He added that GCC current account balance as a percentage of GDP at current prices will reach 18% in 2014.

Kuwait economy, on the other hand, is expected to grow by 2.6% in 2014. Kuwait’s budget had projected expenditures for fiscal year 2014 - 2015 that amount to $77bn, showing a reasonable growth of 3%.

“The budget has assumed oil prices at $75 per barrel in the latest fiscal year. Kuwait’s stock market is down by more than 2% and plans to launch derivatives trading in 2014 while the Kuwait Stock Exchange is planning an IPO,” Seetharaman said.

On Kuwait projects, Seetharaman again quoted the IMF as saying that Kuwait’s current economic outlook is positive and non-oil GDP growth is forecast to accelerate from 2.7% in 2013 to 3.9% this year, backed by government investment in infrastructure and large oil projects.

Kuwait has projects worth more than $72.8bn expected in 2014. In April 2014, the Kuwait National Petroleum Company signed contracts worth $12bn with three international consortia to upgrade two refineries and invited bids to build a new multibillion-dollar refinery.

He added that Kuwait has plans to open a new refinery called Al Zour. The first phase of the Zour North power station, which will be built by a venture led by GDF Suez, secured financing last year.

During the panel discussion, Seetharaman was joined by assistant secretary general for planning sector-Kuwait Riyadh al-Faras; Doha Bank head (business development) Steve Berto; partner and head (transactions and restructuring) of KPMG Anindya Roychowdhury, and partner, Al Ruwayeh & Partners (Asar) Ibrahim Sattout.

Al-Faras spoke on the release of new contracts for Kuwait by the Kuwait government and on clean fuel projects and funding for aid hospitals.

Berto highlighted the importance of risk management in projects and the need to understand risk and its role in contract management. He also gave insights on common project risks faced in contracts and explained the key project risks in the near future and the possible mitigations for the same.

Roychowdhury highlighted the key challenges to successful projects. He also gave insight on the underlying principles for an effective framework and explained governance framework on mega projects.

Sattout discussed recent mega projects in Kuwait and also highlighted the restrictions on creating security for assets, including insight on the dispute resolution mechanism prevailing in Kuwait.