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JULY 21, 2003
Breakthrough in Kuwait? Although Islamists won about one-third of the seats in Kuwait's July 6 parliamentary elections, the ruling Al-Sabah family may not be unhappy with the outcome. Some pesky critics of the family lost. Nearly half of the incoming MPs are new, making them easier to handle. "The results give the government the opportunity to pass the laws it needs," says Kamel A. Al-Harami, a Kuwaiti oil analyst. But the big question is whether or not the Al-Sabah family will seize the chance to give more power to women and push through privatization and other badly needed economic measures. Much depends on whom the family chooses for the new Cabinet. The family is trying to decide whether to ask the ailing Crown Prince Saad Abdullah al-Sabah to give up his role as Prime Minister. The most likely successor would be his deputy, Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who has been the day-to-day ruler in recent years. Giving Sheikh Sabah a freer hand might help end the political paralysis that has plagued Kuwait since it was liberated from Iraqi occupation back in 1991. A test case will be progress on Project Kuwait, a long contemplated effort to bring in international oil companies to boost Kuwait's flagging production. Opposition from Parliament and from business interests has hampered the project, but now the oil authorities are pushing ahead. Kuwaiti officials will meet with representatives of oil giants in London in mid-July. A breakthrough on Project Kuwait could help alter the emirate's image as an overprotected relic of state capitalism.  By Stanley Reed in London Edited by Rose Brady Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | |
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